MIAMI YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE SURPRISED
by Thomas Merton

You are going to be pleasantly surprised by this
You will find yourself sweetly insulted
By earphones and you will also
Be pleasantly wet
Where you are going

For you shall make expensive waves
Meeting the answer to women’s questions
In a swift novel of suspense

IF YOU HAVE HEART FAILURE WHILE READING THIS
THE POET IS NOT RESPONSIBLE

And you will meet a lot of friends
Falling into hopeless spray
As if that were what you wanted
And limbo dancing (non-lethal)
Will focus the muscles of science
On your waistline
You can’t control so many
Wonderful people

When you become exotic bait
For a suburban afternoon
Well you wanted to stay in focus
But did you?

ALL NIGHT LONG WHEN YOU CAN’T STAND IT HERE
TAKE IT OR CRACK
WHERE ELSE CAN YOU FIND IT
IN A CAN?

You are going to be warned
By a gourmet with a mouthful of seaweed
Reaching all the way through superb
Armholes
He will try to help you decode
Your own scrambled message
Teach you your own way
As if you wanted that
Will you please try?

And you will be surprised
By Hilton candlelight
With more than the usual bill
(Unless you are pregnant)

Our new method takes you out of the stream
Of cold function
But you have to bend
Like all our other game birds
While you are gently made over
All the way down to the jawline
You don’t have to be young in years
For the machine to register your secret desires
Which are never secret and always foolish

So you are about to be surprised

*Text used with permission of New Directions Publishing*

Miami You Are About To Be Surprised was written in the summer of 2015, commissioned by soprano Rebekah Smeltzer. My father had recently passed away, and as a part of his final wishes, he imparted unto his children any of his books we might want to keep. Knowing Thomas Merton was one of his favorite authors, I leafed through an anthology of his poetry and stumbled onto this poem. As I was studying and living in Miami at the time, the coincidence was too strong to not take advantage. The poem reveals a great depth to it that resonates with my personal values, and I found a quasi-minimalist/plainchant style arising while writing. These were the styles of classical music my father loved and raised me on, so I fully embraced this language. The end result is a work somewhat clashing in genre, which represents the nature of the poetry.