Merton’s “Song for Nobody”

Things are too hectic around here with the Easter Bunny and all to really devote much of the day to blogging, but I couldn’t let yesterday’s post stand alone today. So, here’s a more optimistic poem by Merton, the one that ends Selected Poems of Thomas Merton:

SONG FOR NOBODY

A yellow flower
(Light and spirit)
Sings by itself
For nobody.

A golden spirit
(Light and emptiness)
Sings without a word
By itself.

Let no one touch this gentle sun
In whose dark eye
Someone is awake.

(No light, no gold, no name, no color
and no thought:
O, wide awake!)

A golden heaven
Sings by itself
A song to nobody.

I’m nobody. I hope you are, too.

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