TRENDING:

Living Alone
WHEN IT LOOKS AS IF I AM TALKING TO MYSELF
Tendrils
Braided Way Magazine
  • Home
  • About
    • Mission
    • Braided Way Philosophy
    • Staff
  • Article Categories
    • Poetry
    • Personal Journeys
    • Creativity
    • Healing
    • Paths and Traditions
    • Applied Spirituality
    • Perspectives
    • Braided Quotes
  • Events
    • Teach In 2019
    • About Braided Way Retreats
    • 2018 Retreat
    • 2017 Retreat
  • Donate

Select Page

Sister Moon

Posted by Steve Myers | Jan 6, 2025 | Poetry | 2 |

Sister Moon

Master Chuang preaches an essential humility…It manifests itself 
everywhere by a Franciscan simplicity and connaturality with al
living creatures.” —Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Zu

I saw Assisi again this morning.
The end-of-January moon—crossed and
again crossed by cherry branches, waning
and immaculate over South Mountain—
cast the little coracle of a spell
that carried me there. Well, that and the fact
that, making coffee, I’d read on my cell
an article that had my daydreams packed
and halfway to Umbria already:
An Italian Villa? Yours for a Song!
Naturally, the canticle that came to me
was the one by Francis. But here’s the thing:
it’s hard to like the famous friar’s town,
its elbowing pilgrims, its too-clean, scrubbed down

streets, its shops that, but for the rosaries,
devotionals, the ranks of saint-themed mugs
might line the boardwalk in Ocean City.
Though if you go, if you make the hot slog
up from the parking lot in mid-July,
look for his cassock, displayed under glass.
Imagine it, as the sign suggests, alive
and churning with body lice as he passes
among the poor under Brother Son, or
prays by Sister Moon, seeing the needy
as the ancient Chinese poets saw
faces of distant friends at night when they
gazed up. O, to ponder that with Merton, 
but in grittier Naples, over cheap red wine.

Share:

Rate:

PreviousMy Jesus Book
NextHey You on the Planet

About The Author

Steve Myers

Steve Myers

Steve Myers has published a full-length collection, Memory’s Dog, and three chapbooks. A Pushcart Prize winner, he has published poems in places such as Callaloo, Kestrel, New Ohio Review, Open: A Journal of Arts and Literature, The Southern Review, Tar River Poetry and Valley Voices. He heads the poetry and creative nonfiction tracks for the MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing at DeSales University.

Related Posts

Where Words and Music Fail

Where Words and Music Fail

March 9, 2025

Rain On A Winter Night

Rain On A Winter Night

January 13, 2025

This Tree

This Tree

June 2, 2023

The Answer to Your Question

The Answer to Your Question

January 11, 2024

2 Comments

  1. Ann l vivian
    Ann l vivian on January 6, 2025 at 7:31 pm

    Steve, I was personally and spiritually moved by your verse “Sister Moon” on the Braided Way.
    Your references to both Assisi and Merton resonated (I was an ardent follower of Merton, especially, in my teens) and I was raised in the R.C. Church.
    But it was your gritty reference to the commoditization of saints and their places of pilgrimage that hit me the hardest. Who would have thought that such a well-deserved gut-punch could be delivered so eloquently in verse? Not I, until today.
    I also have a personal spiritual connection with mysticism, which I invite you to read about, if you’d like, on my website at annlvivian.com. I am in the process of writing a book about my own transcendental experiences.
    I will be following your work, and welcome communication from you any time.
    All my best,
    Ann

    Reply
    • Steve Myers
      Steve Myers on January 19, 2025 at 5:57 pm

      I’m just now seeing your very kind comments, Ann. Very much appreciated.

      Merton’s The Sign of Jonas made a powerful impression on me in my late-twenties, and I must have read five of his books and all his poetry by now. Ironically, I was raised in a Protestant church but have taught all these years at a Catholic university. But, as the epigraph to the poem suggests, my spiritual preoccupations have, like Merton’s later in life, drifted eastward, to China and Japan.

      Again, I’m most grateful for your response.

      All very best wishes,
      Steve M.

      Reply

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

The Braided Way

The Braided Way is a framework to see every faith tradition as a strand, braided into a larger whole of spiritual awareness. In the Braided Way, combining spiritual practice from various faiths allow us to explore sacred experience and wonder in forms that resonate with our personal spiritual needs and sacred intuitions. In today’s culture, many people shun religious dogma, but yearn for spiritual connection. The Braided Way allows the ceremonies and practices of multiple faiths to be available without the confinements of cultural dogma.

Subscribe for Notifications of New Articles

Loading

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK

All Categories

  • Ancestors
  • Applied Spirituality
  • Braided Perspectives
  • Braided Quotes
  • Creation
  • Creativity
  • Editor's Picks
  • Featured
  • Fiction
  • Healing
  • Interview
  • Mysticism
  • myth
  • Nature
  • On Religion
  • Paths and Traditions
  • Personal Journeys
  • Perspectives
  • Poetry
  • Spiritual Practice
  • Uncategorized
  • Visual Art
  • Voices

  • Home
  • Contact
  • Submissions
  • Staff

  • Home
  • Contact
  • Submissions
  • Staff

Popular Categories

AncestorsApplied SpiritualityBraided PerspectivesBraided QuotesCreationCreativityEditor's PicksFeaturedFictionHealingInterviewMysticismmythNatureOn ReligionPaths and TraditionsPersonal JourneysPerspectivesPoetrySpiritual PracticeUncategorizedVisual ArtVoices

Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress