That man Merton again...

Merton the poet, doing what he does best, taking my breath away with the transparent honesty of his wide-open eyes:

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.

"The Spirit sings; the bottom drops out of my soul." No-one else has come close to putting how this feels down on paper; and yet the words are so simple, the syntax as clear as mountain water.