Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Dara Wier’s "Where Do You Stand on God?" is a poem that confronts the idea of divine omnipresence with urgency and fluidity. The poem resists a singular, fixed stance on God, instead asserting that “everywhere we stand on God we stand on God.” This opening line collapses distinctions between the sacred and the secular, the grounded and the transcendent, suggesting that no matter where or how we position ourselves—whether in physical space or within conceptual frameworks—we are always within the realm of the divine.

From there, Wier’s language accelerates, moving through a dizzying array of human experiences: “lying down on a riverbed,” “racing up a rat-infested alley,” “sailing on strangely / At an altitude of 30,000 It. (it’s always 30,000).” These images highlight a range of perspectives, from the stillness of the riverbed—perhaps a place of contemplation—to the frantic movement of a rat-infested alley, to the surreal detachment of cruising at high altitude. The phrase “it’s always 30,000” points to the standardized altitude of commercial flights, reinforcing the way modern existence is structured by invisible, yet absolute, systems.

Wier’s use of rapid-fire phrasing and enjambment mirrors the idea of an all-encompassing divinity that permeates all moments, even the seemingly insignificant ones. “Sitting / On a steel chair in a room otherwise bare and bashful” presents an image of austerity, perhaps invoking moments of solitude or forced reflection, where one might more consciously confront their stance on God. Yet, just as quickly, the setting shifts to “digging a hole in a held in order to salvage something / We think needs salvaging.” Here, the act of digging suggests a human impulse toward excavation—both literal and metaphorical—seeking meaning, history, or redemption. The phrase “something we think needs salvaging” introduces an element of doubt, suggesting that what we believe to be necessary or valuable might itself be subject to question.

The poem then takes a turn toward the consequences of denying divine presence: “otherwise we would / Be paltry people with little stingy imaginations or else we / Would be the living dead or the dying living.” This line draws a sharp contrast between those who recognize an expansive, sacred force and those who remain closed off, reduced to “paltry” or “stingy” states of being. The distinction between “the living dead” and “the dying living” further underscores the existential crisis inherent in spiritual neglect—are we alive but inert, or are we alive only in the process of dying? The rhythm of the poem, with its lack of punctuation and cascading clauses, mirrors this existential vertigo, as though the momentum of thought is too urgent to pause.

The final movement of the poem escalates into a declaration of boundlessness: “or we would be / Stupefied or petrified or preconditioned to be loathsome of / Our inabilities to expand on something that is a simple matter / Of exploding variables.” Wier suggests that to reject the divine—or, at least, to refuse to engage with it—is to be locked in a state of paralysis, unable to expand our thinking. She presents divinity not as a singular entity but as “a simple matter / Of exploding variables,” implying that God, or the concept of God, is not fixed but rather an ever-expanding field of potential. The language itself enacts this expansion, with its tumbling clauses and accelerating pace, as if attempting to mimic the uncontainable nature of the divine.

In the final lines, Wier draws the reader into this boundless framework, declaring that “we are the oars and the oarsman / And the anvil and we are the boat and the water it rides on.” This metaphor positions human existence as both the force and the form, the shaper and the shaped, suggesting that we are not separate from the divine but rather intrinsic to its unfolding. The list accumulates—“we / Are upheavaled tilted texts of sacred recipes & the tap that tingles.” The phrase “upheavaled tilted texts” suggests a disruption of established doctrine, as if sacred knowledge is in constant flux. The “tap that tingles” could be read as a reference to sensation, intuition, or the moment of divine inspiration, a small but electrifying confirmation of presence.

Wier’s poem resists definitive theological claims, instead offering a vision of divinity as omnipresent, dynamic, and inextricably linked to human experience. The question “Where do you stand on God?” is ultimately reframed as Where can you stand that is not already within the realm of God? The answer is nowhere—everywhere is infused with divine potential, whether in the mundane act of sitting in a chair or in the urgency of escaping a “rat-infested alley.”

Rather than presenting God as an external force to be worshipped or feared, the poem suggests that divinity is an inescapable network of “exploding variables.” This conception of the sacred aligns with quantum physics, chaos theory, or process theology—an idea of existence that is fluid, shifting, and interconnected. The poem’s form—breathless, kinetic, and without punctuation—enacts this sense of perpetual motion, denying the reader any fixed point of rest.

The final image, where the speaker identifies with the oars, the boat, the water, and even the “tilted texts” of sacred knowledge, dissolves the boundary between human agency and divine orchestration. If we are both the instruments and the currents that move us, then our role in the divine order is both creative and participatory. The “tap that tingles” suggests that this realization is not grand or distant but immediate, sensory, and always available.

In the end, Wier’s poem does not demand a particular belief but rather a recognition of expansiveness. To deny divinity—or to insist on a rigid, limited view of it—is, in her framing, an act of impoverishment, reducing existence to “paltry” concerns. Instead, she invites us into a vision of sacred abundance, where every moment is charged with the potential for meaning, motion, and transformation.

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