A transfer minister for religious sisters seeking to join the Sisters of Mercy from different orders, Sister Megan Brown is featured in our National Poetry Month with her poem, “With a Nod to Newton.” While no philosophy inspired the work, “I am fascinated by chaos theory, fractals, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Thomas Merton and the seeming contradictions in life,” she said. Sister Megan said poetry for her is above all about a generous God envisioned by Mercy founder Catherine McAuley.
With a Nod to Newton
By Sister Megan Brown
Click here to listen to the author read this poem
I wonder:
Is gravity always downward?
Do we always fall
Or
Could, at times, some other force be at work?
Perhaps the space-time continuum
Propels us upward
Soaring
Gliding
Spiraling
Like Hopkins’ kingfisher.
Or
Perhaps we expand and contract
Like the cosmos whirling galaxies into being
Or
Do we dive deeply into the ocean
Like dolphins playing
Surfacing to breathe
In order to penetrate the mystery of our own selves?
Is gravity always downward
Or
Do strange attractors lure us
Into dynamic patterns
Chaos’ cradle
Merton’s fractal
Mercy upon mercy upon mercy…