donate

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…