Amounting to Nothing
Poems
Published on 9. April 2019
96 pages
978-1-64060-238-0 (ISBN)
Description
After 60 years at Gethsemani Abbey, Br. Paul follows up his recent memoir,
In Praise of the Useless Life, with a poetic collection that shows how to do just that - by writing poetry.
Amounting to Nothing is both practical and metaphysical, a puzzling over the ultimate things of life, and a descending on the Benedictine ladder of humility to the earthly creatures surrounding a Kentucky monastery. This is less an exploration in self-knowledge than a forgetting of self in the wonders of everything. Quenon treads bare footed on the margins of mortality and immortality, with wit, thought, and hope.
Amounting to Nothing is both practical and metaphysical, a puzzling over the ultimate things of life, and a descending on the Benedictine ladder of humility to the earthly creatures surrounding a Kentucky monastery. This is less an exploration in self-knowledge than a forgetting of self in the wonders of everything. Quenon treads bare footed on the margins of mortality and immortality, with wit, thought, and hope.
More details
Person
Born in West Virginia,
Br. Paul Quenon, OCSO, entered the Trappists in 1958 at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, where Thomas Merton was his Novice Master. He is the author of many poetry collections including
Unquiet Vigil, and a recent memoir,
In Praise of the Useless Life.
