PARADISE. Alasdair Gray

made the earth and water, fire and air

      so must have made them pure as Paradise –

      pure as these starry spheres, this shining space 73

      through which we rise. Why on earth do all things

      change, age, sicken, die and rot? Here is why.

      76 Our God Himself did not directly make

      all of the world below. Live plants and beasts

      are generated in His elements

      79 by things He made before. Sunlight is one.

      Yet on the sixth day of the Genesis

      He breathed His own soul into human clay.

      82 All other earthly life will suffer death.

      Men, women are the great exception,

      created by His love to love Him back

      85 eternally, after resurrection.”