One of "older" poems,
On Contemplation and about my Apartment in Mill Valley, California USA

this tells of contemplative prayer, the experience of rising like a hawk, or soaring, as does the hawk. God comes closer to humankind, humankind comes closer to God. That seems an unusual statement in our times, nonetheless, the Lord is here whether we know it or not.

I moved from the apartment on the third floor as place of viewing the hawks and place of prayer, to an apartment on the third floor at the other end of the building, place of viewing the hawks and place of prayer. I don't seem to see hawks so much anymore, yet I believe there is a soaring sense of beauty in prayer. God is near, often.

It is almost summertime here in Northern California. We have a heat wave. 92 today.




Apartment on the Third Floor
by Peter Menkin

This apartment, top, third floor
one among hawks who build
nests
has sun. This

room gets afternoon light;
morning, too, streams
in creating simplicity.

The hawks sit in the
trees, communing.
The world goes on, in steel
complexity.

Warm, here just roof above,
and
among the trees in
company of hawks

who nest. One hawk
sits
on a branch, lit by engaging
moments of
sun; spring newness amid
the gray manmade
world that impedes yet connects
the eternal life.

Thank you morning through
daylight to night,
bright stars for a promise
of goodness.
God.

Witnessing the light.
I remark to you of
divine moments.

We enter mansions heavenly, just flesh
and spirit.
Ascending.