 Hi! Welcome back. I wanted to share with you today an exciting poem by one of my favorite poets, Thomas Merton. Oh, you didn't know he was a poet, the great writer. Well, his poetry is just out of this world and I've selected one from the collected poems of Thomas Merton. This is called Prologo or Prologue for Ludovico Silva. Curious to see oneself irresistibly alive in the middle of death, it used to be more interesting. One knew oneself dead in the midst of life and one could sing it as a curse, media vitae in morte sumos. Now it is reversed. In the kingdom of death, the poet is condemned to sing that in the midst of death he, the unsuccessful, remains in the midst of life. All the others are embalmed in the vast, whispering, perfumed, cybernetic silence of the millennium of death. Death, the millionaire. Death, the dictator. Death, the engineer. It carries them away so smoothly into sweet poisoned smoke. Oh, the great religious act of worship, which is this rich society. In the midst of it, we alone remain in life. The unfortunate ones, the ones whom the poison has not chosen, but rejected and cursed, poet. Here is your sentence. You are condemned to eat atomic ashes without antidote and remain alive with the taste of all the poisons and all the components of the poisons alive in your mouth. I tell you, it is a very funny existence. I am condemned to it also. It is very curious to find oneself laughing with a mouth full of ashes, laughing because all the emissaries of death, the millionaire, death, the dictator, death, the engineer are demanding that we sing something optimistic. Here is your sentence. You can curse nothing that is not already 10,000 times cursed. You can't win. You must face the banal existence of a poisoned life in which death has failed. You and others, you and five poets, 10 poets, 20 poets, skinny, disheveled roosters singing together all at once with brass voices on the heap of atomic manure, and then suddenly silent protest and complaint of life in the midst of death. It is interesting and acceptable to be corrupt for death is a success. The poet must face the dreadful integrity of a poisoned life in which death has failed. He is set apart from happy ones who know why they hate, who know why they kill, who know what the missiles are for, who are precise about the justice of death. We, the unhappy, have been chosen inexorably by the injustice which is called life and which refuses to obey the laws which must align all equal and alike in the rich experience of finality which is death. Life, on the other hand, has this about it, that it is not final. This is the beauty of the explosion. It meets the sweet exhilarating arrogant demand for the end. They all want the end, the end of the movie, the end of the ride, the end of the drink, the end of the boredom, the end of love. They even want to throw away the cigarette as soon as it is lit. Throw away everything, even the end, for the huge chrome idol, worship, power, the atomic orgasm. But we must continue to taste the lamentable experience of those in whom death has failed. Oh, 20 poets. Oh, 10 poets. Oh, five poets. Oh, Ludovico Silva and Ernesto Cardinal. The idol refuses to shine in us. Shall we then run like the madman called Solomon Eagle who in a year of plague in London predicted a fire that would destroy London? We shall run like him with brassiers on our heads saying what he said. I forget what he said. Meanwhile, Dr. Boom is everybody and in his white coats he studies the dials and the clocks and the meters and the handles and the buttons and the lights and the screens. Dr. Boom in his white white coats proposes an immediate therapy and Dr. Boom is always a perfect success. Thanks for listening. I want to hear what you think. Drop your comments in the comments box. Let me know. Wax prolific. And check out my playlists where you'll find most inspiring stuff in many different categories all over the board, up at the top of the playlists. And that's how you can find great stuff to share. Please share my videos. Like, comment, and share with your friends what's most expiring. I say it so much. Whatever. You know what I mean. And go and share the links. Go and copy the link. That's the way to share it. Copy the link and then paste it in your text and send it to your friends or put it on your social media as a video link. And I do appreciate all of my fantastic, all of you fantastic subscribers. And you are really, truly amazing. Thank you so much. And come back again soon.