Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Thomas Merton - The center of nowhere

 
 
 
 There is no where in you a paradise that is no place and there
        You do not enter except without a story.

        To enter there is to become unnameable.

        Whoever is there is homeless for he has no door and
        no identity with which to go out and to come in.

        Whoever is nowhere is nobody, and therefore cannot
        exist except as unborn:
        No disguise will avail him anything

        Such a one is neither lost nor found.

        But he who has an address is lost.

        They fall, they fall into apartments and are securely established!

        They find themselves in streets. They are licensed
        To proceed from place to place
        They now know their own names
        They can name several friends and know
        Their own telephones must some time ring.

        If all telephones ring at once, if all names are shouted
        at once and all cars crash at one crossing:
        If all cities explode and fly away in dust
        Yet identities refuse to be lost. There is a name and
        number for everyone.

        There is a definite place for bodies, there are pigeon holes for ashes:
        Such security can business buy!

        Who would dare to go nameless in so secure a universe?
        Yet, to tell the truth, only the nameless are at home in it.

        They bear with them in the center of nowhere the unborn flower of nothing:
        This is the paradise tree. It must remain unseen until words end and
        arguments are silent.
 
 
 
 

 

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