Heaven's Remains

The abyss opens up in the centre of your soul. And this abyss of interior solitude is a hunger that will never be satisfied with any created thing. The only way to find solitude is by hunger and thirst and sorrow and poverty and desire, and the man who has found solitude is empty, as if he had been emptied by death. He has advanced beyond all horizons. There are no directions left in which he can travel. This is a country whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. You do not find it by travelling but by standing still. Yet it is in this loneliness that the deepest activities begin. It is here that you discover act without motion, labor that is profound repose, vision in obscurity, and, beyond all desire, a fulfillment whose limits extend to infinity.

Thomas Merton - New Seeds of Contemplation

"Heaven's Remains" - Copyright © 2009 Frank Trainor

I was ambitious
My blood was cold water
And my brow poured with sweat when it rained
But the heat that came down on my head never burned
Like my passion for Heaven's Remains

I lived in a mansion
Down south by the beaches
Where the money takes different names
A Porsche in the drive and a porch with a sign that said
Welcome to Heaven's Remains

Where there's nothin' to lose and nothin' to gain
There's nothin' at all but a mournful refrain
Paradise is a song pride aches to recall
Every dream of its own is a far cry from home
Here in Heaven's Remains

When I return
To the ashes and mud
When the dust comes to sleep in my veins
There should be a quote on my tombstone engraved
That says good-bye to Heaven's Remains

Where there's nothin' to lose and nothin' to gain
There's nothin’ at all but a mournful refrain
Paradise is a song pride aches to recall
Every dream of its own is a far cry from home
Here in Heaven's Remains