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)

to the center

Photo: Brian Federle, "Night", 2014


the

beat

steady;

constant hum,

music of days to

night fading; the right note, only

song you know; sum of your days, falling, falling to night.

so

go

to the

center, to

the black place to wait

for Him. Don’t call out in fear for

there’s nobody there but you and He, so simply be

and

hear

how His song

fills your darkness with

light; smile at Him, your familiar

bright friend, and no longer will you fear your emptiness.

(23 Dec 2013)

like water

swinspeed.deviantart.com



like
water
rushing in
trees sing in the breeze, 
in the gale at the end of the
world. sun drops over the edge, spinning world, straining to
break free, by gravity held, trapped
like me as night drops
like water
in the
trees

(3 June 2013)

Blue Days

Photo: Brian Federle, Sunset at Pacifica Seawall, 2013

Blue

days race

to starry

grace, candles plunging

to panting dreams. Power is brief.

The mounting sun with youthful stride lusts for noon’s brightest

heights, but ennui runs deep gently

recedes sun’s fading

fire to

rising

pyre.

(12/21/2013)

In the Depth

in

depth of

distance, past

silent, wide fields, past

concrete steps, rushing cars, trucks, lives

unknown, stands the wood: still, closed, filled with what’s possible!

(7 March 2013)

March

cries

pierce,

birdsongs

rise and fall,

from tree to nodding

tree, calling high between winter-

bare limbs, deep among buds long hidden, nearly ready.

(14 March 2013)

I'll Wait

“Make ready for the face that speaks like lightning, uttering the new name of your exaltation deep in the vitals of your soul. Make ready for the Christ, Whose smile like lightning sets free the song of everlasting glory that now sleeps in your paper flesh, like dynamite.” Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours

I’ll

wait

for that

time when Your

silence fills the world

when even birds cannot conceive

cannot dream of dawn; then my sallow skin will burst to

flame, freedom’s song will utter my name, and I will rise to glory through death’s darkest vein!

(16 September 2013)

Aubade Wake Up and See

Wake

up

and see

how the sun

lights the top-most leaves

sets astir the delta breeze, shrugs

off night and drives darkness down into the flashing sea!

Walls of Sleep

“There is no where in you a paradise that is no place and there you do not enter except without a story.  To enter there is to become unnameable.” Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours


I
am
here in
this room, this
house,  light of candle,
see only as far as the door
of darkness, the narrow yard, black trees, night without breeze,
confining me in walls of sleep.

black mountains

black

mountains

to sharp ridge

rise, deeply piercing

day’s bleeding sky; overwhelming

grave, pale victim, night.