{"id":7909,"date":"2022-01-21T10:08:25","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T17:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=7909"},"modified":"2022-01-21T10:08:25","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T17:08:25","slug":"thomas-merton-o-sweet-irrational-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/21\/thomas-merton-o-sweet-irrational-worship\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Merton – O Sweet Irrational Worship"},"content":{"rendered":"

O Sweet Irrational Worship
\nby Thomas Merton<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Wind and a bobwhite
\nAnd the afternoon sun.<\/p>\n

By ceasing to question the sun
\nI have become light,<\/p>\n

Bird and wind.<\/p>\n

My leaves sing.<\/p>\n

I am earth, earth<\/p>\n

All these lighted things
\nGrow from my heart.<\/p>\n

A tall, spare pine
\nStands like the initial of my first
\nName when I had one.<\/p>\n

When I had a spirit,
\nWhen I was on fire
\nWhen this valley was
\nMade out of fresh air
\nYou spoke my name
\nIn naming Your silence:
\nO sweet, irrational worship!<\/p>\n

I am earth, earth<\/p>\n

My heart’s love
\nBursts with hay and flowers.
\nI am a lake of blue air
\nIn which my own appointed place
\nField and valley
\nStand reflected.<\/p>\n

I am earth, earth<\/p>\n

Out of my grass heart
\nRises the bobwhite.<\/p>\n

Out of my nameless weeds
\nHis foolish worship.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> — from Selected Poems of Thomas Merton<\/a>, by Thomas Merton<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by Begbie Images<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

Well, I seem to be mostly recovered from the Covid I picked up a couple of weeks ago. It’s been no fun, certainly, a miserable sort of flu, but not the sort of thing to bring society to a halt. I know that different people have different reactions, that the vaccine can lessen symptoms, and that vulnerable individuals can end up in the hospital, but, having come through, I find myself asking if it is truly worth all of the fear and blame and isolation that has gripped society. <\/p>\n

I shake my head and step outside where life continues. I listen to the wind. I wait for the winter clouds to part to feel the afternoon sun on my face.<\/p>\n

Wind and a bobwhite
\nAnd the afternoon sun.<\/i><\/p>\n

Bobwhite, if you don’t know what it is, is a quail-like bird with a unique whistle that sounds like bob-WHITE, bob-bob-WHITE. Reading the opening lines to Merton’s poem, I imagine a walk on a slow afternoon, a gentle breeze, the airy space cut by the clear whistle of the bobwhite.<\/p>\n

By ceasing to question the sun
\nI have become light,
\nBird and wind.<\/i><\/p>\n

I can see a few possible reactions to this statement. Some might read the phrase “ceasing to question” as one of religious dogma, suggesting that a certain freedom comes from no longer questioning one’s belief system. Knowing Merton’s spiritually inclusive philosophy, I don’t think that’s what he intended.<\/p>\n

Rather than standing outside of the moment, turning the scene into an external landscape for the questioning mind to define and label and remain apart from, we become quiet and present. We merge into the moment. We don’t see a pretty seen awash in light, we become the light itself… and the birdsong and the breeze. We fill the space.<\/p>\n

I am earth, earth
\nAll these lighted things
\nGrow from my heart.<\/i><\/p>\n

The boundaries of identity expand. Who we are is not limited by the body or the stories we tell ourselves. We are everything spread out before us, the earth itself. From the earth’s deep heart, our heart, all things grow and emerge to be bathed in the light of the sun.<\/p>\n

A tall, spare pine
\nStands like the initial of my first
\nName when I had one.<\/i><\/p>\n

I love the way a bold, solitary tree stands forth to become a signifier of — what? An initial, one’s first name, one’s personal name. But that name itself has become ephemeral, lost in the larger self. With a quiet mind, we have become not only wordless, but nameless. Finding the wider self in the wider reality, we have moved beyond names.<\/p>\n

Out of my nameless weeds
\nHis foolish worship.<\/i><\/p>\n

However we define worship, reverence, the celebration of life and innate goodness, may we allow ourselves to be swept up in it fully — foolishly.<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Thomas Merton<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Selected Poems of Thomas Merton<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Collected Poems of Thomas Merton<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nA Thomas Merton Reader<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Strange Islands: Poems by Thomas Merton<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThomas Merton Monk & Poet: A Critical Study<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n
\n\"Thomas<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nThomas Merton<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

US (1915 – 1968) Timeline<\/a>
\nChristian<\/a> : Catholic<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Thomas Merton was a hugely influential Catholic monk and mystic of the 20th century who wrote with great insight and inspiration on the spiritual journey and the quest for meaning and inner silence within the modern world. He was an important voice in opening up a dialog between the spiritual traditions of East and West. He himself studied many Eastern spiritual practices deeply, from Zen meditation to Hindu yogic philosophy.<\/p>\n

He is best known today for his essays on the spiritual life, especially his first book, The Seven Storey Mountain<\/i>. <\/p>\n

More poetry by Thomas Merton<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

O Sweet Irrational Worship by Thomas Merton Wind and a bobwhite And the afternoon sun. 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,3],"tags":[725,893,1490,700,2453,51,2454,669],"class_list":["post-7909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ivans-story","category-poetry","tag-earth","tag-heart","tag-nameless","tag-silence","tag-silent","tag-thomas-merton","tag-wordless","tag-worship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7910,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7909\/revisions\/7910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}