Not by constructing homes in outer space,
Or fixing genes, or making swifter planes
Can man transcend the steadfast laws of time;
Nor could a Christian-type apocalypse,
Wherein this hated Earth would be transformed,
Wipe out humanely history’s acid reign.
The only way to thwart such mortal facts,
Without rejecting life and therefore God,
Is to change our attitude to time itself.
For this we neo-pagans need not be:
Before the Fall, in Eden time was blessed.
To be God’s gardener is all it takes.
In short, the longed-for Messianic Age
Would be that time when time were seen again
As being cyclical, and thus benign.
Jerusalem
21 June 1994