[Poetry Chaikhana] Thomas Merton - The Sowing of Meanings

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The Sowing of Meanings By Thomas Merton (1915 - 1968)   See the high birds! Is their's the song That dies among the wood-light Wounding the listener with such bright arrows? Or do they play in wheeling silences Defining in the perfect sky The bounds of (here below) our solitude, Where spring has generated lights of green To glow in clouds upon the sombre branches? Ponds full of sky and stillnesses What heavy summer songs still sleep Under the tawny rushes at your brim? More than a season will be born here, nature, In your world of gravid mirrors! The quiet air awaits one note, One light, one ray and it will be the angels' spring: One flash, one glance upon the shiny pond, and then Asperges me! sweet wilderness, and lo! we are redeemed! For, like a grain of fire Smouldering in the heart of every living essence God plants His undivided power -- Buries His thought too vast for worlds In seed and root and blade and flower, Until, in the amazing light of April, Surcharging the religious silence of the spring, Creation finds the pressure of His everlasting secret Too terrible to bear. Then every way we look, lo! rocks and trees Pastures and hills and streams and birds and firmament And our own souls within us flash, and shower us with light, While the wild countryside, unknown, unvisited of men, Bears sheaves of clean, transforming fire. And then, oh then the written image, schooled in sacrifice, The deep united threeness printed in our being, Shot by the brilliant syllable of such an intuition, turns within, And plants that light far down into the heart of darkness and oblivion, Dives after, and discovers flame.   -- from Selected Poems of Thomas Merton, by Thomas Merton Amazon.com / Photo by Kai Hendry /

============ Thought for the Day: If you don't occasionally make a fool of yourself, you're not fully alive. ============

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Hi Omss -

Thomas Merton was a Catholic monk and mystic who, perhaps more than anyone else in the 20th century, is associated with opening up a dialog between the spiritual traditions of East and West. He himself studied many Eastern spiritual practices deeply, from Zen meditation to Hindu yogic philosophy.

He is best known today for his essays on the spiritual life, especially his first book, The Seven Storey Mountain, but he was also a gifted poet. Many of his later poems reflect his own mystical insight and awakening.

--

I'm already anticipating spring. Time for a quiet walk out in nature...

Ponds full of sky and stillnesses

...to see what is secretly waiting to blossom...

For, like a grain of fire
Smouldering in the heart of every living essence
God plants His undivided power --
Buries His thought too vast for worlds
In seed and root and blade and flower,

I hope you find a way to step into the awakening world this weekend.

Then every way we look, lo! rocks and trees
Pastures and hills and streams and birds and firmament
And our own souls within us flash, and shower us with light...

Ivan

 

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/ Photo by Patrick Hoesly /

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