The Wisdom of Robert Lax
Wikipedia: Robert Lax
Amazon: Circus Days and Nights
Lax was barely known in America, except in Merton studies, but his poetry was widely read throughout Europe. His book of poems, Circus of the Sun, which compares creation to a circus, was called “perhaps the greatest English language poem of this century” by The New York Times Book Review. Another reviewer considered him the best poet after T.S. Eliot.
“Lax was born with the deepest sense of who God was,” Thomas Merton wrote. “He was much wiser than I, and he had clearer vision, and was, in fact, corresponding much more truly to the grace of God than I. He had seen what was the one important thing.”
In a memorable scene in Merton’s book The Seven Storey Mountain, Lax and Merton are walking down Fifth Avenue one day when Lax asks: “What do you want to be anyway?”
Merton hesitates, and says, “I guess I want to be a good Catholic.”
“What you should say,” Lax declares, “is that you want to be a saint.”
“How do you expect me to be a saint?” Merton asks.
“By wanting to,” Lax answers. “All that is necessary to be a saint is to want to be one. All you have to do is desire it.”