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endings beginings
July 2009 
Rememberance IIX
jikishin
On this the 40th anniversary of the passing of Thomas Merton, and the second anniversary of my first online post , I'd like to bring part of that first post here.
"Seeing this post/call for quoats of Thomas Merton gave meback a memory of the first time I cried in a zendo. That warm morning, as a fan was turned on to cool the room,( reminded of how he went ) I sobbed with thankfulness for being reminded of him there, for an invocation of his influence.
Turning to what he called "Antipoem I" I recalled his friend, Jacques Maritain, writing something about the power of a poem, or artwork, being in the prophetic relation to the destiny of the poet, or artist."
Antipoem I
O the gentle fool
He fell in love
With the electric light
Do you not know, fool,
That love is dynamite?
Keep to what is yours
Do not interfere
With the established law
See the dizzy victims of romance
Unhappy moths!
Please observe
This ill-wondered troth.
All the authorities
In silence anywhere
Swear you only love your mind
If you marry a hot wire.
Obstinate fool
What future we face
If one and all
Follow your theology
You owe the human race
An abject apology.
-Thomas Merton ( '67 )
* * *
Today, another poem of his. One from a year earlier.
The Night of Destiny
In my ending is my meaning
Says the season.
No clock:
Only the heart's blood
Only the word.
O lamp
Weak friend
In the knowing night!
O tongue of flame
Under the heart
Speak softly:
For love is black
Says the season.
Red and sable letters
On the solemn page
Fill the small circle of seeing.
Long dark -
And the weak life
Of oil.
Who holds the homeless light secure
In the deep heart's room?
Midnight!
Kissed with flame!
See! See!
My love is darkness!
Only in the Void
Are all ways one:
Only in the night
Are all the lost
Found.
In my ending is my meaning.
- Thomas Merton
The phrase, The Night of Destiny, may have been a reference to the end of the fasting of Ramadan, a celebration of the penning of the Koran. Merton's official biographer, John Howard Griffin, saw "something of the Spirit of Christmas" in the poem, "...a feast when the heavens open and the 'Word' is heard on earth."
Come New Years Eve, this year, I hope to be with Fr. Richard Rohr, who was living in Merton's hermitage back in 1985, about the time I "first cried in a zendo".
Access: Public
Kerry - I just watched his biography last weekend. Quite enjoyed it. (available on netflix). It was also interesting to see some of the teachers/poets… in their younger years - Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hahn, William Burroughs, Joan Baez.
Kerry, thank you for this “candle” lit for Father Louis. I have a deep heart connection to him. I trace the beginning of my own journey of spiritual inquiry, in fact, to his poetry. A friend, after reading my Christian poetry in my late teens, gave me a book of Thomas Merton’s poems, thinking he saw a resonance (what a compliment), and that opened the door (eventually)to so much more.
Bowing in rememberance of his struggles, and of the gifts he offered us through his life.
Merton has meant a great deal to my for many years now. I always think of him on the 10th especially. as I recall, that was also the date on which he entered Gethsemani. I hope to visit someday. Merton’s journals have been a great source of comfort and challenge too. “who holds the homeless light secure/in the deep heart’s room?” yes. who indeed.