Merton and merlot

Actually its a cab sav from Stonyfell wines. Nice little drop and nice to be able to have a drop of vino at lunch....

I have been reading about listening to Tom Merton this morning. 

Lots has been said about him over the years of course, and by much brighter folk than me. 

The attraction for me has always been a bit broader than just his monastic persona, wonderful and full of depth as it is.  I love the beat/poet/count-cultureness of Merton. 

His dialogues with Joan Baez for instance. 

Listening to Dylan and singing along. Coltrane too.

Reading Lenny Bruce.

Merton writing about the peace movement.

Loved this Psalm by Merton.

It encourages me to take both the contemplative and artistic paths seriously.  

Night Psalm

Be still
Listen to the stones of the wall
Be silent, they try
To speak your

Name.
Listen
To the living walls.
Who are you?
Who
Are you? Whose
Silence are you?

Who (be quiet)
Are you (as these stones
Are quiet). Do not
Think of what you are
Still less of
What you may one day be.
Rather
Be what you are (but who?) be
The unthinkable one
You do not know.

O be still, while
You are still alive,
And all things live around you
Speaking (I do not hear)
To your own being,
Speaking by the Unknown
That is in you and in themselves.

“I will try, like them
To be my own silence:
And this is difficult. The whole
World is secretly on fire. The stones
Burn, even the stones
They burn me. How can a man be still or
Listen to all things burning? How can he dare
To sit with them when
All their silence
Is on fire?”

h/t Discussions on the Way

Also check out Louie Louie, a terrific blog using Tom as inspiration.