Novogenesis: Acentric Cosmology

© 2012 Sylvester L Steffen. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 6/15/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-0708-6 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-0709-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-0710-9 (sc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012908829

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Credit: Back Cover Art by Monica Steffen

Contents

Introduction 

Prologue / Epilogue: The Supposition Of Faith 

The Acentric Worldview 

The Acentric Universe, The Cosmic Paradigm

Quantum Poetics

Orchard Care

Author’s Foreword

Giordano Bruno And Walter Brueggemann

About Personal Vocation

Acentric Cosmology 

Ecological Sensitivity

Prologue

Word 

Author’s Introduction 

The Meaning Of The Mark

Electrical Valency

Vox Dei

Big Bang

Prolific Sex

Creation

Godspeak

Word

Rainbow

Word Evolution

Religion’s Labyrinth

Institutional Artifice

Power Outage

Possibilities

Fisherman

Godly Quiet

Divine Aria

Moonstruck

Word Transmission

Fishing For Truth

Venus Birth

Youth

Dust In The Wind

Soul Of Soil

Clouded Judgment

Complexity

Eternal Light

Ex Limo Terrae

Bed And Bread

Teller Of Grail

Logos

Where Angels Tread

Ideal/ Real: The Ambivalence Of Culture

Nemi

Purgatory

Holy Mind

Teilhard De Chardin

Splashpoint

One

Always The Gardener

Psychical / Physical

Harmonicats

Spinning Wheel

Fatherhood

The Middle Way

Begotten Not Made

Song Of Creation

Creation Within

Trinity

Predestiny

Eden

Respect

Soul-Mates

Dear John Letter

Stretching The Limits

One-Room School

Temple Elders

Outside The Wall

Eternity

Entropy

Milton’s Muse

Book Worm

Novel God

Bread On Water

Resurrection

Passion Tide

Ewok The Cat

Popped Balloon

Sign Of The Times

The Race

Cult-Of-Isms

Primordial Alchemy

Endless Journey

Assurance

Tree Of Life

Heart Home

Virgin Birth

Thought 

Truth In Advertising

Sense And Nonsense.

Reverse Effects

Faith Or Fideism?

Relativity Reconciled

Oracle

Food For Thought

Ex Nihilo

Iconoclasm

On Being Pagan

True Scripture

Jigsaw Puzzle

Ideagenesis

Replay

Plowing The Field

Writing On The Sand

The Tunnel’s End

Celebrating Self

Street Light

Judgment Of Consciousness

Good Friday, 1992

Heart Of Parable

Greater Love

Unignorable God

Life Storybrook

Country Boy

Word Dialectic

Dueling Pens

Authenticity

Pontifex

Beyond The Dream

Holy Orders Christening

Behind The Word

Cytochrome-C

Cherish The Land

Seven Heavens And Beyond

Immaculata

Tomorrow

Hope For The Future

On Eagle’s Wings

Timely And Timeless

Busy Body

The Perfecting Self

Enlightened Electrons

Ask, Seek, Knock

Cosmic Diploma

Returning

Religion In Process

Harvest Hands

Transubstantiation

Quantumbilicus

Guardian Angels

Autotroph

Reading Leaves

Community

Angel Feed Back

Symbiotic Theology

Dead Serious Make-Believe

Mephistopheles’ Exception

Frenzy For The Green

Snakes In The Pit

Futures’ Option

Writers Of Scripture

Divine Correspondent

Saving Moment

Inspiration / Tradition

Confession

Intrinsically Impulsive

Particle / Anti-Particle

Micro-Emfs

On God’s Trail

Impulsive Child

Mem

Insight 

Incognita

Child Woman

Dawn’s Early Light

Famous Picture

To My Sisters

Alpha Genesis

Gene/ Meme Imprinting

Choice: The Vital Dilemma

Alpha / Omega Genesis

Rosa Veronica

Lion Roar

Sign Of Pisces

Vision In Silk

Day Dreaming

Burn Out

On Being Different

Meme And Mime

Homeobox Genes

Patch Work Learning

Process God

Indulgenced Prayer

Bible Barbecue

Chipmunk Reality

All In God

God Mother

Earth Person

Frangible Vessel

Close-Knit Family

Earthly Piety

Parental Alienation

Commercial Truth

Compassion

Time To Pass

Last Hurrah

Stone-Hearted

Phylogenic Voice

Inspiration Unsolicited

Academe

Trance Dance

Lasting Fruit-Of-The-Loom

Minding Matter

Use It Or Lose It

Angel Grace

Gene Modification

Eucharistic Insight

Fencepost Conversation

From Chaos To Consciousness

The Sign Of The Cross

Afterword 

Loaves, Fishes And Fractals

Ecology. Economy. Eucharist.

Beautiful And Caring Mother Earth

House Of Bread

Culture, In Denial

Religion’s Prejudice

Animism, Covenant And Coming

The Evolution Of Ecumenical Catholicism

Conclusion

By John Lu Hung, b. 1914

Original displayed at the Divine Word Mission Center, Techny, IL

To FAMILY

INTRODUCTION 

March 31, 1992

Bishop L. David Brown, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Northeastern Iowa Synod

Waverly, Iowa

"Sylvester Steffen seeks to have the realm of religion and the world of science dialogue with one another. Obviously comfortable with the language of both cultures, he weaves together poems that are both gentle and convicting. His broad grasp of vocabulary brings a richness to each of his offerings, and where a word does not quite fit, he invents new combinations. The poems are powerfully revelatory.

Following in the train of Teilhard de Chardin, to whom he pays tribute in several offerings, the author calls us to be responsible stewards of this biosphere. Several references are made to Thomas Berry, author of the provocative and well-regarded book The DREAM of the EARTH", who has communicated affirmation and encouragement to Mr. Steffen. Surely, no issue is of greater urgency in our time than that we preserve our fragile planet from destruction by greed and ignorance. Whether calling us to cherish the Earth, or to contemplate the undisturbed paradise of Eden, or decrying the arrogance of those who deny the rest of Creation, with both beauty and conviction the author edges us toward loving and caring for the beautiful Creation in which we live.

Another prevailing theme is the celebration of women who suffer patronization or oppression. He dedicates a section to his wife with the words as you affirm me by your presence, my words affirm you in my absence, and to his daughters, six festive water vessels, original miracles.

"Mr. Steffen does not eschew tradition except when it rigidifies and stifles life, but would have tradition informed by the new, fresh learning that modernity unveils for us. We must not ignore the goodness of past cultures, but apply the trinity of communication, consciousness and conscience. These latter headings are the subject matters of the three trilogies.

A manuscript of ‘New Genesis Poems’ rested on my desk by my right hand for several weeks and I would open it up to read and reflect. Sometimes shrouded in mystery, it always called me to think, and yes, pray, and left me with a strong desire to want to talk with someone else about the meanings of these engaging poems. It is the hope of the author that this book might be the syllabus of an interdisciplinary study in colleges and universities to stimulate wholeness in learning and living. Our specialized, fragmented and truncated approach to many disciplines cries out for a more comprehensive view of the learning enterprise; we might be relieved of Patchwork Learning" as the title of one poem puts it.

"Creativity we are discovering has not so much to do with novelty as it does with expressing our inner passions. Whether the person be a sculptor, novelist, coach, preacher or poet, there is a strong urge seeking invention. So, whether the form be that of a sculpt, short story, athletic play, sermon or poem, it demands execution. One can see how Mr. Steffen is an inventor as this publication is full of new and urgent ideas.

The New Genesis Poems range from various takes on the worldview to the specificity of one oak tree in a small Iowa town. They include contemporary references to a thousand points of light and to the disasters of Tiananmen Square and Chernobyl. The subject matter is significant. The form of communication is creative. The books are worthy of study. Science and religion are far too important realms to leave only to scientists and theologians.

Fore-Warned is Fore-Armed

Back to 1956-57— I awoke to the frightening sense of a meteor coming at me — the awareness that faith and reason belonged with religion and science — and because they were in different galaxies, humankind was hurtling through the dark night of ignorance, entangled in schizoid thinking. Shedding light on the entanglement and reconciling differences of faith/ reason/ science/ religion became for me an over-arching urgency. I came to the sense that religion was in the dark night of narcissistic arrogance and that men and women were caught in irresolvable conflict. What a tragedy!

From this time forward I began cracking my head how to crack the conundrum. I came to realize the enormity of the task and settled in with the realization that the only way to deal with the big tangle was to take strands one at a time, as I found loose ends, and coach some understanding out of them by way of poetry. Even though I was without poetic experience, I began wrapping words around dense topics, hoping that in the course of time a collection of writings might become an assembly of squares enlightening the mosaic mess.

The nine Eden’s Lifework Poetree chapbooks (1999) are a collection of my first poetic effort, sophomoric, but revealing nonetheless of linked cosmological, philosophical, biological, psychological and theological matters. As poems came to me, I also wrote essays that became the books of the Evolution Trilogies: www.evolution101.org, www.secondenlightenment.org, www.divinicom.com, and www.WordUnlimited.com , www.authorhouse.com

After publication of the Evolution Trilogy book-end WORD UNLIMITED, Divinely Maternal in 2011, I felt urged to return to the first poetry, advantaged now with the experience of thinking/ writing the Evolution Trilogies. Readers may yet find the approach of poetry less daunting and more consumable than prose, not however to discredit the more developed content of prose.

So, my friend, Godspeed. My hope is that these acentric writings enlighten the God/ Nature/ Person conundrum and the joining of faith/ reason, science/ religion, even though I take exception to the dead centrism of medieval culture.

Sylvester L Steffen

The POETREE Trilogies

Deep Elemental Reality

Love of poetry comes naturally. Life is the self-sustaining harmony of cosmic poetry. To love life, to love poetry comes naturally because both emerge from/ in internal cosmic harmony. Truth is the beauty of natural harmony; beauty is the truth of natural harmony — it is all there is… and all ye need to know. The beauty of Truth in all existence is wave/ particle, self-reflective consciousness, omni-directional in outreach. The truth and beauty of creation are essentially acentric/ eccentric in outward expression. The open-wave spectrum disposes multi-dimensional Truth. The beauty of harmony comes from singular origin, the poetic continuity of beginnings and endings, the linked dialogue of self in other —what is consciousness of Altruistic Eucharist in purposes of being/ becoming.

In the POETREE TRILOGIES, in all poetry, the search is for newness in nature, in self, in community, state, country, world. Poetry personalizes and brings to heart meanings of cold facts and hard reason, there to be dissolved by love’s higher purposes. True, we ignore cold facts and hard reason to