Awakening...

At five-thirty in the morning I am dreaming a very quiet room
when a soft voice awakens me from my dream.
I am like all mankind awakening from all the dreams
that ever were dreamed in all the nights of the world.
It is like the One Christ awakening in all the separate selves
that ever were separate and isolated and alone in all the lands of the earth.
It is like all minds coming back together into awareness
from all distractions, cross-purposes and confusions,
into unity of love.

It is like the first morning of the world
(when Adam, at the sweet voice of Wisdom
awoke from nonentity and knew her),
and like the Last Morning of the world
when all the fragments of Adam will return from death
at the voice of Hagia Sophia,
and will know where they stand.

Such is the awakening of one man,
one morning,
Awakening out of languor and darkness,
out of helplessness, out of sleep,
newly confronting reality and finding it to be gentleness.

It is like being awakened by Eve.
It is like being awakened by the Blessed Virgin.
It is like coming forth from primordial nothingness
and standing in clarity, in Paradise.

Thomas Merton, with thanks to Barbara