Trappist monks welcoming a stranger (detail), Jules-Joseph Dauban, 1864

 

[This poem first appeared in the December 9, 1966 issue of Commonweal]

(Fr. M. Stephen, O.C.S.O.)

Maybe the martyrology until today

Has found no fitting word to describe you

Confessor of exotic roses

Martyr of unbelievable gardens

Whom we will always remember

As a tender-hearted careworn

Generous unsteady cliff

Lurching in the cloister

Like a friendly freight train

To some uncertain station

Master of the sudden enthusiastic gift

In an avalanche

Of flower catalogues

And boundless love.



Sometimes a little dangerous at corners

Vainly trying to smuggle

Some enormous and perfect bouquet

To a side altar

In the sleeves of your cowl

In the dark before dawn

On the day of your burial

A big truck with lights

Moved like a battle cruiser

Toward the gate

Past your abandoned and silent garden

The brief glare

Lit up the grottos, pyramids and presences

One by one

Then the gate swung red

And clattered shut in the giant lights

And everything was gone

As if Leviathan

Hot on the scent of some other blood

Had passed you by

And never saw you

Hiding among the flowers.

Thomas Merton was the author of "Man in the Divided Sea," and many other books. He was a member of the Trappist Community at Gethsemani, KY. He died December 10, 1968.

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