He’s
best known for writing The
Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language. (The Message was so popular that Bono quoted from it at U2 concerts.)
He’s also written more than 30 other books. He was the founding pastor of
Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland. In the words of Christianity
Today, he is a “shepherd’s shepherd,” a guide and mentor to pastors who
shepherd their congregational flocks.
And
in addition to all of that, Eugene Peterson is a poet.
Over
the course of many years, Peterson wrote poems and shared them with or gave
them to friends and family. Two years ago, 70 of them were collected and
published under the title of Holy
Luck. The poems were an education in words, and what words can and
should be. “I…learned that poets are caretakers of language,” he writes, “shepherds
of words protecting them from desecration, exploitation, misuse. Words not only
mean something, they are something, each with a sound an rhythm all its own.”
The
poems are divided into three sections: “Holy Luck,” a series of poems based on
the Beatitudes; “The Rustling Grass,” about finding God in the everyday; and “Smooth
Stones,” the daily life of following Jesus. Not surprisingly, the poems are
often from the perspective of the pastor, the shepherd, seeking to train, to
educate, to explain, to encourage, to guide and to direct. They flow from
scripture, often a single verse.
Here
is “Tree,” taken from Isaiah 11:1 – “There shall come forth a shoot from the
stump of Jesse, And a branch shall grow out of his roots.”
Jesse’s
roots, composted with carcasses
Of
dove and lamb, parchments of ox and goat,
Centuries
of dried up prayers and bloody
Sacrifice,
now bear me gospel fruit.
David’s branch fed on kosher soil
Blossoms a messianic flower, and then
Ripens into a kingdom crop, conserving
The fragrance and warmth of spring for
winter use.
Holy
Spirit, shake our family tree;
Release
your ripened fruit to our outstretched arms.
I’d like to see my children sink their
teeth
Into promised land pomegranates
And
Canaan grapes, bushel gifts of God,
While
I skip a grace rope to a Christ tune.
"Tree" is generally typical of the poems in Holy Luck, based on scripture, a
combination of the personal and theological, with a psalm-like quality
(Peterson says that the psalms of David were one of his early introductions to
poetry). The presence of God is seen is something as everyday and common as a
tree, in this case a tree that will eventually bear a shoot that signifies
first David and then Jesus.
The
poems range across human experience and daily life – a kiss, a choir, prayer,
friends, hospitality, silence, beauty, snow, pregnancy, war, a candle, and
more. They flow from scripture, and from the shepherd’s understanding of
scripture.
These
are quiet poems, some to be read aloud and some to be read silently, some to
extend understanding and some to simply be in the experience of scripture, and
God.
Photograph by Petr Kratochvil via Public
Domain Pictures. Used with permission.
Thank you, Glynn, for introducing us to Eugene Peterson's poetry and giving us an example of how poems can be biblical and realistic, yet full of faith and hope. I'll highlight this on the Christian Poets & Writers blog - http://christianpoetsandwriters.blogspot.com. God bless.
ReplyDeleteSounds fascinating, Glynn. Thanks for the review here.
ReplyDeleteSometimes poets make new words. New and interesting words.
ReplyDeleteI must confess that i don't understand the title. But, then again, i don't understand all of the beatitudes either.