In this meditation on the poetry of Thomas Merton, fellow poet Frederick Smock considers how Merton's poetry - perhaps the least-known of his writings - was nevertheless an integral component of his work for peace. But as the term meditation suggests, Smock's examination of the poetry serves as a point of entry into a far broader inquiry, not only into Merton's life and work, but into the necessary engagement of other poets in the work for peace, and into Smock's own development as an artist and a man confronting the world.
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About the Author
Frederick Smock is the poet-in-residence at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, where he received the 2005 Wyatt Faculty Award. He has published seven books, three of them poetry with Larkspur Press, most recently Guest House. His book of essays, Poetry & Compassion: Essays on Art & Craft, was published in the fall of 2006. He is the recipient of the Henry Leadingham Poetry Prize, the Jim Wayne Miller Prize for Poetry, and an Al Smith Fellowship in Poetry from the Kentucky Arts Council. His poems have appeared in Poetry, The Iowa Review, and others. Mr. Smock lives in Louisville with this wife, the writer and actress Olga-Maria Cruz.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
****. Connecting with Kentucky and Merton's poetry,
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This review is from: Pax Intrantibus: A Meditation on the Poetry of Thomas Merton (Hardcover)
I read this on Thanksgiving on my first trip to Gethsemani, where Merton was a monk. Smock has many connections with Merton, and a Merton poem identified the Fort Knox night artillery Smock heard growing up in Louisville. He hopes he was walking on 4th street with his grandmother, when Merton had his revelation that people are "walking around shining like the sun (a plaque commemorates the spot in Louisville).
Smock is also a poet, and explores Merton's poetry and the effect of William Blake, "As Blake worked himself into Merton's system, he "became more and more conscious of the necessity of a vital faith.". Smock writes that "silence laps at the poems very edge", and sitting at vespers at Gethsemani, is a prayer, a poem of silence. This inner peace, Merton and Smock translate into a call for world peace, from Vietnam to Iraq. Although I never found the "Pax Intrantibus" sign at the Abbey, I did find some peace herein.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
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This review is from: Pax Intrantibus: A Meditation on the Poetry of Thomas Merton (Hardcover)
I got this book for someone else as a gift. I read some of the passages and loved the things Merton believed, and was impressed w/the author.
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