The First Moment

A door opens in the center of our being and we seem to fall through it into immense depths which, although they are infinite, are all accessible to us; all eternity seems to have become ours in this one placid and breathless contact.

Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation

The approach is clear;

light of day,

bright sky 

beyond my

silken shroud,

the door is open,

but I am afraid.

Should I pass through,

perhaps descend to

endless depths?

I listen, 

I hear you calling me

calling me;

come home.

so, breathless,

trembling with life,

I begin.

For Love Alone

Occupy my whole life with the one thought and the one desire of love, that I may love not for the sake of merit, not for the sake of perfection, not for the sake of virtue, not for the sake of sanctity but for love alone.   

Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation.

radiant vision

brilliant interlude
raging clouds sundered, 

sun-split storm;

soft rain falls

through winter-bare trees,

through fields of

feral flowers,

God’s world

set afire

for love alone

Spirit of Spring

If we trust God to act in us, God will act in us. 

This is how our lives become prophetic.  

Thomas Merton, The Springs of Contemplation 

Spirit of spring,

gleaming 

fields, marsh  

weeping.

Oh, trust the rain!

With sacred grief, 

it will lead you

to prophecy:

bird-song in

the foothills;
heavy grapes;

the tall

summer

grain.

Another Exorcist

John said to him, “Master, we saw someone who is not one of us driving out devils in your name, and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.” But Jesus said, “You must not stop him; no one who works a miracle in my name could soon afterwards speak evil of me.”  Mark 9:38-39

We saw him
down the road, exhorting,
calling Our Father
to cast out crazy Satan,
and for reference
he gave your name!

We told him to stop.

He was not
authorized,
did not have the proper
credentials

but he replied that
a spirit greater
than we twelve
guided his arms
as he waved
the devil away,

so he refused!

Perplexed, we came to you,
indignantly demanded that you
intercede, cast this upstart
heretic into the muddy ditch
from whence
he undoubtedly arose.

But again you surprise!

“Do not try to stop him,” you said.

And here’s a lesson:

Remember that neither we
nor our apostolic descendants
must ever think that you
ever gave us exclusive rights
to heaven.

We’ll try to remember.

The First Day

“The new man lives in a world that is always being created and renewed.” Thomas Merton,

rows of vines
tangled, waking, alive
converge to the point
of vanishing, to the blue haze
where this lush mountain,
rain blessed, gracefully lifts
the deepening dawn
to where you wait
in the thin veils
of day.

Chiaroscuro

Bright leaves, tongues of flame

holding slender twigs; those thin pillars

resisting seductive breath of breeze,

binding the tender leaves to more substantial limbs

within the deep core of the whispering tree.

Even the setting sun

cannot penetrate so deeply as this,

where darker leaves

stand in rapt attention

as the night-clad trunk,

solid and unmoving,

dumbly regards neither

retiring sun nor rising silver moon,

but worships only

the empty

blue ether.

Image: The Forest by Paul Cezanne 1902-04

Response to Merton: Balandi and Alkozai

"To choose the world is to choose to do the work I am capable of doing,  in collaboration with my brother and sister, to make the world better, more free,  more just, more livable, more human. And it has now become transparently  obvious that mere automatic "rejection of the world" and "contempt for the world"  is in fact not a choice but an evasion of choice."   Thomas Merton. Contemplation in A World of Action Our world is bleeding out filling the sea with stolen humanity Why should I not reject this contemptible world? Last night in Kahdahar's shadow Fear smashed open the simple doors  of Balandi and Alkaozai as an American soldier defiled the mothers and children of two nations,  spread thick their blood and painted red this sinful world.

Rough Weather

Cumulonimbus
pressing in from the sea
squall-line, supercell, windsheer,
violent, ragged fingers
reach down, ready to pull
the trigger
and end our
green world.

To Live for Oneself Alone

"To live for oneself alone is to die."  

Thomas Merton, Seasons of Celebration 

Stars line up

and testify 

against me;

a raspy chorus of

marsh-voices 

rises to decry my

bitter tears as

human lies.

I despair

in the empty

wind, as trees

whisper rumors 

of my lonely end.