We're in

We're in

We're in

We're in You

imaging

imaging You 

at ev'ry corner

imaging You

on ev'ry street

in the maze of written hist'ry

in ev'ry strange

and not so strange

us

whom You mother

on the breast

the abundant breast 

of Your Spirit

Grace-juice

spilling free

a niagra flowing

moistening open mouths

a-ga-pe with credos

and manna for the soul

*The only way to get rid of misconceptions about contemplation is to experience it.

-Thomas Merton

*Contemplation is not and cannot be a function of this external self.  There is an irreducible  opposition between the deep transcendent self that awakens only in contemplation and the superficial, external self which we commonly identify with the first person singular.  We must remember that this superficial "I" is not our real self.  It is our "individuality" and our "empirical self" but it is not truly the hidden and mysterious person in whom we subsist before the eyes of God.  The "I" that works in the world, thinks about itself, observes its own reactions and talks about itself is not the true "I" that has been united to God in Christ.  It is at best  the venture, the mask, the disguise of that mysterious and unknown "self" whom most of us never discover until we are dead.  Our external, superficial self is not eternal, not spiritual.

-Thomas Merton

*Untitled

Please waken me when I'm free

I cannot bear captivity

where my culture I'm told holds no significance

I'll wither and die in ignorance

But my inner eye can c a race

who reigned as kings in another place

the green of trees were rich and full

and every man spoke of beautiful

men and women together as equals

War was gone because all was peaceful

But now like a nightmare I wake 2 c

That I live like a prisoner of poverty

Please wake me when I'm free
I cannot bear captivity
4 I would rather be stricken blind
than 2 live without expression of mind

-Tupac Shakur