Thursday, Opening Verse, By Thomas Merton, From The Book Of Hours, by Kathleen Deignan.

“One lovely dawn after another. Such peace! Meditation with fireflies, mist in the valleys, last quarter of the moon, distant owls – gradual inner awakening and centering in peace and harmony of love and gratitude.”

 

Psalm, Mid-Day

By ceasing to question the sun, I have become light, 

Bird and wind.

My leaves sing.

I am earth, earth.

All these lighted things

grow from my heart.

A tall, spare pine

Stands like the initial of my first

Name when I had one.

When I had a spirit

When I was on fire

When this valley was

Made out of fresh air

You spoke my name

In naming Your silence:

O sweet, irrational worship!

I am earth, earth

My heart’s love

Bursts with hay and flowers

I am a lake of blue air.

In which my own appointed place

Field and valley

stand reflected.

I am earth, earth

Out of my grass heart Rises the bobwhite

Out of my nameless weeds, His foolish worship. 

-Thomas Merton