Peter Menkin asked:


Thursday, June 12, 2008

One of “older” poems,

On Contemplation and about my Apartment in Mill Valley, California USA

This tells of contemplative prayer, the experience of rising like a hawk, or soaring, as does the hawk. God comes closer to humankind, humankind comes closer to God. That seems an unusual statement in our times, nonetheless, the Lord is here whether we know it or not.

I moved from the apartment on the third floor as place of viewing the hawks and place of prayer, to an apartment on the third floor at the other end of the building, place of viewing the hawks and place of prayer. I don’t seem to see hawks so much anymore, yet I believe there is a soaring sense of beauty in prayer. God is near, often.

It is almost summertime here in Northern California. We have a heat wave. 92 today.

Apartment on the Third Floor

by Peter Menkin

This apartment, top, third floor

one among hawks who build

nests

has sun. This

room gets afternoon light;

morning, too, streams

in creating simplicity.

The hawks sit in the

trees, communing.

The world goes on, in steel

complexity.

Warm, here just roof above,

and

among the trees in

company of hawks

who nest. One hawk

sits

on a branch, lit by engaging

moments of

sun; spring newness amid

the gray manmade

world that impedes yet connects

the eternal life.

Thank you morning through

daylight to night,

bright stars for a promise

of goodness.

God.

Witnessing the light.

I remark to you of



divine moments.

We enter mansions heavenly, just flesh

and spirit.

Ascending.

Audio reading by aspiring poet Peter Menkin is here: http://www.archive.org/details/ApartmentOnTheThirdFloorByPeterMenkin