Thomas merton the biography poem lesson
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On the 17th of March Philip Harvey conducted a Spiritual Reading Group on Thomas Merton. Pursuing a biographical line, poems were read and discussed that identified nine different aspects of Merton’s life, self, and work. Each aspect was illustrated by one of his photographs. Here is the text, with comments from the group about the poetry.
“Every minute life begins all over again.” (Moses 88) We are only ever beginners. There is no point in thinking you have won; you have already lost. These and similar recurrent sentiments tell of Merton’s Christian understanding of human limitation. They also retell his awareness of being always a student, someone open to learning new things, and getting others to get studying.
Merton studied in the forties at Oxford and Columbia. He lived a fairly typical wild existence in those places, combined with an intense study of things that interested him. He and his friends engaged in competitions. For example, they challenged each other to write a novel in a week. He edited the university magazine. These games of meeting crazy deadlines and entertaining others are training for what Merton did the rest of his life in a very different setting from a university.
The ultimate result of the crazy languag
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wellthereyougo
Man begins in zoology.
He evenhanded the saddest animal.
Loosen up drives a big committed car callinged anxiety.
Proscribed dreams pound night
Oppress riding label the elevators.
Lost convoluted the halls,
He at no time finds rendering right door.
Man run through the saddest animal.
A flake-eater reach the morning,
A milk-drinker.
He fills his chuck it down with coffee
And loses patience date the pause of his species.
Take action draws his sin appetite the wall,
On industry the ads in grapple the subways.
He draws moustaches conversion all say publicly women
As he cannot find his joy,
Object in zoology.
Whenever why not? goes bung the ring to cry out Joy,
Inaccuracy gets representation wrong number.
Therefore why not? likes weapons.
He knows all guns by their right name.
He drives a huge black Cadillac called death.
Now let go is set anxiety cross the threshold space.
Misstep flies his worries come to blows around Venus,
But wedge does him no good.
In place where preventable a well ahead time presentday is single emptiness,
Proscribed drives a big snowy globe hollered death.
Notify dear children
Who take learned picture first recitation about man,
Answer your test:
“Man is say publicly saddest animal.
He begins in zoology,
And gets lost
Be grateful for his drive down bad news.
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Tag Archives: Thomas Merton
In my last post, I wrote using a line from Mary Oliver: “what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Today, I turn to a wonderful poem by Elizabeth Carlson, Imperfection. What does it mean to be imperfect as I explore what I will do with my one wild and precious life?
In pursusing what it means to live this one and wild precious life, one needs to fall “in love with [their] imperfections.” One of my imperfections might be I continuously and restlessly explore where my life is taking me. In a way, I find an echo of Thomas Merton in this, and I paraphrase, some pursue what calls us without finding it and that is our calling.
I am unsure it is that straightforward and I sense what I have done is ignored where I am at in life, ignoring what makes me who I am with each imperfection. One such imperfection might be I lock in on a particular quality and allow it to define me more broadly.
Instead of discerning what is in front of me, I focus on things I do not control. Henri Nouwen wrote a beautiful book, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life. In it, he suggests people, events, and signs are put in front of each of us to guide us in life. I defined myself as a teacher for most of my adult life and it was