Merton in East Asia
Those days
that carried him
never carried him
far enough
Thomas Merton foresaw
his death in a vision
and still flew to Thailand
on a speaking tour
An accidental
crown of thorns?
Cruel electric
short-circuiting fan
though he was dry
and not wet from a shower
Suicide?
Hardly the done thing
for a man of the cloth
A 19-year-old lover
makes you contemplate
many things
but not suicide
Assassination?
Snuffed by the CIA
as part of 1968’s
poster boy
collateral damage
though it smacks
of Merton in the movies
and countless
conspiracy theories
In photos he is bald
and roly-poly
master of
verbal judo
yoga
zen
hermit
guru
touchstone
like Watts
Ram Dass
or Castaneda
Holy Trappist
Brother Louis
A monk who might
have lived out his days
anonymously
in Kentucky
Yet chose to relay
spiritual keys
A rock star writer,
thinker, believer
Those days
that carry us
never carry us
far enough
Crepuscular Report
Stairways and gateways
Dead ends
Promenades
Porches and landings
A solitary gizmo
Corruption a la mode
Shameless sinners
draped in burgundy
Leftovers
sprinkled
with copper flakes
Nothing as far
as the ear can hear
Fish on the bottom
Rocks in the shed
Richard Peabody, born in Washington, DC., raised in Bethesda, MD., and now living in Arlington, VA., is a poet, writer, editor, teacher, publisher. The author of a novella and three short story collections, he taught graduate fiction writing at Johns Hopkins University for 15 years. His Gargoyle Magazine (founded 1976) released issue 76 in August 2022. The magazine has since moved online. His most recent poetry volume, Guinness on the Quay, was published in Ireland (Salmon Poetry, 2019). The Richard Peabody Reader, a career-encompassing collection, was released in 2015 by Alan Squire Publishing, as the first book in their ASP Legacy Series.
Image: aismallard, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; author photo by by Caroline Hockenbury
