A seminary of devotion
ordains me with Grace
Spiritually enlightened
my soul is embraced
Its gift so much greater
than thoughts would belie
Cloistered within me
— anointed on high
(The First Book Of Prayers: March, 2026)
Is it a sin to stay Closed away
within the Long moment of midnight sky?
Perhaps I will dance in the last rain Of May,
No! Not I! I will not gadfly,
as is the wont of Some.
Why do They want me to succumb
to the Error of their ways,
to live in sin the Remainder of my days,
and to Eschew God's everlasting life
and stay with them in Death and endless strife?
scattered thoughts
clandestine ideas
cloistered mind
sequestered knowledge
shared with no one
world of her mind
covert operation
He's always lived a sheltered life,
never felt everyday people's pain
When the economy crashed
and a flood of tears came down,
he was laughing, singing in the rain
Oh, the money he would make,
he could pile sky high
And to those who lost everything,
he gave the proper obligatory sigh
He was taught this basic rule:
When the market is slow,
and you can buy low
Do it, do it real fast
Then when the market becomes robust,
maximizing your hedge fund trust
Sell quick and swiftly get the cash
It's quite nice, living the cloistered life,
he was often fond of saying
And off the world's troubles, you can profit double
Indeed, seclusion is a price worth paying
sweetest melody
sends chimney swifts cavorting~
novices confess
A question that baffles me most
is why some men and women,
at the peak of youthful vibrancy,
opt to exchange the glorious glee
and pleasures of mundane freedom
for a life of somber contemplation?
What is it in the mute adobe walls
of cavernous hallways, dungeons
and catacombs of ancient abbeys
and monasteries that lure them
to a voluntary monastic exile,
a life of deafening quietude?
How can they seem, or be, happy
tending secluded gardens and barns,
or kneeling in candle-dimmed prayer
in the doldrums of deep meditation,
with each ego dignified in humility,
grateful, still laced with childlike awe?
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