Monday, November 14, 2016

Titles


Titles
By Leonard Cohen
I had the title poet. And maybe I was one for a while. 
Also, the title singer was kindly accorded me
even though I could barely carry a tune.
For many years, I was known as a monk.
I shaved my head and wore robes and got up very early.
I hated everyone. But I acted generously. And no one found me out.
My reputation as a ladies' man was a joke.
It caused me to laugh bitterly through the 10,000 nights I spent alone.
From a third-story window above the Parc du Portugal,
I've watched the snow come down all day.
As usual, there's no one here. There never is.
Mercifully, the inner conversation is canceled by the white noise of winter.
I am neither the mind, the intellect nor the silent voice within.
That's also canceled.
And now, gentle reader, in what name - in whose name -
do you come to idle with me
in this luxurious and dwindling realms of aimless privacy?
-- Book of Longing (2006)
hear him read it midway in this interview:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5422403
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Sunday, November 13, 2016

The Time of Praise

Venus Transit by  Carlos Gotay

The Time of Praise: 
“Le Temps Vierge” of Eternity

“You have given me roots in eternity.” 
(Thomas Merton, Entering the Silence, page 473)

Praises and canticles anticipate
Each day the singing bells that wake the sun.
Open the secret eye of faith
And drink these deeps of invisible life.

(Thomas Merton, “After the night Office: Gethsemani Abbey, Collected Poems, page 108)

“I have only time for eternity”.

(Thomas Merton, Entering the Silence, page 234)

33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

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Amounting to Nothing, Brother Paul

  Brother Paul Quenon, Photo by Rhonda J. Miller .  Sorry monk that I am, I never amounted to nothing. Somebody must have laid a curse on me...