Belief, or The Memes

[I can't get blogger to accept the proper spacings for the poem below, but I'm posting this somewhat mutilated version anyway.]

Belief, or The Memes

The dead live on, not just
as memories, but as “programs.”
Sitting beside a gravestone, we might speak
& think we hear a reply.
It would be natural to ask for advice –
which way to go find water
or the best trail for a hunt.

Drop a bundle of sticks on the ground
or heat a clay pot until it cracks
the pattern forms a map
a communication from the other side.

Centuries later people would fill mosques
cathedrals and synagogues
not really knowing how they got there.

Spreading genes favorable to belief?

Memes leaping from mind to mind?

Wind spirits & rain gods
wood nymphs & leprechauns.
The scary world
a cacophony of superstition
lurking behind the scenes
meme against meme.

At first the winnowing would be unconscious
some ideas would be groomed & domesticated.

Gauging and deciding
slowing the pace
or ripping it up
adding or losing a phrase.

O what a fine protective screen!

We want to believe.
We live to believe.
We believe to live.

[Most of the words and phrases here come from a Scientific American review of Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell.]