earth, wine, and fire

8/6/2019 Earth, Wine, And Fire

1/7

Earth, Wine, & Fire:

Contemplation and Creative Collaboration in the Niles Merton-Songs

"Poetry at its best is contemplationof things, and of what they signify. Not what

they can be made to signify, but what they actually do signify, even when nobody knows

it. The better the poet, the more we are convinced that he has knowledge of this kind, and

has it humbly," (Van Doren, xii-xiii). With these words Mark van Doren, teacher and

friend of Thomas Merton, introduced a collection of poems by Merton. Merton at the age

of 26 entered the monastery life the young traveler became a Trappist, the newspaper

journalist became a reporter on contemplative solitude, and the student of English

literature became the author for the spiritual journey. Merton, perhaps best known for his

autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain,also produced hundreds of poems during his

27 years at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, KY.

Mertons poems exhibit his contemplative lifestyle. To Merton, contemplation is

a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible,

transcendent and infinitely abundant Source. Contemplation is, above all, awareness of

that Source," (Merton, New Seeds, 1). With prayer as guide, Merton realized and

experienced this awareness of God through meditation on Scripture, observation of

Abbey fields and exploration of his own heart. These sources for reflection provided the

figures, such as the bobwhite, the empty water jar, and the timid disciple, present in the

three songs performed today.

Yet as van Doren also noted, "figures alone do not make a great poem. There must

be a music that absorbs them and relates them, and gives them in the end a power for

1


2/7

which we cannot assign the cause," (Van Doren, xvii). While van Doren means this

figuratively, this came to literal fruition with the Niles-Merton songs.

Relationship with Niles

Near the 75th birthday of John Jacob Niles, the Appalachian balladeer, all of his

compositions and poetry were stolen. The loss of material was devastating but Niles came

to observe, "[The loss] was a blessing in disguise in some ways...My 75th birthday

marked the end of something and the beginning of a new concept of music, " (Pen, 261).

Shortly after, mutual friends Victor and Carolyn Hammer introduced Niles to the

poetry of Thomas Merton. Victor Hammer, an artist, who had done portraits of both

Merton and Niles, along with his wife Carolyn were frequent picnic friends of Merton.

Merton and Niles were formally introduced during one such picnic in late summer of

1967. After their second meeting, Merton wrote, "John Niles is a character and I like him.

Carolyn commented on his cockiness, but who cares? He has a good weather-beaten, self-

willed face, is a bit of a madman and writes good songs," (Merton, Journal 7, 10-29-67,

7).

Merton granted Niles permission to put some of his poems to music and the

freedom for minor changes in order to accommodate Merton's poetic irregularities to the

music (Pen, 263). While borrowing verse from another was an unusual practice for Niles,

he also sought the aid of the performers in the composition process (Pen, 265). "Jackie"

Roberts, a soprano, whom Niles met after Roberts performed one his songs at Christ

Church, and the pianist Janelle Pope were invited by Niles to his Boot Hill Farm to

2


3/7

perform. Roberts sight-read the pieces in process, and Niles revised the songs to fit her

voice and interpretation. A few weeks ago I had the privilege to speak with Mrs. Roberts

about her first hand account of this experience.

The first three songs composed Messenger, Carol, and A Responsory, 1948

were performed for Merton on his first visit to Boot Hill Farm on October 28, 1967. As

Merton reflected in his journal, "I thought the settings very effective and satisfactory. In

fact was very moved by them...brought out a lot of what I wanted to say and made me

value my own poems more," (Merton, Journal 7, 7). Merton seemed most taken by

Roberts interpretation of the poems. He wrote of her, she "put her whole heart into

singing them. What was most beautiful was that!" (Merton, Journal 7, 7).

Having "Merton's enthusiastic embrace of the songs, Niles pressed on with this

creative collaboration," completing the first ten songs comprising opus 171 by

September 1968 (Pen, 268). More of these were performed for Merton on his last visit to

Boot Hill before his untimely death in December 1968 while in Thailand. During this last

encounter, Niles discussed his plans for a second opus (172) comprising 12 more poems,

which Merton encouraged.

On the last manuscript of Opus 172, Niles reflected, "I started these two cycles,

Opus 171 and 172, with 'The Messenger' 3 years ago, and though it was the most moving

and creative experience of my entire life, many times I have wished I had never heard tell

of this wonderful 'Poetic' material. It taught me a new kind of music composition and the

writing of poetry...P.S. For me nothing has ever been the same." (Roberts, Journey, 63.)

3


4/7

As Niles testifies, there is something about good poetry that disturbs and

challenges our way of life. It penetrates through our sensibilities and worldview to

expose our limited awareness and superficiality. The exact thoughts behind Mertons

poems may allude us, but their orientation is unavoidable. They point through the

everyday into the beyond, to God and his revelatory Word, Jesus. Moreover, as Mrs.

Roberts recounted to me, when she inquired of Merton about the meaning of the poems,

Merton replied, "you just have to live with them." So in making a few brief statements

about the three poems presented in song today, they are at best my own tentative

reflections.

As the opening quote from van Doren suggests, the figures of Mertons poems

signify an awareness of something more. This is exemplified in "O Sweet, Irrational

Worship", where both earth and the poet are depicted as worshipping.

O Sweet Irrational Worship

Wind and a bobwhite

And the afternoon sun, the sun.

By ceasing to question the sun

I have become light,

Bird and wind

For I am earth, earth

Out of my grass heart

Rises the bobwhite.

Out of my nameless weeds

His foolish worship.

4


5/7

These figures of wind, bobwhite, and sunlight recall for me the elements of

worship: spirit, song, and truth. Earth becomes the source for the figures and images,

which depict and represent Mertons worship. As indicated in the triple repeated refrain,

"I am earth, earth," the various aspects of the earth constitute his heart. Out of the poets

heart rises a song as simple and sweet as the bobwhite among the grass. Yet even sweeter

than the song is the irrational, foolish worship of silence.

Cana

In the second selection, Cana, the earth is contrasted with wine. Niles described

this piece as an autobiographical poem about Mertons experience as a young

monk, (Roberts, 56-7).

Once when our eyes were clean as noon, our rooms

Filled with the joys of Canas feast:

For Jesus came, and His disciples, and His Mother...

Nor did we seem to fear the wine would fail:

For ready, in a row, to fill with water and a miracle,

We saw our earthen vessels, waiting empty.

What wine those humble water jars foretell!

Wine for the ones who bended to the dirty earth,

Have feared, since lovely Eden, the suns fire,

Yet hardly mumble, in their dusty mouths, one prayer.

Wine for old Adam, digging in the briars!

Roberts recalls at the end of this song when the lowest D octave was struck, Niles

exclaimed, Thats me! I am old Adam, (Roberts, 56-7).

It probes the question of mans purpose in this life capturing both the struggle and

the hope of this earthen existence. A question that long plagued the young Merton until he

met God in his journey toward solitude. This poem is Psalm 8 in dialogue with Romans

5


6/7

8; Genesis 3 in conversation with 2 Corinthians 4. We are all young novitiates looking for

purpose; all weary, dusty humans beating back the briars. At various times we are both

the Cana wedding guests who take for granted the abundance of wine and those with

hearts so scorched by lifes sun who are unable to articulate our very need. For all there is

satiating wine.

Jesus Weeps into the Fire

The last poem is more allusive. In its original publication it is only entitled the

number 80. Merton simply referred to it as the slowly hymn, (Roberts, 61). Niles

selected the song because of its allusion to Gethsemani, the garden where Christ was

arrested and accused(and) also the name of the Kentucky monastery where Merton had

spent so much of his life, (Roberts, 62).

Who is this lost disciple? A particular one of the twelve or allusions to them all

including the betrayer, the denier, and the doubternone of whom could see or bear the

light of the Christ as easily as the trees of the garden. Slowly pursued by the weeping

Christ, the poet empathizes with them all. The slowly, slowly refrain arrests the

movement of the poem to accentuate its emotions the fear, the regret, and the weeping.

The closing lines points us back to contemplation and awareness. The disciple

must awake to the resurrection reality in order to know, realize, experience history.

Meanwhile, Merton reminds us that in our restless, dulled-by-sleep interludes, Jesus

weeps into the fire.

6


7/7

earth, wine, and fire

Documents