Inside a little book entitled, THE THOMAS MERTON POEMS, J.S. Porter wrote the following piece.
Ron Rolheiser, OMI
THE DREAM OF FEWNESS
There’s too much of everything
books, stars, flowers.
How can one flower be precious
in a bed of thousands?
How can one book count
in a library of millions?
The universe is a junkyard
burnt out meteors, busted up stars
planetary cast-offs, throwaway galaxies
born and buried in an instant
repeating, repeating
Yet something remains
the dream of fewness
one woman, one man.
(The Thomas Merton Poems, J.S. Porter. Moonstone Press, 1998)
You can’t write it any better, the great romantic ideal – the dream of fewness, two persons being enough for each other, giving each other eternal significance…….
Several years ago, a former student of mine who was getting married wrote this to me: “Father, this isn’t naive passion. I know what I’m doing. I’m not looking for any Hollywood romance here!”
I wasn’t impressed by her effort to show this extra maturity. I sent her Porter’s poem on the dream of fewness, along with a note that said: “Enjoy young love, your honeymoon, the dream of fewness. It’s one of the better foretastes of heaven given you in this life. The accidents of life, soon enough, will deprive you of that. Taste and remember!”
God gave us romance for just that reason, as a tiny foretaste of the ecstasy of eternal life. Taste and remember!
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