God Went Bowling

Terry Taylor is my favorite songwriter. Everything he writes makes me think and wonder and laugh. The music is as original and unconventional as the poetry. Because so much of his work touches on the Creator-Creation or God-World relationship, I plan on posting his lyrics here occasionally. I hope he doesn’t mind. I figure he’ll appreciate the recommendation.

Please visit the website of one of his bands (Daniel Amos, Lost Dogs, Swirling Eddies) and buy the music. Here are the words to the amazing “God Went Bowling”:

God Went Bowling

Terry Taylor (http://www.danielamos.com)
(c)1988 Broken Songs
from the Swirling Eddies album “Zoom Daddy”

God went bowling
got the ball rolling
suspends it in air
to strike, split, and spare
while the king pin is falling
as part of his calling
makes some of us crack
in the gutter and the rack

and then God made a barrel
out of slings and arrows
and filled it up high
with the apples of his eye
now the grub worm is snacking
on all we are lacking
aiming his shots
at the cores that he rots

in the fracas and filth
in the fire and the flood
in the trash and the tumors
the rash, and the rub
all us tag team wrestlers
get stuck in the mud
and wrestle against
not the flesh or the blood

God set a table
for the blind and disabled
served wine bread and fish
and some mystery dish
made of devils and angels
grave plots and cradles
horses and hearses
praises and curses

see the pillages and wonders
the miracles and plunders
a stumble, a fall
see the great free-for-all
now the rattle snake is coiling
’round the sheets we are soiling
he strikes while we’re sleeping
and sows what we’re reaping

in the fracas and filth
in the fire and the flood
in the trash and the tumors
the rash, and the rub
all us tag team wrestlers
get stuck in the mud
and wrestle against
not the flesh or the blood

we want an infinite meddler
a fix-it-quick man
but he gets off his high horse,
gets dirt on his hands
and he woos us like a lover
through each bloody cessation
and hangs on the cross
with the rest of creation

and he woos us like a lover
woos us like a lover
woos us like a lover