The Second Fall

Daniel Warren's complaint:

Horizontally I seek

always at right-angle

to the force.

My work theorem always empty

and my direction

without choice.

If only vertical were my dimension,

to be in tune

with fleeting moments

of sheer height.

It was that robbed from me

with my fall from

paradise.

God hears Daniel's complaint:

Daniel Warren look up

as you seek,

your head must be lifted

to do work.

Vertical is the one

true direction in universe,

horizontal will confine

to earth.

I’ve given you an

intellect to soar with,

I’ve given you hands

as tools.

Forget the past rock-bound

of ages,

the horizontal calls to

fools.

Then Daniel Warren went

out walking

with his head lost in

the clouds.

Then Daniel Warren went

out walking

walking-falling

falling to the horizontal

ground.

Pick yourself up Daniel Warren

came a whispering voice from above,

for there on the horizontal

branches of a

vertical tree

coiled the devil in right-angle

disguise.

Climb with me into the

vertical Daniel Warren

it’s there that sets mans

imagination afire,

there’s no limit to the

vertical

to which you may aspire

So Daniel did take

hold of the tree

and did climb to the

devil himself.

And there applied such a force

at such a vector

as to shake the devil

from his limb.

And Daniel called to the devil

as he fell

to be of good cheer,

for said Daniel, by now

you must know

how

As the second fall surely is

easier,

thought Daniel,

for devils and for men.

I must climb now, Daniel thought

and so he did

at such a frantic pace

that too many foot-pounds

were released,

and shook the tree

splitting its base.

At such a height

that even the most

reliable of formulas

fail to compute,

Daniel Warren

stopped to catch his breath.

And wondered

if even God Himself

were not now below and not above.

For how far up, he thought, could be left?

With the rift in the trunk

approaching quickly,

Daniel's thoughts turned to action.

He leaped with such force

that the earth itself

most recoil

to counteract such force

But never it did

and all physics came un-fixed

and all space-time

became one

and all before began spilling

into present and all future

was released.

And around the world great

study was interrupted

as true happiness was found at last.

For most agreeable was the feeling

of release

from immutable laws,

And from logic's one and only path.

And Daniel Warren continued his

flight

pondering this new physics,

And those that have flown up to

talk with him

have come back with a singular

impression.

Of the great answers

he has found,

such as the one applicable truth

you will hear little mention.

But of his will and countenance

and peculiar laugh

they all give this same description;

An inverted gods face they all say

and with each word he tells all,

And kindly gray eyes they always add

that show no fear of a second fall.