When we are alone on a starlit night..

When we are alone on a starlit night,

when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn
descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat;
when we see children in a moment when they are really children,
when we know love in our own hearts;
or when, like the Japanese poet, Basho,
we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash -
at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values,
the "newness," the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident,
all these provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.
~Thomas Merton

...the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.
~Walt Whitman, "O Me! O Life!", Leaves of Grass