The Hermit and the Holy Trinity

The Hermit and the Holy Trinity

Sally Thomas

Alone, he lives with them, who never live
Alone. Beginning Compline as the twilight
Steals upon the hills, the cool blue nave
Of his known world, he sees the deepening night
Swing wide for him its starry mystery-door.
Beyond and in it all, the Persons wait,
Communed in silence. There is nothing more
Than what they are, alive, awake, unblinking
In joy. These psalms and canticles will pour
Out to them his own desire, his thinking —
Not his alone, but always their shared thought,
A spring of words. His prayer’s an act like drinking.
What freshens him transfigures him, as moonlight,
Given and given back, makes darkness bright.

---

Sally Thomas
Author & Editor

Sally is the author of Motherland and the novel Works of Mercy. She is also the Associate poetry editor at New York Sun.

Photography by Alex Autio