christopher3393 Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 A Psalm by Thomas Merton When psalms surprise me with their music And antiphons turn to rum The Spirit sings: the bottom drops out of my soul. And from the center of my cellar, Love, louder than thunder Opens a heaven of naked air. New eyes awaken. I send Love’s name into the world with wings And songs grow up around me like a jungle. Choirs of all creatures sing the tunes Your Spirit played in Eden. Zebras and antelopes and birds of paradise Shine on the face of the abyss And I am drunk with the great wilderness Of the sixth day in Genesis. But sound is never half so fair As when that music turns to air And the universe dies of excellence. Sun, moon and stars Fall from their heavenly towers. Joys walk no longer down the blue world’s shore. Though fires loiter, lights still fly on the air of the gulf, All fear another wind, another thunder: Then one more voice Snuffs all their flares in one gust. And I go forth with no more wine and no more stars And no more buds and no more Eden And no more animals and no more sea: While God sings by himself in acres of night And walls fall down, that guarded Paradise. Link to comment
mwheelerk Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 I've read a lot of Thomas Merton over the years. The Prodigal Son is awesome as are many other of his books. But I did not know he wrote poetry. "A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open." Frank Zappa Link to comment
wgscott Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 I would say, given the example presented, that he doesn't. Link to comment
mwheelerk Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 I would say, given the example presented, that he doesn't. Ok "A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open." Frank Zappa Link to comment
wgscott Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 Sorry, that was mean. (It was also a George Bernard Shaw rip-off.) Link to comment
christopher3393 Posted August 23, 2014 Author Share Posted August 23, 2014 Thomas Merton was never a great poet. He did, as a Trappist monk, have a lot of experience chanting the Psalms. I think the poem addresses a process of contemplative absorption that is related to being absorbed in music, in this case a particular form and content of "sacred" music. I like some of the images, and I thought some members might appreciate reading the poem, and maybe even find it thought provoking. Link to comment
christopher3393 Posted August 23, 2014 Author Share Posted August 23, 2014 Ha! More like this: Or this: Link to comment
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