Brief Day Ends

October slips

past golden hills

as traffic

through the narrow valley slides, 

glittering serpent

gliding

past thrashing grass

while high atop the street lamp, 

stands the black vulture,

wings extending

massive and dark

and still,

beckoning 

this new season 

of death.

Gap

“In silence we face and admit the gap between the depth of our being, which we consistently ignore, and the surface which is untrue to our own reality.” Thomas Merton

Distracted, ears filled
with gossip, with chattering
laughter, hissing pots,
baroque music.

This chair’s too hard.

My small table’s streaked
and sticky,
twisting veins
of old, spilled
coffee.

I seek silence.

Where else to find it
but here,
under this too-
bright spot-
light?

First Flight

“The moment the first man sprang into being, moved by the breath of God, the depths of the center of his perfect soul blazed with the silent, magnificent flame of Wisdom.”  Thomas Merton, The New Man

grey dawn rising

blaze of new light

purposeful, climbing,

breath of new height,

sharp beak piercing

song of first flight!