Invitation to Dream

Photo: Brian Federle 2017, Night Sky

Pain has an element of blank;   
It cannot recollect   
When it began, or if there were   
A day when it was not.   
 
It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain   
Its past, enlightened to perceive   
New periods of pain.

 

Emily Dickinson

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When I last  saw you

Your eyes danced with joy

and You filled my life

With hope.

But now you’ve gone

beyond my pale sight.

Oh, feel how

the knife twists in my gut!

Oh, weep with me my stinging tears!

Then come with me

as this darkness descends,

and together,

Let us dream.

Breaking Silence

Photo "Stream" Brian Federle, 2014

It is not speaking that breaks our silence, 

but the anxiety to be heard. Thomas Merton

In chilled twilight swells

the chorus overwhelming

echoing passion,

half of water, half  

of leafy bank, they fill the

night with lusty will,

persistent, straining

these marshland poets converge, 

anxious to be heard.

Because We Are Loved

Photo Brian Federle, San Francisco, 2008

“...we come into being because we are loved and because we are meant to love others.”

Thomas Merton, Honorable Reader: Reflections on My Work

Deep inside

my silent room,

I gaze

at nothing,

as beyond the door

in trees glowing,

green and glistening,

birds sing, spring-

mad, mated,

passion-played!

The sun’s rising,

cradling

Your risen

world,

and so I emerge. 

(2012, 2017)

Mercy and Love

"Joshua Tree National Park" Brian Federle, 2016

In order to know and love God as He is, we must have God dwelling in us in a new way, not only in His creative power but in His mercy.  Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation.

Nothing I could do
would ever be enough
to make the dead-wood
live.  Though the wind
and rain sever bright leaves,
tender blossoms from
the cherry tree, and the
birds themselves fly
from my anger,

I know
I could never
make it right,

though with tears I flood,
nourish them with a
broken heart’s blood

I am powerless.

Yet still these bruised stems,
thicken and split
to bud, spill green life,
fill the earth
with mercy
and love.

(2012, 2017)