The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton

by Thomas Merton

In 1944, New Directions brought out Thomas Merton’s first book of verse. By the time of his tragic, untimely death in 1968, Father Louis (as he was known at the Trappist monastery where he lived for twenty-seven years) had published upwards of fifty books and pamphlets, including several more collections of poetry. All of these poems have been assembled in a single, definitive volume (first published by New Directions in 1977) which includes much additional unpublished or uncollected material drawn from the archive of the Merton Studies Center at Bellarmine College in Louisville, Kentucky, or supplied by the poet’s friends and associates. Brought together in  The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton    Early Poems  (1940-42, published posthumously in 1971),  Thirty Poems  (1944),  A Man in the Divided Sea  (1946),  Figures for an Apocalypse  (1947),  The Tear of the Blind Lions  (1949),  The Strange Islands  (1957),  Original Child Bomb  (1962),  Emblems of a Season of Fun  (1963),  Cables to Ace  (1968), and  The Geography of Lograire  (completed in 1968 and published posthumously). These are followed by  Sensation Time at the Home and Other New Poems , a book which Merton completed shortly before his death. There are also sections of uncollected poems, humorous verse, poems written in French, with some English translations, Merton’s translations of poetry from various languages, drafts and fragments, and a selection of concrete poems. With the availability of  The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton  as a New Directions paperbook, an ever wider audience may more fully appreciate the impressive range of the poet’s technique, the scope of his concerns, and the humaneness of his vision.

Genres: Poetry, Spirituality, Christianity, Nonfiction

1048 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Thomas Merton, religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. In December 1941 he entered the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani and in May 1949 he was ordained to priesthood. He was a member of the convent of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky, living there from 1941 to his death.
Merton wrote more than 50 books in a period of 27 years, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews. Among Merton's most enduring works is his bestselling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain (1948). His account of his spiritual journey inspired scores of World War II veterans, students, and teenagers to explore offerings of monasteries across the US. It is on National Review's list of the 100 best nonfiction books of the century.
Merton became a keen proponent of interfaith understanding, exploring Eastern religions through his study of mystic practice. His interfaith conversation, which preserved both Protestant and Catholic theological positions, helped to build mutual respect via their shared experiences at a period of heightened hostility. He is particularly known for having pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama XIV; Japanese writer D.T. Suzuki; Thai Buddhist monk Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, and Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. He traveled extensively in the course of meeting with them and attending international conferences on religion. In addition, he wrote books on Zen Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, and how Christianity is related to them. This was highly unusual at the time in the United States, particularly within the religious orders.

Reviews

[Dr. Carl Ludwig Dorsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Merton describes sitting at O’Hare airport in 1969:

Comes a big slow fish with tailfins erect in light smog
And one other leaves earth
Go trains of insect machines
Thirtynine generals signal eight
Contact barrier four

(the first verse of DAY SIX O'HARE TELEPHANE)


or the death of Che Gueverra in 1967:

They came without faces
Found you with eyeless rays
The tin grasshoppers
With five cornered magic
Wanting to feed you
To the man eating computer

(from LETTERS TO CHE: CANTO BILINGUE)


There are many machines, weapons and generals here, likely more than there are angels, saints and virgins. I find the collection indigestible, but tantalizingly so. I am also continually aware of my difficulty disentangling the verse from the life myth or even the more interesting (and more ambiguous) life story, which seemingly remains, still and against all attacks, a novel of sorts.

Speaking of some of the sections of “The Geography of Lograire” (1968), Merton writes in its ‘Author’s Note’ that:

“(W)hat is given…is most often literal and accurate quotation with slight editing and with of course much personal arrangement. And where more drastic editing is called for by my own dream, well, I have dreamed it.”

The following, if I understand properly, is from one of those sections. Here is where I find what, to my reading, are some of the most conventionally attractive and least jarring portions of the “Collected Poems.”

Why? Because here the poet’s critical intelligence floats above his self-consciousness? Or only my own lazy partiality for the marginally mediated text of the world? I do not know.


VI. SEWENDE (Seven Day)

1. Seven Day is an unknown country where aspirins come from
And pants and axes and corned beef in cans
It is far beyond the green sea, the white sea, the blue sea
Past Tokyo North America and Germany
But in the same general direction
Far beyond other countries
No one has seen this blessed land

In the center of snow-night-day
Is a hidden place
Even more unknown than Sewende
The front door of Big Belong
Who got up very old
Out of Himself in the beginning
Left His endless bed in the morning
And started the Cargo Company
In which we now offer shares
To True Believers.


2. Then the dreamer said we must build a large warehouse in the bush. We must do everything he said and then wait: in a short time the warehouse would be filled with cans of meat, aspirins, hydrogen peroxide, soap, razor blades, rice, pants, flashlights and everything.

Then we built the warehouse together. And after that the dreamer said we must wash away all our impurities. We all drew water and heated it and washed together.

We went in silence to the burial ground. Nobody sang or danced or said anything. We just sat very still in the dark waiting for the signal.

At the signal the women took theirs off and we took ours off and we all began. It was collected in a bottle with water and poured over the burial place to bring Cargo.

When the Administration heard about it we had to tear down the warehouse and carry all the timbers eighteen miles and throw them in the sea.


(from EAST in “The Geography of Lograire”, p. 341 of “The Collected Poems”)

[Kenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

ehhh

[Stephanie Weisgerber · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mood: Delusional, Religious
Theme: Biocentrism, Tao is Supreme
Pace: Drawn out, sluggish
Writing Quality: Alternating between genius and psychosis
Length: 1030 Pages

Thomas Merton was an American Monk residing in Kentucky in the 1940's- 1960's. He was also well known as a theologian, mystic, poet, and scholar of comparative religion. A pacifist who wrote prolifically and began conversing with monks and mystics of various other faiths. I see him as a searching soul who never quite firmly grasped truth. A former teacher of mine told me he was very impacted by his writing, and as a lover of poetry myself, I bought this book.
Although some poems in this volume are absolute gems, the whole of them were fragmented thoughts that never quite developed a cohesive voice or pattern in my opinion. The majority of the poems do not rhyme nor do they have any semblance to reality. He clearly lived in his head and became trapped there. This book became excruciating to finish, so much so, that I had to read only 10 pages a day to get through it. (I have a weird OCD with not finishing books I start.). Merton ends this volume with a series of "concrete poems" which are supposed to resemble in visual shape the prose they display. I couldn't see it. When so many fantastic poets exist in the world, don't waste your time with Merton, unless you are a serious fan of his. Reading Merton's poetry felt like reading babbling nonsense and evokes a chaotic agitation in myself that I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

[Shahd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Night-flowering Cactus:

“…When I come I lift my sudden Eucharist Out of the earth's unfathomable joy
Clean and total I obey the world's body
I am intricate and whole, not art but wrought passion Excellent deep pleasure of essential waters Holiness of form and mineral mirth:
I am the extreme purity of virginal thirst.
I neither show my truth nor conceal it
My innocence is descried dimly
Only by divine gift
As a white cavern without explanation.
He who sees my purity
Dares not speak of it.
When I open once for all my impeccable bell
No one questions my silence:
The all-knowing bird of night flies out of my mouth.
Have you seen it? Then though my mirth has
quickly ended
You live forever in its echo:
You will never be the same again.”

[Ludwig VdV · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most distinctive voices of 20th century. You just can't pin down this man to any category. His poems were very surprising, spiritual and down to earth. This volume is never far away.

[carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much of it is good, much of it didnt appeal to me.

[Mike]

Weird catholic surrealism, rollicking switches from verse to prose, political and spiritual earnestness conjoined with humor, "edgy," a good read for the most part.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

"And who shall dare to look when all the birds with golden beaks / Stab at the blue eyes of the murdered saints?" (Figure for an Apocalypse)