Saturday, December 15, 2012

the knowing night

From the NASA Space Advent Calendar which is HERE.

 A planetary nebula in the making of a proto-planetary nebula. A dying star (hidden behind dust and gas in the center of the nebula) has ejected massive amounts of gas. Parts of the gas have reached tremendous velocities of up to one-and-a-half million kilometers per hour. Shown in blue is light from hydrogen and ionised nitrogen arising from supersonic shocks where the gas stream rams into the surrounding material.
(ESA & Valentin Bujarrabal, Observatorio Astronomico Nacional, Spain)

In my ending is my meaning
Says the season.

No clock:
Only the heart's blood
Only the word.

O lamp
Weak friend
In the knowing night!

O tongue of flame
Under the heart
Speak softly:
For love is black
Says the season.

Midnight!
Kissed with flame!
See! See!
My love is darkness!

Only in the Void
Are all ways one:

Only in the night
Are all the lost
Found.

In my ending is my meaning.
 - Thomas Merton, "The Night of Destiny", Collected Poems, pp. 634-635
 
 

3 comments:

  1. I am sooooo tempted to purchase a book of Merton's poetry. Never been attracted to his poetry before, but these photos bring them into focus.

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  2. "In my ending is my meaning" Thomas Merton

    "In my beginning is my end" Part II, Four Quartets, Burnt Coker, T S Eliot

    "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." The Book of Revelations 22:13

    As soon as I began to read your post I knew I half-recognised this as a reference to Eliot, though had to use Google to confirm it, and only now can see the scriptural link.

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