It was a lucky wind
That blew away his halo with his cares,
A lucky sea that drowned his reputation.
Here you will find
neither a proverb nor a memorandum.
There are no ways,
no methods to admire.
Where poverty is no achievement.
His God lives in emptiness like an affliction.
What choice remains?
Well, to be ordinary is not a choice:
It is the usual freedom
Of men without visions.
Thomas Merton