Red as a Lotus: Letters to a Dead Trappist

This book of consists of 100 poems dedicated to Thomas
Merton, the Catholic monk, political activist and hermit.
It was published in 2002 by La Alameda Press.


                                                            Read poems
                                                                      XVI.        
                                                                      XIX.        
                                                                      XLI.
Like life, Red as a Lotus is a peaceful mystery--a book that reaches and while it's reaching, the reader's
mind wakes and the body wakes, and the tingling world exists as language and right next to it. It's sort of a
prayer and a love letter and something to keep next to the bed and the toilet and on your writing desk.
Damn, she's good. Maybe she's talking to Thomas Merton, but Lisa Gill wrote it for me. ::Eileen Myles
This book is a testament to a rare kind of
spiritual courage, one that is aware of its
own unsteadiness, cloaked in humility,
violated by every doubt and suffering, of
almost hostile tenderness-- and a sincerity
that can rip you to shreds. Lisa Gill is not
content merely to occupy a world, or even
simply observe it. She must dismantle the
world, and the assumptions that sustain it,
down to the barest bolts and then put it all
back together again. We are left with the
same world at the end of the book, but our
awareness is forever altered. :: Mitch Rayes
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Red as a Lotus is a revelation. Its spiritual
economy, its sense of character and
place, and its fierce linguistic playfulness
invite comparisons to Annie Dillard and
Emily Dickinson. Like Thomas Merton, to
whom these poems are written, Lisa Gill is
a pilgrim of the inner life, willing whenever
possible to live in a solitude that goes
against the grain of our time. ::Alan Davis