Books
Poems from "the kind of person who will take the last cookie"
Apr/27/2008 10:46 PM
Sinners Welcome
by Mary Karr
I have to share a poem from this collection. I got to hear Mary Karr speak at the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing, at a session called “Writing and Praying Your Way to Truth”. At first, I had no desire to go, because I thought she must be this super-spiritual writer who only writes in some type of a prayer-trance. It turns out, she was a worse sinner than I ever was. She was brutal, charming, disarming, and almost scary all at the same time. She had us laughing like twits. And she’s beautiful.
If I had done my research, of course, I would have known that she wrote The Liars’ Club, a raw, dark, funny memoir about her childhood - complete with an alcoholic bohemian artist mom, butcher knives, insanity and rape.
After her session and a recommendation by Brad Fruhauff, Poetry Editor of Relief Journal, for this collection, I bought it. As an afterword is an essay she wrote at the request of Poetry magazine, “Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer”. I wanted to copy it and send to everyone I knew.
In case you’re wondering, she does try to write while in a state of prayer, or what she describes as alertness to the movements of the Spirit. Does she do it all the time? No, she says, like she doesn’t floss her teeth every night.
DISGRACELAND
Before my first communion at 40, I clung
to doubt as Satan spider-like stalked
the orb of dark surrounding Eden
for a wormhole into paradise.
God had first formed me in the womb
small as a bite of burger.
Once my lungs were done
He sailed a soul like a lit arrow
to inflame me. Maybe that piercing
made me howl at birth,
or the masked creatures
whose scalpel cut a lightning bolt to free me—
I was hoisted by the heels and swatted, fed
and hauled through rooms. Time-lapse photos show
my fingers grew past crayon outlines,
my feet came to fill spike heels.
Eventually, I lurched out to kiss the wrong mouths,
get stewed, and sulk around. Christ always stood
to one side with a glass of water.
I swatted the sap away.
When my thirst got great enough
to ask, a stream welled up inside;
some jade wave buoyed me forward;
and I found myself upright
in the instant, with a garden
inside my own ribs aflourish. There, the arbor leafs.
The vines push out plump grapes.
You are loved, someone said. Take that
and eat it.
by Mary Karr
I have to share a poem from this collection. I got to hear Mary Karr speak at the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing, at a session called “Writing and Praying Your Way to Truth”. At first, I had no desire to go, because I thought she must be this super-spiritual writer who only writes in some type of a prayer-trance. It turns out, she was a worse sinner than I ever was. She was brutal, charming, disarming, and almost scary all at the same time. She had us laughing like twits. And she’s beautiful.
If I had done my research, of course, I would have known that she wrote The Liars’ Club, a raw, dark, funny memoir about her childhood - complete with an alcoholic bohemian artist mom, butcher knives, insanity and rape.
After her session and a recommendation by Brad Fruhauff, Poetry Editor of Relief Journal, for this collection, I bought it. As an afterword is an essay she wrote at the request of Poetry magazine, “Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer”. I wanted to copy it and send to everyone I knew.
In case you’re wondering, she does try to write while in a state of prayer, or what she describes as alertness to the movements of the Spirit. Does she do it all the time? No, she says, like she doesn’t floss her teeth every night.
DISGRACELAND
Before my first communion at 40, I clung
to doubt as Satan spider-like stalked
the orb of dark surrounding Eden
for a wormhole into paradise.
God had first formed me in the womb
small as a bite of burger.
Once my lungs were done
He sailed a soul like a lit arrow
to inflame me. Maybe that piercing
made me howl at birth,
or the masked creatures
whose scalpel cut a lightning bolt to free me—
I was hoisted by the heels and swatted, fed
and hauled through rooms. Time-lapse photos show
my fingers grew past crayon outlines,
my feet came to fill spike heels.
Eventually, I lurched out to kiss the wrong mouths,
get stewed, and sulk around. Christ always stood
to one side with a glass of water.
I swatted the sap away.
When my thirst got great enough
to ask, a stream welled up inside;
some jade wave buoyed me forward;
and I found myself upright
in the instant, with a garden
inside my own ribs aflourish. There, the arbor leafs.
The vines push out plump grapes.
You are loved, someone said. Take that
and eat it.
A Delicious Approach to Discipline
Apr/12/2008 06:39 PM
Soul Feast, An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual
Life
Marjorie L. Thomson
I've been in a spiritual rut recently. Since I like to pretend that the right book can cure anything, I was looking for a book on the spiritual disciplines, when I stumbled upon this one at the local coffeehouse. It caught my eye because it had a forward by Henri Nouwen. In his words, "There are few books in which a solid biblical vision and a practical, hands-on approach are so well integrated. When you have read and lived this book. you have been in touch with the best that Christian spirituality has to offer."
I like the intuitive approach that the book takes to the sometimes dry subject of the spiritual disciplines. Years ago, I plodded my way through Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney and never made it to the end. I learned a lot from it though. It was invaluable to my growth, but I could never recommend it because I found it boring.
Soul Feast is different. Like the subtitle suggests, you don’t feel like you’re being talked at; you feel drawn in, invited to reflect on the ideas. The author takes an ecumenical approach, drawing on an eclectic range of voices in the Christian tradition, from Theophan the Recluse and Saint Benedict to Lord Tennyson and Eugene H. Peterson. Wide margins feature thought-provoking questions and quotes by people like Augustine, John Calvin, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard and Dallas Willard. The margins give you room to jot down your thoughts. You'll be invited to reflect on a metaphor. Or to stop and reflect on your gut response to a particular word. Or to recall a scene in a certain movie. The effect is a textured, multi-dimensional view of Christian spirituality. The book’s format will be especially appealing to people who enjoy mulling over and interacting with their books.
The litmus test of any guide to the spiritual disciplines has to be how practical it is. This one passes. The ideas in here are refreshing and actually even fun to try. They're a whole lot more intuitive and holistic than, for example, the old lists and formulae we sometimes call prayer ("Step One: Praise, Step Two: Adoration, Step Three: Confession, Step Four: Intercession"). Her suggestions for prayer, for example, include using your visual imagination rather than words, writing your own psalm, paraphrasing a psalm, and silently focusing on a single prayer word. They are not the textbook methods, and so I hesitate to say that this is a comprehensive, or even ideal introduction to the subject (as Celebration of Discipline or Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life are) but they are helpful during the dry seasons and exactly what I need now.
Chapters cover:
Hunger and Thirst for the Spirit: The Spiritual Yearning of Our Time
Chewing the Bread of the Word: The Nature and Practice of Spiritual Reading
Communication and Communion with God: Approaches to Prayer
Gathered in the Spirit: Our Common Worship
The Practice of Self-Emptying: Rediscovering the Fast
Of Conscience and Consciousness: Self-Examination, Confession and Awareness
Companions on the Journey: The Gift of Spiritual Direction
Entertaining Angels Unaware: The Spirit of Hospitality
Putting It All Together: Developing a Rule of Life
Marjorie L. Thomson
I've been in a spiritual rut recently. Since I like to pretend that the right book can cure anything, I was looking for a book on the spiritual disciplines, when I stumbled upon this one at the local coffeehouse. It caught my eye because it had a forward by Henri Nouwen. In his words, "There are few books in which a solid biblical vision and a practical, hands-on approach are so well integrated. When you have read and lived this book. you have been in touch with the best that Christian spirituality has to offer."
I like the intuitive approach that the book takes to the sometimes dry subject of the spiritual disciplines. Years ago, I plodded my way through Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney and never made it to the end. I learned a lot from it though. It was invaluable to my growth, but I could never recommend it because I found it boring.
Soul Feast is different. Like the subtitle suggests, you don’t feel like you’re being talked at; you feel drawn in, invited to reflect on the ideas. The author takes an ecumenical approach, drawing on an eclectic range of voices in the Christian tradition, from Theophan the Recluse and Saint Benedict to Lord Tennyson and Eugene H. Peterson. Wide margins feature thought-provoking questions and quotes by people like Augustine, John Calvin, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard and Dallas Willard. The margins give you room to jot down your thoughts. You'll be invited to reflect on a metaphor. Or to stop and reflect on your gut response to a particular word. Or to recall a scene in a certain movie. The effect is a textured, multi-dimensional view of Christian spirituality. The book’s format will be especially appealing to people who enjoy mulling over and interacting with their books.
The litmus test of any guide to the spiritual disciplines has to be how practical it is. This one passes. The ideas in here are refreshing and actually even fun to try. They're a whole lot more intuitive and holistic than, for example, the old lists and formulae we sometimes call prayer ("Step One: Praise, Step Two: Adoration, Step Three: Confession, Step Four: Intercession"). Her suggestions for prayer, for example, include using your visual imagination rather than words, writing your own psalm, paraphrasing a psalm, and silently focusing on a single prayer word. They are not the textbook methods, and so I hesitate to say that this is a comprehensive, or even ideal introduction to the subject (as Celebration of Discipline or Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life are) but they are helpful during the dry seasons and exactly what I need now.
Chapters cover:
Hunger and Thirst for the Spirit: The Spiritual Yearning of Our Time
Chewing the Bread of the Word: The Nature and Practice of Spiritual Reading
Communication and Communion with God: Approaches to Prayer
Gathered in the Spirit: Our Common Worship
The Practice of Self-Emptying: Rediscovering the Fast
Of Conscience and Consciousness: Self-Examination, Confession and Awareness
Companions on the Journey: The Gift of Spiritual Direction
Entertaining Angels Unaware: The Spirit of Hospitality
Putting It All Together: Developing a Rule of Life