Tag Archives: Orthodox poetry

Immortality: A Poem by Collette Kristevski

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What is man
if not both body and soul?
Not two divided parts,
but insperable energies within a single undivided whole.
So when the bots come to consume your mind,
don’t pretend you didn’t know.
We were warned of this transfer of consciousness long ago.
But this is not the resurrection of which we’ve been told.
A mind within a metal house is not progress, just ego.
But the serpent of Eden is disguised,
and he says that you won’t die.
So we leave Eden again,
become less and less authentic,
less human with our technological sin.
Whether a computer hive mind
or metal shell to hold the soul,
when it comes down to survival, I guess anything goes –
your soul for transcendence, a quid pro quo.
Immortality is real, but it’s not just for the fittest.
Christ said it’s for the least of these,
but you gotta fight to get it.
And if He foresaw the promise of immortality
placed on conveyor belts and displayed behind glass,
God still would have become fully human and defeated death.
In a world where conscious technology is already how things go,
who can you trust?
The Immortal One or the “holy” status quo?

//Immortality
//Collette Kristevski, 3/26/2019

This poem is inspired by a prompt given by @thethoughtreserve on Instagram. Coming in with an Orthodox Christian take on the problems of technology, transfer of consciousness and survival. I’m no doomsdayer, but consciousness and its interplay with technology is a topic I’ve been interested in for a while, and it’s getting pretty concerning out there. This is not the type of poetry I usually write, but I enjoyed the challenge. Hopefully it will give you all some food for thought.

An Untitled Poem by Collette Kristevski

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That Immovable One moves within me.
That Invisible One appears to me.
That One who Created comes to me,
holds me, a feeble creature,
when I wail and want to cease being created.

Behold, the Immortal One, who cares for me!
I, the fragile mortal maker of trivial complaints,
the discontented dreamer of frivolous daydreams,
the blasphemous breaker of blessed covenants.
Yet I, an easily destroyed fleshly one, shall not be destroyed.

For that One who died is also Life,
and Life rests in these mortal tendens,
on this lying tongue,
in this musing mind,
in these clenched, stubborn white-knuckled fists.

Someday I will finish drying myself up.
Then will that fountain of Life spring forth from me.
And I will say “I remember You.”
Maybe then I will not ceaselessly
re-enter this dry spiritual desert.

But, even still,
and despite myself,
both then and now,
He still comes to me
and reveals Himself to me with equal splendor.

//Untitled
//Collette Kristevski, 3/21/2019

For more original poetry and art, follow me on Instagram @paradoxandpaschalia.