God Poetry
According to the Bible, the first thing to know about God is divine creativity and the beneficence of humans being created in this image. We are created to create in the image of God the divine Poet who conjures a world with just a word.
Following God at work remaking our broken world, these poems are poesis, a creative way of using language to make a world of meaning that can remake our physical world. I contend, though, that we don't make meaning as much as discover it, as Heidegger suggests. Then, using a poetic form, we testify in language as to what has emerged for our attention. It could be said that poetry travels the trace of God's passing through the world. As the prophets knew, poetry is the best form of witness to the Creative Divine Word that "happens" to us. And, through accommodating grace, God uses our words, to continue the process of divine poesis.
Like Jacob, though, we have to wrestle meaning out of our murky human experience.
Much of this poetry traces the struggle to find God in the midst of it all. Issues of theodicy figure prominently, and at times it is angry, blunt, profane. But always it is struggling to name the Ineffable and give chase in praise.
Beware: not all Christians will find this faithful. The agnostic, however, may find hope in knowing that all of us have to tangle with a God who doesn't conform to the poetic sentimentality of a Hallmark card.
Click on "God Poetry" on the left column to see a list of poems. You may have to scroll down on the pop-up menu to see them all. Or you can click on the links below to open a new window.
Poems on the Church Year:
Imposition of Ashes
Advent Lenten Ruth
Advent Watch Langston Hughes on Maundy Thursday
Ordinary Advent Time Good Friday Tenebrae
First Christmas Post Husband Mortem Gardening Holy Saturday
Christmas Bread Mourning, Holy Saturday
Christmas Credo A Little Hilaritas What If
Incarnation Narrative Milton on Easter Monday
Starlings in Epiphany Snow A Pentecost Invitation
Evensong in Bleak Midwinter For All the Saints
Theological Reverberations:
A Preacher's Prayer Uncle!
Just Jump Already Worship
Swimming with Grief's Fear St. Valentine
Job's Modern Lament Response to a Dr.'s Rhetorical Question
Following God at work remaking our broken world, these poems are poesis, a creative way of using language to make a world of meaning that can remake our physical world. I contend, though, that we don't make meaning as much as discover it, as Heidegger suggests. Then, using a poetic form, we testify in language as to what has emerged for our attention. It could be said that poetry travels the trace of God's passing through the world. As the prophets knew, poetry is the best form of witness to the Creative Divine Word that "happens" to us. And, through accommodating grace, God uses our words, to continue the process of divine poesis.
Like Jacob, though, we have to wrestle meaning out of our murky human experience.
Much of this poetry traces the struggle to find God in the midst of it all. Issues of theodicy figure prominently, and at times it is angry, blunt, profane. But always it is struggling to name the Ineffable and give chase in praise.
Beware: not all Christians will find this faithful. The agnostic, however, may find hope in knowing that all of us have to tangle with a God who doesn't conform to the poetic sentimentality of a Hallmark card.
Click on "God Poetry" on the left column to see a list of poems. You may have to scroll down on the pop-up menu to see them all. Or you can click on the links below to open a new window.
Poems on the Church Year:
Imposition of Ashes
Advent Lenten Ruth
Advent Watch Langston Hughes on Maundy Thursday
Ordinary Advent Time Good Friday Tenebrae
First Christmas Post Husband Mortem Gardening Holy Saturday
Christmas Bread Mourning, Holy Saturday
Christmas Credo A Little Hilaritas What If
Incarnation Narrative Milton on Easter Monday
Starlings in Epiphany Snow A Pentecost Invitation
Evensong in Bleak Midwinter For All the Saints
Theological Reverberations:
A Preacher's Prayer Uncle!
Just Jump Already Worship
Swimming with Grief's Fear St. Valentine
Job's Modern Lament Response to a Dr.'s Rhetorical Question
