Neil Diamond’s ‘Be’ as a Mystical Poem

Image by Anurag Jain at Unsplash

IN college I was fortunate to see the film Jonathan Livingston Seagull in its premiere run at the Village Theater in Westwood. While the film itself disappointed, the soundtrack — featuring songs by Neil Diamond and orchestral arrangements by Lee Holdridge — was magnificent.  To hear the score in a large auditorium with a state-of-the-art sound system added much.  It was a profound experience.  The film itself didn’t really matter.  It was just a setting for the soundtrack.  Few people were able to hear the soundtrack so dramatically performed.

The main song, “Be” goes far beyond the plot of the story — a fictional seagull’s coming of age — into the realm of religion.  It speaks of the I AM experience, a deep, religious experience of the momentousness of ones existence. David Wild, author of “He Is…I Say: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Neil Diamond,” calls the song “A 6-minute flight of pure existentialism.”  But it’s more than that.

One can look at the lyrics and say, “Neil Diamond, a popular contemporary singer, basically wrote what people wanted to hear — some pleasant but not terribly deep quasi-religious commonplaces.”  But, instead, approach them expecting something deeper.  What if you were told this is a poem by Rumi?

Lost, on a painted sky
Where the clouds are hung For the poet’s eye

Most days we ignore the sky, or perhaps casually notice it for a moment. But how often do we *seek* to see the beauty that is there. The various cloud shapes against a blue sky, so appealing to the imagination.  Remember how as children we would play at finding shapes in them?  Is there any activity more delightful?  But do we do this as adults?  One must open the poet’s eye. It is for this the clouds are made.

You may find him
If you may find him
There, on a distant shore
By the wings of dreams, through an open door
You may know him
If you may

The literalist understands this to mean to find Jonathan, the seagull.  But in an inspired sense it can mean to find God. Can you not look at the hints of blazing sun behind layers of billowing clouds and imagine glimpsing the Throne of God in all its Eternal Glory?

Be, as a page that aches for words
Which speaks on a theme that is timeless
While the Sun God will make for your day
Sing, as a song in search of a voice that is silent
And the one God will make for your way

And we dance, to a whispered voice
Overheard by the soul, undertook by the heart
And you may know it
If you may know it

The first stanza above says not only “Be,” but as a page that aches for timeless theme.  This is not the existentialist’s lament that ones desire for purpose is pointless, as life is meaningless.  It, rather, affirms there is a timeless theme, and that our aching for meaning is not in vain, and finding this meaning is essential to realize who and what we are.

In the next stanza we hear of  a “whispered voice” — easily understood as God’s.

While the sand, would become the stone
Which begat the spark, turned to living bone
Holy, holy
Sanctus, sanctu

Perhaps I read too much into this, or perhaps not. But it raises such thoughts as these: 20 billion years after the Big Bang, stars formed of hydrogen and began making other light elements.  After many millions of years, these died; their atoms diffused through space, combined with atoms from other stars, and formed new generations of stars that produced heavier elements.  These stars died too.  About 5 billion years ago, our Sun and Earth came into being, formed of their predecessor’s dust.  3.7 billion years ago, primitive life began on earth.  About 500 million years ago, the vertebrates emerged.  Within 250 million years, the first mammals appeared, then, 25 millions years ago apes, and 2.5 years ago, our genus, homo.  From atoms, to sand, to living bone, to human consciousness.  Somehow, by a process we don’t understand, inanimate matter became infused with spirit and consciousness. Miracle of miracles! All of this so you may complete Creation by experiencing the Mighty Spectacle by entering into the NOW: as part, witness, and recipient of Creation, giving praise and glory to the Creator.  Else all this for naught.

It is an inspired song.  The ancients would say a divine Muse inspires such things. May we not allow that it comes from the Superconscious?  But by all means listen to it. More than a prose poem, it’s a song and musical performance .

Stand on a cliff overlooking the ocean on a sunny day, gaze into the expanse of sea and sky (maybe see if you can spot a soaring gull), play the song in your headphones and see if you don’t have a mystical experience!

❧