The Laughing World

 This is the first poem I have ever dared to make public since the little rhymes I made when I was 11 or 12. It follows the style of Robert Frost's "Mending Wall," but the ideas are my own. (okay, and G.K. Chesteron's, too)

The Laughing World (inspired by G.K. Chesterton’s essay A Defence of Skeletons)

The world laughs.

Oh, I know the myth of the 

Cosmic Joke, but

I know a myth older than that

And it is the myth of the Cosmic Laugh.

For ever since there were skulls 

There have been laughs to go under 

The frowning skins.

And yet, you say, is this the mockery of the

Joke or the music of the Laugh?

I say the Laugh began and the Joke corrupted it,

But What began will end it. And how do I know?

There are some things too good 

for words: blue sky and really green grass 

And the sound of falling water,

And our ever smiling skulls.

They are the echoing peals of the true laugh, which

Will echo until it rings in fullness again.