When I was small the Lord appeared <br /> Unto my mental eye <br />A gentle giant with a beard <br /> Who homed up in the sky. <br />But soon that vasty vision blurred, <br /> And faded in the end, <br />Till God is just another word <br /> I cannot comprehend. <br /> <br />I envy those of simple faith <br /> Who bend the votive knee; <br />Who do not doubt divinely death <br /> Will set their spirits free. <br />Oh could I be like you and you, <br /> Sweet souls who scan this line, <br />And by dim altar worship too <br /> A Deity Divine! <br /> <br />Alas! Mid passions that appal <br /> I ask with bitter woe <br />Is God responsible for all <br /> Our horror here below? <br />He made the hero and the saint, <br /> But did He also make <br />The cannibal in battle paint, <br /> The shark and rattlesnake? <br /> <br />If I believe in God I should <br /> Believe in Satan too; <br />The one the source of all our good, <br /> The other of our rue . . . <br />Oh could I second childhood gain! <br /> For then it might be, I <br />Once more would see that vision plain,-- <br /> Fond Father in the sky.<br /><br />Robert William Service<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-childhood-god/
