Monday, November 19, 2007

When psalms surprise me...

Dear Thomas Merton was no mean poet, a fact not everybody knows, I think. This is glorious - the kind of thing you could imagine Friar Tuck writing - assuming that legendary religious was a Franciscan, as I've always thought of him!

 

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.

 

Thomas Merton. [Selection from] "Psalm" in The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton. New York: New Directions Publishing Co., 1977: pp. 220-221.

4 comments:

June Butler said...

Hi Mike. Thanks for joining our movie party. That was a hoot.

Merton was a man of many gifts. I love his poetry. I love nearly everything he writes.

Mike Farley said...

Me too Mimi - Merton's the business!

That party will run and run - I've just sent Jan over to join in...

June Butler said...

Mike, I added your blog to my Blog Friends list. I'll take it down if having it there might embarrass you.

Mike Farley said...

Mimi, I am honoured, truly. (Being serious for once...)