https://pulsevoices.org/stories/the-wonder-of-knees/
https://drexelpaperdragon.com/poking-deaths-boundary/
(The artwork above is by Martha Liebenow.)
When someone or something we love dies, we grieve.
Right now, half of the country is angry and the other half seems to be gloating.
(Much of this post is something I first published on October 6, 2017.)
In Lauret Savoy’s essay, “The Future of Environmental Essay,” published by Terrain Magazine, she says there are two words we need to remember when we interact with other people, other cultures, and the land: respect and responsibility.
“Speaking of That … which we weren’t” was published in the Chautauqua Literary Journal. This is a print-only journal, so you can’t read it online.
But “Fragile, Fracture, Fear” is online. It was published by Cleaver Magazine, and this is the link:
https://www.cleavermagazine.com/fragile-by-mark-liebenow/
gratefully,
Mark
Growing up in a small farming town in Wisconsin, I felt most alive when I was outdoors, and I would sit for hours in the woods or on the shore of a nearby lake and feel that I was home.
When I began reading the words of Thomas Merton fifty years ago, I tried to imagine what it would be like to live as a hermit. Would it be complete isolation, talking only to the wrens and squirrels, and the occasional bear walking by? Or would I be like Thoreau, and come into town now and then to visit people? And where would this hermit place be? A cabin in a forest keeps coming to mind. But what about living in the desert like Georgia O’Keeffe? Or in the highland mountains of Scotland like Nan Shepherd? What landscape could nurture me for the rest of my life?
I also wondered what it would be like to live in Merton’s hermitage that was near Gethsemani Monastery. Reading John Howard Griffin’s book of living in the hermitage while he worked on Merton’s biography gave me a sense of what this would be like.
My essay about this was published in the new Merton Seasonal. It’s called “In the Hermitage with John Howard Griffin.” I am grateful for the insights of Steve Cary and the assistance of Dr. Paul Pearson of the Thomas Merton Center.
(The photo is of the altar in Merton’s hermitage where he celebrated communion.)
The Merton Seasonal comes out quarterly from the International Thomas Merton Society. Each issue focuses on exploring Thomas Merton's writings for today's world, and on reviewing new books that have come out about him. If you don’t have a yearly subscription to the Seasonal, you can buy this issue, as well as other earlier issues in stock, for $5 per issue, or 3 issues for $12, 5 issues for $18, postage is included to U.S. addresses.
Checks made payable to “ITMS” should be sent to: Dr Paul M Pearson. Thomas Merton Center, Bellarmine University, 2001 Newburg Road, Louisville KY 40205
The air is cool and hesitant.
Stars twinkle out slowly
as the black sky gives way
to the promise of the hidden sun.
Feelings of longing, belief,
and hope fill my body
and surge with unspeakable joy!
Expectant grays give way
to the pink, orange, and yellow of dawn
as the light of the young sun
rises slowly over dark shadowed trees.
People gather as the sky deepens to blue.
The excited chatter and songs of the birds
lift our hearts that rise
with the steady strokes of wings,
rising towards the unknowable
Presence.
Mark Liebenow
