David Bowden's "I Believe in Scriptures"

In the beginning there were words
            For no sky nor dirt
            Rocks nor birds
            Heaven nor earth
            Death nor birth
Had been given the proper syllabification
So nothing physical had yet entered creation
But despite the lacking of material manifestation
There did hang one true annunciation
Words
Words of God
Spoken Script
Speaking Scripture
Holy writ
The Writing Builder
Building mountains out of nouns
Plants and herbs from active verbs
Planting nations in punctuation
Preparing solar positions with prepositions
Nature’s narrative rich with adjectives
Man was dust and needed an additive
So God added his imperative
Impairing the dust of its ability to be sedative
The breath of life, a word that made dirt our relative
We are born of Bible
Letters formed our limbs
How can I deny God’s words
When they are written on my skin?
In this breath of life
God breathed to begin
An exhalation for the ages
The inspiration of men
You know the words of which I speak
You’ve memorized them
They are the
            Pentateuch
            Torah
            History Books
            Poets
            Major and Minor
            Prophets
            Synoptic Gospels
            Acts of the Apostles
            And their Epistles
They are our Scriptures
Those ancient divine whispers
Scribed by enlightened scriptors
Now Supplied to modern listeners
The mouth by which the universe was founded
Is the fount from which our words are grounded
And this radical statement this ludicrous pronouncement
            Has been hounded
By many who question where scripture was originally sounded
For we call it
            Inspired
            Inerrant
            Infallible
            But those words aren’t found in our bibles
I’m not saying these descriptions are or aren’t rightful
But I want you to be mindful
Of what our bible
Claimed to be
And what that is
Is far better than what we have lobbied
Or from tradition copied
Or what our own doctrines embodied
That scripture says that scripture is
            God-Breathed
That means
The breath that filled the nostrils of the ground
The life blown into dirt
The exhaling heartbeat that made the simple renowned
That is the breath that can be found
In what has been written down
So, I believe in the Scriptures
            Where God has breathed the breath of life
            Where we find the vows between eternal husband and earthly wife
            Where martyrs and saints find comfort for their strife
            Where stone hearts come to be cut with a knife
I believe in the Scriptures
            When God breathed on dirt he got man
            When he breathed on man he got words
            The words are not in the dirt, but in the breath
            The breath passes from man to man until they return to dirt
            The eternal chain of command, the passing of words
Now the words are in our hands
But so often they are only found behind our lips or on our eyes
Within church doors in red and black lines
Printed on shirts, our commitment’s disguise
What we claim as truth our lives say is a lie
I believe in the Scriptures
            The Scribal Scribbilings that refuse to stay on the page
            They give life and so life is required to be paid
            The words in your bibles are not meant on paper to lay
            But to be resurrected in your flesh as you die to them everyday
I believe in the Scriptures
            For by them, through them, and to them I was made
            For they are the words of Genesis the Exodus of shame
            They are the breath that formed my bones,
And the ones that will call me from the grave
They are the ink on my flesh, the pen on my tongue
They are the ones by which creation begun
And through which recreation will be done
They are the words of God, and we are his listeners
I believe God stills speaks
I believe in the Scriptures

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZdzjf5uuv4&feature=player_embedded