Clare Bryden “Two roads converge: Rachel Carson & Thomas Merton”, The Merton Journal, Vol. 33 No.1, Eastertide 2026.
Plus three poems: “Knit together”, “On his Cross” and “Westering, Exeter”.
From her Editorial in the latest issue, which arrived on my doorstep yesterday, here is The Merton Journal editor Susanne Jennings: “Not only was [Trappist monk Thomas] Merton horrified by the violence of war and racism, but he became increasingly aware of, and alarmed by, the violence inflicted on the natural world. In this issue Clare Bryden, an environmentalist and poet who has strong links with the religious community at Tymawr, examines Rachel Carson’s effect on Thomas Merton through Carson’s ground-breaking book Silent Spring. The destruction of whole swathes of the bird population because of the irresponsible use of pesticides shocked Merton.”
In due course I’ll publish the essay and the poems here, but for now here is an excerpt of the essay below.
Walking in today’s world
Listen! I am going nowhere in particular. Just walking and listening, notebook in hand. Listening for everything—sounds that we hear, and sounds that we tune out. Later I will transcribe my notes of everything I hear, turn it into a script, and make some sound art. But for now I scribble: boots on the pavement, distant mew of gull and keen of buzzard, school sports, humming telecommunications boxes, chirrup, caw, vroom of acceleration, squeal of brakes, women talking, chuntering baby, building work, falling acorn, cars, buses, traffic traffic traffic. The noise of modern suburban life.
Today’s is a world of near-constant artificial sound. Nowhere in nature is totally free from noise pollution. Noise-free intervals are no longer measured in hours, but minutes. There are few places that experience an interval of 15 minutes during daylight hours.
Today’s is a world of climate breakdown. Global insured natural catastrophe losses are growing by 5–7% annually. Heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, and storms cost the world more than $120 billion in 2025. But how do you put a price on the three billion animals injured or killed during the Australian bushfire season of 2019/20?