What else to make of Adam in Genesis being credited for the first naming of all creatures: “And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.”

As Emerson so well documents in his essay on Poetry, the most ancient function of the poet was this “naming” of things. Language developed through the ancient poets designating names for every object in the Creation; it was the poets that gave us the words designating “A rose, is a rose, is a rose.” But without poets, the rose would go unnamed in any language. And from this function of the ancient poets in their capacity as the makers of names, language as we know it came into being.

Nothing could be more poetic than Adam naming Eve, but not surprisingly the universities being what they are I haven’t come across any scholars of literature noting Adam being the first poet. The Genesis account of Creation continues to be one of fascination to me. Among one of the most fascinating aspects of the account is the impression being given that Adam was looking for company, a suitable companion among the creatures he was in charge of naming; and as a result of failing to find a suitable companion Eve was created: “And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.” What? Was Adam expected to find a suitable companion among the beasts of the field? Small wonder I continue to find the Bible a fascinating source of speculation, believing as I do there must have been facts leading to the stories in Genesis as with most myths and legends.

Whatever facts may have resulted in the story of the Garden, whatever truths may be found in the legends and mythologies of humankind a constant is found in the differences between men and women, the differences in the ways their minds work. While L. H. Summers caused a storm of controversy for failing to bow to political correctness by his intimating there may be genetic differences between the brains of men and women and the way each functions, other differences aside no one can legitimately deny men have been noted throughout history for waxing lyrically poetic about women. One only need wonder how the greatest of poetry and the arts including the great music and musicals of Hollywood would ever have come about without men finding poetic inspiration in the fair sex.

However, apart from a few anecdotal blips on the screen of history women have not been nearly so lyrically poetic about men. And the reason for this offers much to speculation. Among the foremost reasons is that of men dominating women by physical strength, often being the predators of women, and the fact that men make wars while women typically oppose wars.

While inciting antagonism from some women that too often confuse equal rights with equal value, it was not without reason the motto hung on Gidget’s bedroom wall, one handed down by her grandmother read: “To be a real woman is to bring out the best in a man.” But fight against it as some of the distaff side may, there is no winning the “battle of the sexes” by a competition rigged physically in favor of men.

But there is no competition when it comes to men finding women the objective part of the best of Nature, in men wanting to write poetry and songs about women, to sing to them and give women flowers. It is here that women win, as did Gidget, through bringing out the best in men. One of the more hateful aspects of religion, especially that of Islam, and political correctness is denying women the opportunity for being the softer and gentler kind of influence that should bring out the best in men, girls and women intended of God to be a “civilizing influence” on boys and men, something I was taught as a boy.

As to the concept of “original sin” being sex, the serpent tempting, perhaps seducing Eve, and she in turn doing the same with Adam, the story of The Fall indicates to me the Adam were not physical creatures in the beginning, but because of disobedience to the power or powers that gave them life were cursed to inhabit physical bodies subject to death. Circumstantial evidence of this being this “fire of life” we carry about in our mortal bodies is not physical, but spiritual. We find ourselves opposed to nihilism, and throughout human history there has been a reaching out to find our true place in the spiritual realm, trying to find something we somehow know intuitively was lost to us by being forced to dwell in these mortal bodies subject to death and decay. The very idea of heaven, of a hereafter is an acknowledgement of our refusing to accept the death of our physical bodies as the end of life. And while terms like Psi and Paranormal are meant to lend legitimacy to the subject of the supernatural, it remains supernatural by any name despite our efforts to know what thus far regardless of many claims to the contrary has remained unknowable.

I take the position of the old hymn I knew as a child that we would sing in our small church in Little Oklahoma: “We’ll understand it all by and by.” This is a very romantic position, and the Bible is very much a book of romance in many places. The Genesis concept of Adam and Eve becoming “one” is borne out in romance. Whatever it was pronounced “good” in the beginning and was lost in The Fall, to my mind possibly the result of internecine warfare among the gods, the remnant of this is found in romance where sexual intercourse may or may not play a role, and the phrase “soul mates” only has relevance beyond the physical where the emphasis is on honoring the compatibility of differences rather than competition. And it is in the area of romance that the King of Disciplines: Philosophy, fails miserably. The great names in Philosophy do not speculate much about romance, and the discipline being dominated by men little is said by philosophers about the role of women in the scheme of things as a full half of humankind, unless being mentioned inferior to men in some fashion.

As to poetry, prose long ago became the accepted form of transition between what poetry had become and other forms of writing. But people have generally in spite of academic distinctions seemed to sense that poetry was the mechanism of the heart and mind, the emotions and the intellect in concert. Realizing this, there is a certain kind of resentment toward those strictly enforced formal, academic definitions of “proper” poetic expression. Though as Sam Clemens pointed out making the claim to be a poet does not confer the title on anyone, and in most cases people know when it is the academics making the claim rather than any merit on the part of the supposed “poet.”

In general, ordinary people as opposed to the academics seem to have the better sense of what the structure of poetry should be; that of telling a story. This may be a part of primeval memory, but I know this; for centuries too many of those who became known as “poets” hid behind their verse, even, in some cases, purposely obfuscating or becoming abstruse in order to display their cleverness and, as a consequence, betrayed the purpose of their calling (Not unlike theologians: Found in a biography of St. Teresa of Avila: ‘She tried to convert the theologians to prayer, but with little success.’ N.R. 5/24/93).

This is not a blanket condemnation of the use of verse to hide authors while giving vent to their feelings. The anonymity of the writer is often a valid point when there is a practical fear of harm as a result of being exposed. Walt Kelly for example made this point during the Cold War where he had his Pogo characters disguising their true opinions of the Kremlin. But anonymity is, in fact, one of several reasons including academically enforced “cleverness” poetry began to degenerate into a merely mechanical form of smarmy rhyming and syrupy nonsense rather than the beauty of correct and cadenced language most amicable to memorization telling a story while reflecting the reality of what is true.

Much of the Bible is written as poetic expression, and must be read as such. The opening chapters of Genesis are written in the form of the original sense and meaning of poetry, a “naming” done in order to tell stories in such a memorable fashion as to not only be a reflection of what is true, but causing the minds of readers to reflect and speculate on those things that motivate toward seeking the truth giving rise to the stories. But to miss the poetry because of literary ignorance or some prejudice of religion or other is to miss much of what has made the Bible the greatest influence on Western Civilization with the greatest advances in the arts and sciences than any book ever written.