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Stranger by Thomas Merton (1915 - 1968) Timeline Original Language English Christian : Catholic 20th Century When no one listens To the quiet trees When no one notices The sun in the pool. Where no one feels The first drop of rain Or sees the last star Or hails the first morning Of a giant world Where peace begins And rages end: One bird sits still Watching the work of God: One turning leaf, Two falling blossoms, Ten circles upon the pond. One cloud upon the hillside, Two shadows in the valley And the light strikes home. Now dawn commands the capture Of the tallest fortune, The surrender Of no less marvelous prize! Closer and clearer Than any wordy master, Thou inward Stranger Whom I have never seen, Deeper and cleaner Than the clamorous ocean, Seize up my silence Hold me in Thy Hand! Now act is waste And suffering undone Laws become prodigals Limits are torn down For envy has no property And passion is none. Look, the vast Light stands still Our cleanest Light is One!     -- from The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton, by Thomas Merton Amazon.com   / Photo by Faithful Chant /	Themes   Awakening   Birds   Bower   Dawn   Light Recommended Books The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton, by Thomas Merton Selected Poems of Thomas Merton, by Thomas Merton The Strange Islands: Poems by Thomas Merton, by Thomas Merton Thomas Merton Monk & Poet: A Critical Study, by George Woodcock A Thomas Merton Reader, by Thomas Merton / Edited by Thomas P. McDonnell
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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

Isn't this a wonderful poem given to us by Merton? It's worth going back and reading it again with a sense of inner stillness. (Go ahead, I'll wait...)

The way this poem opens is fascinating --

When no one listens
To the quiet trees
When no one notices
The sun in the pool.

Where no one feels
The first drop of rain
Or sees the last star

The "no one" here is you and me, Merton himself, the speaker of the poem. We encounter the real magic and mystery of the world when we can witness it as "no one." That's "Where peace begins / And rages end" -- when there is no ego-self to assert its right to be the central focus of everything.

That's when things unfold and reveal themselves to be deeply and utterly themselves:

One bird sits still
Watching the work of God:
One turning leaf,
Two falling blossoms,
Ten circles upon the pond.

(Love those lines. The witness is so still, almost non-existent, and we are left selfless amidst the "work of God.")

And then we have the "stranger" of the poem's title--

Closer and clearer
Than any wordy master,
Thou inward Stranger
Whom I have never seen,

Deeper and cleaner
Than the clamorous ocean,
Seize up my silence
Hold me in Thy Hand!

There's that vast, silent Self within, almost unknown to us, a stranger, yet there nonetheless, seated in wordless immensity. "Seize up my silence / Hold me in Thy Hand!" That's the way. Fierce and trembling, the mystic calls out to be grabbed whole by that unknown, oh-so-intimate one.

Look, the vast Light stands still
Our cleanest Light is One!

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.