Thomas Merton and Kundalini Poetry

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Night-Flowering Cactus

by Thomas Merton

 

 

I know my time, which is obscure, silent and brief

For I am present without warning one night only.

 

When sun rises on the brass valleys I become serpent.

 

Though I show my true self only in the dark and to no man

(For I appear by day as serpent)

I belong neither to night nor day.

 

Sun and city never see my deep white bell

Or know my timeless moment of void:

There is no reply to my munificence.

 

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 described 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.

 

Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

 

Thomas Merton is using the cactus flower, its secret blooming and its

association with the serpent, as a metaphor for the sacred experience.

It rises from the serpent (Kundalini Shakti) in secret. It is

unnameable, of the void. It lifts you into ineffable joy. It is a

totality, a wholeness. It is pure, innocent, virginal, yet open to all

creation. It is perceived as a whiteness, a hidden cavern or well, or

cup. It is an engulfing stillness and silence. Indeed, you will never

be the same again.