Nobbut God

Elena Yushina

 

 

"First on, there was nobbut God." Genesis 1:1

 Yorkshire Dialect Translation

Nobbut God

            

First on

There was silence.

And God said:

'Let there be clatter.'

The wind, unclenching,

Runs its thumbs

Along dry bristles of Yorkshire Fog.

The mountain ousel

Oboes its one note.

After rain

Water lobelia

Drips like a tap

On the tarn's tight surface-tension.

But louder,

And every second nearer,

Like chain explosions

From furthest nebulae

Light-yearing across space:

The thudding of my own blood.

'It's nobbut me,'

Says God.

Norman Nicholson

 

 

The way he joins the sound of rain dripping off the petals of a flower and "chain explosions from furthest nebulae" with the sound of his beating heart!

 

It's a shock, the differences in scope. 

A raindrop, a heartbeat, an explosion -

and then the presence and voice of God.

Is it a terror or a comfort 

that He is both so close and so distant?

His voice right in my ear,

and also reaching further than I can imagine?