I’m afraid to talk about the Goddess. God, the big patriarchal male God will strike me down. This depiction of God the Father is from the Sistine Chapel. Doesn’t he look scary? I think he’s telling me (I mean Eve) to get out of heaven here. Men are made in the likeness of God. That’s what the Baltimore Catechism said anyway. I want to be God, not really God but the likeness of God like guys are so I wrote this poem.
God to Goddess
God, God, you’ve hidden me,
God with and “G” and an “o” and a “d”
God, God, assemble me
God, God, double the “d”
Double the “d” and add an “e”
God, God, I’m almost free.
God, God, I need an “s”
To save me from ungodliness.
God, God add an “s”
Add the “e” and double the “s”
Double the “s” for “ess”
God, God, now all can see.
All can see quite easily,
The Goddess, The Goddess,
She looks like me.
Silly, huh. It’s a nursery rhyme really. I need God. It’s only that I need a Goddess too. I need someone who looks like me. I need someone who has hips and breasts and great “instinct”, not a left-brained masculine God. The ending “Goddess, Goddess, She looks like me” is weak. It doesn’t run as strong as the rest. That’s because God is a single syllable and it sounds like the slam of a hammer. The first line, “God, God, you’ve hidden me”, slams twice. The word Goddess is a distinctly feminine word. It’s the “ess” ending that does it. The linguistically acceptable way to change a male word into a female word is to add “ess” as in heir, heiress, Jew, Jewess, Baron, Baroness. It works. We understand it but it’s still a male word being adjusted to be a female word. It isn’t a stand-alone word and that’s important. I wish there was another word for Goddess. Maybe I just need to think about it differently.
In the beginning there was the Goddess. That’s true, right? The Goddess came first. Then the patriarchal male tribes came and changed things to their liking. But, what did they do? They took away from the Goddess. They took away the “dess” and made the word male. So really, maybe it’s the stealing of that “dess” that’s the problem. I’ll have to write a poem about the rape of the “dess”.
Rape of the Dess
Where did they put the “d-e-s-s?”
They added an”r” and made it a dress
To cover me up
And hide my shame
The shame of my ungodliness.
And now it’s Baron not Baroness
And now it’s lion not lioness.
They messed with my name
My identity
But now, since it’s a democracy,
We need an amendment
To the moral constitution.
That’ll never happen.
A little note on the Venus de Milo image as pictured here. She is widely accepted as defining feminine beauty. Her 
breasts measure thirty-four inches, her waist thirty-one and her hips almost forty-one. Doesn’t that make you feel better? That’s pretty hippy, huh? It’s nowhere near the thirty-six, twenty-four, thirty-six ideal I used to hear about.
One more note about measurements. It has been scientifically determined that in order to have a beautiful figure, a woman’s waist should be seventy percent of her hips. Venus here clocks in at forty-one so her waist should be about twenty-nine. It isn’t. It’s thirty-one. She is two whole inches off the ideal. There’s hope for me yet.
Previously published as part of Last Tango in Paris under Movie Reviews.
April 19, 2016
i think whichever way people divvy up the form of deity there’s plenty of space and room for a female apprehension on multiple levels whichever fits the particular person and a mature, stable orientation is one of wonder at the beautiful countenance of her face, his face because this being encompasses everyone. but it takes a particular special person to thoroughly see the girl in god. this is why Jesus was sensitive about blasphemy toward toward the holy spirit, but forgiving toward that against himself and the Father. There is a most sacred aspect of the Mother that is beyond a harsh word and an unkind thought. He knew, and he revealed. The great Mother towers over and incorporates that which is, by her nature and that means all even the ones who fight her in their confusion, He rules absolutely over them, but she is their wondrous one who gives unconditionally, hence Jesus’s protection of her. The stratagems used against her lead toward her, her arms are as open as they have always been since the beginning
November 10, 2014
“Hannah”: I think you have a limited, even incorrect, vision of God, one created in the image of man. Here is a description of God based on what he tells us about himself (from the Westminster Confession of 1648):
“1. There is but one only, living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; and withal, most just, and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty.
2. God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself; and is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which He hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them. He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things and hath most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatsoever He pleaseth. In His sight all things are open and manifest, His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to Him contingent, or uncertain. He is most holy in all His counsels, in all His works, and in all His commands To Him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience He is pleased to require of them.”
I don’t think such a God as that belongs to either male or female, or is much concerned over gender identity!
Terry
November 12, 2014
Terry,
My concept of God has changed over the decades. I started by denying the Catholic God of my childhood. He was an angry God who wanted only to punish me for my sins. I decided there was no God but it didn’t last long. There is so much beauty in the world. Someone was the designer. I don’t think that need be the God of my fathers or the God of the Christian or Catholic church. By the way I like Presbyterians. They seem the best of the Protestants, the most open.
What annoys me is the Christian view of women. The Christian view of woman is often as a temptress. Woman is woman. If a man is tempted, that is his sin not hers. For generations men have blamed women for their carnal sins. That’s unfair. I want a Goddess that looks like a woman. I want the image of a supreme being to be a woman, a strong woman, a woman with proper curves and valleys and yet sacred. I want to look like her image. To keep God a male figure is to deny women this basic right or what should be a basic right. I’m not talking about the Supreme Being’s essence, which you describe fairly well and I agree with it. I’m talking about image, how we view God/Goddess. The image needs to change.
Hannah
June 22, 2014
I enjoyed the poems. For me, the removal of “dess” symbolizes the real fear men have of women. The sheer power to bestow life was the initial “dess”. And it has never been removed from our species by God or man. Only women(in most cases) have that power of choice. I really believe it is the central hidden theme of rape. Rape is an act of power not sex. What is the power we have that must be crushed? It is the power of reproductive choice. A choice of who to have sex with and when to give birth. The men have even forgotten that reason, it is so old, so driven into the historic fog. Yet remains the greatest power–to give life.
June 23, 2014
You are absolutely right. The desire to control the reproductive organ is at the root of male hate for women and there is no way to give them that power. That’s what it has been about since the beginning of time.