And do you want to know which words make this empiricist come closest to feeling “spiritual?”

W.H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939.”  Auden’s work reassures the heart and tempts the intellect.   He was the very “affirming flame” he described so capably, as others doubtlessly are who were inspired by the piece.

If God exists, then evidence for Him might best be found in poetry: mankind’s capacity for depth and language’s capacity for beauty.