Mid-Week Poetry: Untitled by Steve Turner

It's the middle of the week, and that means it's time for poetry.

Steve Turner has quickly become one of my favorite poets. He has an ability to use simple language to cut quickly to the heart of an idea and present it in a fresh way, often exposing hidden assumptions and presuppositions along the way. In his poem "Untitled," he does a marvelous job of showing us why we may often find it easy to ignore or deny God:


We say there is no God
              (quite easily)
when amongst the curving
steel and glass of our own
                 proud creations.

They will not argue.

Once we were told of a
                                      heaven
but the last time we strained
                            to look up
we could see only skyscrapers
shaking their heads
                       and smiling no.

The pavement is reality.

We say there is no God
             (quite easily)
when walking back through
Man's concreted achievements
but on reaching the park
our attention is distracted
by anthems of birds coming
from the greenery.
We find ourselves shouting
a little louder now because
           of the rushing streams.
Our voices are rained upon by
               the falling of leaves.

We should not take our arguments
                        for walks like this.
The park has absolutely no manners.

-Steve Turner