How Beautiful (from Isaiah 52:7)

"The inspirations of the Holy Ghost are quiet, for God speaks in the silent depths of the spirit. "Thomas Merton

How beautiful 

on the mountain

are the feet of him 

who treads

bright paths of

freedom!

From winter's

gray day he

sings into being

new life

peace

and eternal 

light!

Immanence

I know you stroll 
beyond Andromeda
gazing on Magellanic Clouds,
but I cannot see that far. 

I am stardust 
to Earth-fallen.

Yet I seek you in the autumn rain,
hear you singing in the evening wind.

Your breath fills my empty lungs,
your smile lights my darkened eyes,
and my heart overflows 
with your sacred blood —

love spilling,
Earth-fulfilling.

(11 June 2011 - 2/19/2019)

Evening Meditation

Our apple tree is exuberant tonight,

its white blossoms flare within emerald shades

of our big cottonwoods,

and the flashing red finch descends

busy among the bursting white flames,

when suddenly, by a small boy enraptured,

it poses as the guardian halcyon.

Love in April is like this,

measured in flashes

of red wings in trees

and scored in lines of

molten sunlight, pouring

through our knotty fence

into the silky darkness

of our star-drenched night

(4/5/2010)

Winter Tree

Photo Brian Federle: Desert Tree, Palm Springs, 2016

The winter tree 

does not move.

Its wide trunk 

plunges into graven earth, 

unseen roots, grasping hands

feel deeply the living soil,

hold firm anchorage

against the coming storm,

but rising wood, thin

though strong enough 

to paint slender lines, 

trails into purer air, 

gives shelter

to Christmas birds.

They hunch on stems, quietly

waiting to sing open 

the dawn.

(12/23/2011)

The One Thing

“Happiness consists in finding out precisely what the ‘one thing necessary’ may be, in our lives, and in gladly relinquishing all the rest. For then, by a divine paradox, we find that everything else is given us together with the one thing we needed.”  Thomas Merton

rain

falling

tenderly

on spring grass, on leaves

bending as two mourning doves moan,

beat wide their wings and brush back the sky, falling low to

dark earth. Gladly would I give it

all for a moment

in the glow

of your

eyes!

(9 April 2013)

The Rejection of Jesus (Palm Sunday)

Jesus the Homeless, bronze sculpture by Timothy Schmalz

Regis College, the University of Toronto.

“I hear the whisperings of many: “Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!” 

Jeremiah 20:10

Why do you not believe me?

Have I not wept

as, lost and empty

you cried out in the night?

I shed bitter tears

when at last you fell

and did not arise.

I’ll breath my anguish

and fire your still heart

with my passion.

What more can I do for you

than die?

(27 March 2015)

Hope at Sunset

Photo: Brian Federle, Oregon, 2014


Across the fading valley

The silver bay shines,

effulgent edge

under twilight hills.

Confined

flat waters

cut a thin line

beneath dark heights.

Saw-toothed ridges

rip thin clouds

to ragged shreds —

the plunging sun ignites

the resplendent light

of love

for this sad, winter world. 

Cold Winds

Cold winds,

the sharp edge

of winter — hard

and solid and blue —

fires dull fields to green

as slate-grey trees

their secret lives

reveal.

Ordinary Time

Counting 

numbering days and nights

calculating the length

and breadth of

our alloted

breaths

we live

by the numbers.

It starts in a split second

of passion

in the darkness

plunging headlong

to a date certain

when savage lights assault

our tender eyes

and we see

how it will be

in this clock-

work world.

Time orders All.

Class bells 

church bells

the grandfather clock

in the hallway

heavily chimes 

as our lives sway 

in the diurnal dance, 

we wake and sleep

laugh and weep

and it is all very ordinary

until it is not;

then the chain breaks

and heavy weights 

crush our vision's

persistence 

and at last we subside

into inordinate

existence.

(1 March 2012)

Atonement

"There must be a time when the man of prayer

 goes to pray as if it were the first time 

in his life he had every prayed."  Thomas Merton

Grey mist

rises and falls

enfolding parched hills

easing autumn’s harsh pain

saturating the spreading valley

with gathering rain

and mercy.

(1 Oct. 2012)

The Window of Being

“Actions are the doors and windows of being. 

Unless we act we have no way of knowing what 

we are. “ Thomas Merton

Walk

through the door

and do

not stay

in this dark room,

silent,

inactive

thin soul of

yesterday’s

rain.

No.

Break open the window,

and breathe deeply

the light

of being.

(25 Oct 2012)