We Are All Shining Like the Sun*

…Merton affirmed it when a vision
confirmed for him the truth
of our infusion in original Light.

Mornings I face East, repeating
his belief in that Light, but today
rain has thickened the veil.

I cannot see that sun — not even
the trails of distant street lamps,
the flashing factory lights, the

tower with its blinking red eyes,
or the tail lights of lumbering trucks
and cars snaking along the Interstate.

Still I lift up Merton’s words, just
as a flash of lightening pierces
the curtain of clouds — just as the

rain clatters to a roar — just as a
shroud of grey blocks any shimmer
of brightness — just as the room
I’m sitting in grows dimmer.

Even then: We shine.

Kathleen Wade
May 2020

*Thomas Merton, Writer and Trappist Monk