wood shore desert ( a la Tom Merton)

i have battled much to be here . . .

i have crossed wild rivers

whose currents

unsteadied all but the most hardy of our caravan

i have travelled cross mountains

whose beauty

made it nigh impossible to leave

i have crawled through endless deserts

where water

was only a dream

and mirages

were better than death itself

i have gazed into the heart of the sun

felt its rays strip me bear

my eyes melt into its intensity

i have watched the rain fall

and the evening star appear

i have seen schools of uneducated fish

and parliaments of anarchist owls

i have written the word

and burnt the book

i have sat in silence

and sung the hymns

i never dance

i have sat with the lonely

mourned with the lost

eaten with the starving

i have walked with the weary

spoken with the mute

lost with the found...

to be with you

has cost me

no more

no less

than everything real

the stripping away

of sanity

of soul

of desire

the transformation of all i thought

i could hold onto

the loss of self

only to be found again

more present

than ever before

this journey

never can be described

in all its vividness

in all its wonder

but freends

we

can

try