He Always, Always, Always Felt the Pain Upon the Cross and in the Life of Unnumbered Creatures like You

Even in the mind

Of the mindless one

Arises grief

When the snipe wings up

In the autumn evening.

~ Saigyō, translated by R. H. Blyth

If, as the theologians say, along

With some philosophers like prissy Kant,

The Great, Great God has always had that throng

Of OMNIs, OMNIs, OMNIs in thought’s rant,

“Omniscient” among them, eternal

(So, always no beginning and no end),

Then logic will require an infernal

Conclusion.  There is nothing to amend

It.  HE has always, always, always, always known

About the agonies his actions would

Create.  While sitting on his deathless throne,

He knew that seat was made of shittim wood.

  He should have suffered an eternal pain

    Of empathy . . . in his long, . . . long, . . . long reign.

~ Phillip Whidden