Martin Buber taught us
Something rather odd:
In communications,
We cannot speak of God.
God in the third person
Cannot be God at all;
To talk of God as “he”
Is to relive the fall.
God, I must talk to you;
It's dialogue; that’s how
I may come to know you
When I think “I and Thou.”
If another joins us,
I know now what to do;
I’ll use second person:
Thus, I and you and you.
The more I talk to you;
More personal I find,
More than second person,
You are within my mind.
You’re to me First Person
I cannot if I try
Understand our being
For we are I and I
©Stan Sanford, 2012
I could not sleep tonight, and I was lying in bed, talking to God. Thoughts of Martin Buber's concept that God is so personal; we cannot speak of him in the third person. Buber said we must take an "I-Thou" approach to God. As I thought "You" (God), You became so personal that I understood a more profound reality; You are always the First Person and require the first personal pronoun. I must talk "I and I" when it is just You and me, and “I, I, and you” if another is a part of the conversation. Then, this poem emerged. March 7, 2012
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