If I were to find God anywhere
It would be here,
Amongst the quiet hills
And uneven ground of the cemetery.
Here, Thomas Merton is buried next to
His Abbot, a man he hated
But always obeyed.
If I were to find God anywhere
It would be in the minds of men
Who have devoted themselves
To a life of contemplation.
They tell me,
Before you speak,
Know the God you’re praying to.
The God that fills the air
With silence. You can hear Him
In the windchimes and the rustle of
Leaves that have just started to grow.
Spring is coming, although we cannot
see it now.
We must have faith
In this world and it’s ability
To destroy and create ad infinitum.
It seems here we are all useless:
Breakers of silence,
Askers of questions that
cannot be answered.
And yet we pray together
As the sun dips below the trees
And we return to wherever we came from,
No more changed than the world itself.
Ariana Alvarado is an undergraduate student at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky studying English, Creative Writing, and Theology. At Bellarmine, she has served as founder and President of Pen and Sword Open Mic Club and has served as an editorial board member, Vice President, and President of the Ariel Literary Society, her work has been published in The White Squirrel Magazine, Preposition: The Undercurrent Anthology, Sanctuary Magazine, and two editions of the Ariel Magazine. Her poem “I ask my father why he believes.” won the Flo Gault Student Poetry Prize in 2022 from Sarabande Books.
