Mark S. Burrows is a professor of historical theology as well as a poet, translator, and retreat leader. He is on the faculty of the Protestant University of Applied Sciences in Bochum, Germany. In the introduction, he notes that poetry animates the soul by expanding our sense of reality, by arousing within us an appreciation for the vibrancy and sanctity of life, and by providing a portal to what lies just around the corner. This anthology of spiritual poems features the poetry of 13 writers and three translators.
A note before we continue. Jon Sweeney, who was the publisher of this book in the Paraclete Poetry series, observes in the foreword that poetry tends to be a "hard sell"; we can count on one hand the poets who make a profit for their publishers or are widely known. We'd include Mary Oliver, David Whyte, Wendell Berry, Rumi, Ellen Bass, Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Bly, and William Stafford. But there are many more poets today whose work, as Sweeney puts it, "quell doubts as well as raise questions … help us explore our emotions and spark our imaginations . . . and slow us down." Religious and spiritual people need to be reading a wide variety of poets. Here are a few more for you to sample.
Anna Kamienska kicks things off with "On the Threshold of the Poem":
"On the threshold of the poem shake off the dust
the powder of hate from your soul
set aside passion
so as not to defile words
Into this space step alone
and the tenderness of things will enfold you
and lead you toward the dark
as if you had lost worldly sight
There whatever was named will return
and stand in the radiance so you and I
can find each other
like two trees that were lost in fog"
This Polish poet, who died in 1986, encourages us to recognize the power of a poem, to let the tenderness of things embrace us, and to see how a poem brings people together.
Fr. John-Julian is an Episcopal priest and contemplative monk and founder of the Order of Julian of Norwich in Wisconsin. His poems here are taken from two collections. In "Cloister," he is awed by the wonder of a holy place where a "simple soul" could "reach and walk the deeper way." In "Psalm 23" he salutes the "unhesitating gentleness of pure divinity" . . . that "provides full sustenance, full measure, and full care.".
Bonnie Thurston has published five collections of poetry and is the author or editor of 19 theological works. She muses on middle age in "Late Vocation" and concludes that its task is "to dispose / of the extraneous." In "The Sixth Day," the poet affirms the human task of reading "the book of your body": "Trust it speaks truth / and soar on the strength of your scars." "In the Eastering Cosmos" salutes the possible role of a stone ("even rocks long for life") in the resurrection of Jesus.
Rami Shapiro, who now describes himself as "a Jewish Practitioner of Perennial Wisdom" demonstrates what that means in the 10 poems included in to this anthology. His thematic breadth matches his mystical playfulness in verses on love, wonder, light, shadows and language.
Other poets in this collection are Scott Cairns, Phyllis Tickle, Paul Mariani, Greg Miller, William Woolfitt, Thomas Lynch, and Paul Quenon. Mark Burrows also includes his translations of poems by Said and Rainer Maria Rilke.
