The Despairing Man Draws a Serpent
Translated By Thomas Merton
I went up the hill
At moonrise.
She swore that she would come
By the south way.
A dusky hawk
Caught up the path
In his talons.
Copyright Credit: Thomas Merton, “The Despairing Man Draws a Serpent” from Emblems of a Season of Fury. New York: New Directions, 1963. Copyright 1977 by The Trustees of the Merton Legacy Trust. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Source: The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton (1977)