Compassion

Photo: Brian Federle

“What is my new desert? The name of it is compassion. There is not wilderness so terrible, so beautiful, so arid, and so fruitful as the wilderness of compassion.” Thomas Merton

I’ll wander with you
in our pain.

Though dry days
and star-drenchd nights
we’ll search the sharp rocks
for pools of cool tears.

Forty days and
forty nights shall we journey
through the wilderness,

to the green oasis
where we’ll flourish — audacious 
lilies in hidden springs — 

and there  
we’ll possess
every good thing.

(13 Oct 2012/ revise 7/31/2018)

Fountain of Fire

“Just as it is impossible for a man to see his face in troubled water, so too the soul, unless it be cleansed of alien thoughts.” Thomas Merton

Closing in
the ancient wind sweeps
still waters, turns clarity
to confusion, joy
to primal fear.

I seek my face
but see only a blush
on the river’s edge,
red betrayal seeping
from deep within,
from a wound unseen.

Cleanse me, O Fountain of Fire, 
still my fears
and again I’ll see
my face
washed clean
by grateful tears!

Revelation

Photo: Brian Federle, San Francisco Homeless, 2014.

Inside

my secret door

deep in the dark

I face you.

We are

alone.

I have no place

to hide.

I don’t want

shelter

from your steady

eyes.

You see right through

my petty lies--

into the truth of

my shivering

life.

You know me

and yet

you love me!