Simple Humanity (An Interpreted Villanelle)

January 23, 2019 | By Vienna Scott, BF ‘21. Vienna is majoring in Religious Studies and Political Science.

I, soley and errantly human, am a simple thinking thing.

I, soley and errantly human, am a simple thinking thing

Reduced to a baseline irreducible complexity

Miraculous in existence of unceasing dependency

If I am to trust the greatest paragons of philosophy

Life, in a Cartesian sense, is ever-renewing in me

I, soley and errantly human, just a simple thinking thing

Demonstrably and inarguably a creature prone to err

I owe nothing with the penance of unadorned prayer

Miraculous in existence of unceasing dependency

With life parceled into seconds of necessary brevity

Farther prolonged, enriched, and enlivened in community

I, soley and errantly human, a simple thinking thing

I lack the attentiveness to fellowship with consistency

For the one pierced by my transgressions; crushed by my iniquity

Miraculous in existence of unceasing dependency

Ignoring wisdom from long past the sages of antiquity

Why must I fail to worship my unfailing deity

I, soley and errantly human, am a simple thinking thing

Miraculous in existence of unceasing dependency