barren desert

a lone lank shadow paints black the desert floor

a single man trudges upon the arid sea, alone.

his frame wears upon his flimsy coat

the dress of hunger's search, the search for satisfaction's peace.

but the sea swirls micro pellets into his jaws

tanning his flesh in wind-beaten style;

cold wind wraps him in her heated coat of warmth

slowing his progress along the barren coast

what thinks him while he drinks in the hellish sun

where molten sands firebrand his papyrus flesh

a man in search of life's oasis drinking font

miraging life's oasis drinking font?

why cry out to the waste-fields of wilderness alone

where winds bark loud their bachelor voice to all

to turkey-stuff the parched lips with droughted waters

of arid desert's welcoming sands?

he treks by day in warming heat, by night to know the cool;

no rest the wicked way will give, so only on to goal

to gain the oasis drinking font where rest is to be with death

for weariness's companioned, restless friend

reach not for the empty space of airy fill

as sand-weighted feet sink down into the deep;

and though the the horse-men four from their nebulaed trough should swoop

trudge on, trudge on and conquer the real alone

the arid sea yet bears the image of a man

crossing the barren desert strip making his slow advance

yet there will stand his life's oasis drinking font

and in her quiet somberlence his laggard bones shall sleep

*Reflections of Jean Sulivan:

  -I invite you to stop hiding behind the abstract pyramids of ideas, or, when they collapse, to no longer wall yourselves up in agony and bitterness.  Hoping to embrace everything, everything escapes you; wanting to be everywhere, you are nowhere.  Be suspicious of the absolute, the unsayable.  Prefer a tone, a phrase, a face, which express the unsayable. When you hear someone speak of the beyond, tell him, "Only one life at a time!"  When he speaks of the infinite, ask him how far he is willing to go to help people live or die.

  -Our griefs are doors, pathways for coming joys, on behalf of other sorrows, other joys.  One sinks, the other gushes forth.  Nothing is finished.  Don't blame anyone - for example, someone who has hurt you badly.  The function of morality is not to crush anyone; it exists only for itself.  That there are laws and policemen is something quite different.

  -Stop looking for reasons, complaining that public morals are declining or that faith is dying.  No, religion is doing very nicely; the archbishop is invited to dinner at the best homes....When the sea seems to recede, it is breaking on other shores.  Besides, the normal world is the pagan world of unbelief.  Eroticism is natural; so is the love of money.  Since evil is natural, let good grow within it and take its place.  Complaining and protesting are only excuses for idle gossip.

  -Expressing oneself doesn't mean wanting to communicate.

  -The desert that you carry within you makes genuine encounter possible.

  -Let the wind blow freely among you, and keep your embraces brief.  But each gesture, your very glance, should express your friendship, your taste for the real, and in the meantime your ardent patience.