Trappist Woods
Before Vigils
Can you take the leap of faith
that this deer’s moonlit eyes are God?
Otherwise, how many dark nights will find you here,
wandering woods between the hermitage
and monastery at four a.m., praying
for what’s right in front of you?
This whitetail’s two wide-open answers
to Saint Benedict’s question: What do you seek?
become obvious, once you realize
there’s nothing out there to find
that isn’t already God, already You.
And that includes the nightjar,
and the Eastern Whip-poor-will.
What to do, then? —when, for so long,
we’ve gotten it so wrong— is a dilemma,
our I-think-therefore-I-am,
subject-needs-an-object world
eclipsing our moon-wide-illumined eyes
from seeing deer, Deity, and planet
as ourselves.
Contemplative life—
hard to describe really, except as what it isn’t:
Via Negativa. Negative Way. What can be said,
spelled, spoken, named: too small to be ineffable.
No two-ness, either. Flower not foreign to fragrance.
Star not separate from shine. Humanity
undivided from Divinity.
What you want, what you’re after is pond:
a natural contemplative, reflecting what is.
Julian’s hazelnut vision too, perhaps, all creation
like a kernel, oned, held, loved, inside Mystery.
Wholly here. Holy Now. Holy Darkness.
Unknowing transcending certainty.
No burning bush, no bell. Only heaven
giving you stars to count on, owl-song
for your compass crooning through trees.
Your life, your love planted
in understory-cloisters so ancient,
what but Silence could pronounce
the wordless vows of stability
centuries take to root here?
Julian’s hazelnut vision: Described in her book, Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich (1342-1416 CE).
oned (or oneing): Julian’s terms for a process that leads to profound oneness, beyond mere intimacy, with the Divine.
vows of stability: Trappist (Cistercian) monks take a vow of stability to the community/place in which they live.
A 2026 Pushcart nominee, Daniel Skach-Mills’s poems have appeared in numerous publications, including: Pensive Journal, The Christian Century, Sojourners, and Sufi (Featured Poet). His book, The Hut Beneath the Pine: Tea Poems was a 2012 Oregon Book Award finalist. A former Trappist monk, Daniel lives with his husband in Portland, Oregon, where he served fifteen years as a docent for Lan Su Chinese Garden. He was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer in 2024.
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