Tuesday, October 30, 2012

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.

Monday, October 15, 2012

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?

Monday, October 8, 2012

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!