song: if you seek...

If you seek a heavenly light

I, Solitude, am your professor!

I go before you into emptiness,

Raise strange suns for your new mornings,

Opening the windows 

Of your innermost apartment.

When I, loneliness, give my special signal

Follow my silence, follow where I beckon!

Fear not, little beast, little spirit

(Thou word and animal)

I, Solitude, am angel

And have prayed in your name.

Look at the empty, wealthy night

The pilgrim moon!

I am the appointed hour,

The "now" that cuts

Time like a blade.

I am the unexpected flash

Beyond "yes,"  beyond "no,"

The forerunner of the Word of God.

Follow my ways and I will lead you 

To golden-haired suns,

Logos and music, blameless joys,

Innocent of questions

And beyond answers:

For I, Solitude, am thine own self:

I, Nothingness, am thy All.

I, Silence, am thy Amen!

~ Thomas Merton

from The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton

art by Edward Hopper