I find it
extremely comforting – a blessed relief – to turn from the viciousness of the
commentary about Brexit, the vote by the people of Britain to leave the EU, to poetry
based on the sayings of Jesus and related themes. That’s what Parable
and Paradox by poet, priest, and musician Malcom Guite is – a blessed
relief.
Perhaps it’s the
sonnet form
Guite uses, a form that’s been around since at least the 1200s if not earlier.
The sonnet is a 14-line poem that follows a specific rhyming pattern and
structure. William Shakespeare
used the form to write some of the most beautiful poems in the English
language. So did Elizabeth
Barrett Browning.
The sonnet is a
favored form by Guite, and he uses it to reflect upon, ponder, question,
celebrate, and commemorate. In this poem, he does all five of these:
Pilgrimage
Come dip a
scallop shell into the font
For birth and
blessings as child of God.
The living water
rises from that fount
Whence all
things come, that you may bathe and wade
And find the
flow, and learn at last to follow
The course of
Love upstream toward your home.
The day is done
and all the fields lie fallow,
One thing is
needful, one voice calls your name.
Take the true
compass now, be compassed round
By clouds of
witness, chords of love unbound.
Turn to the Son,
begin your pilgrimage,
Take time with
him to find your true direction.
He travels with
you through this darkened age
And wake you
every day to resurrection.
Read it aloud.
The act of reading such a poem is itself calming and soothing.
Parable and Paradox includes 27 new poems on subjects ranging from Bible study to hospitality; 50 sonnets on the
sayings of Jesus; and a concluding series of poems entitled “Seven Whole Days.”
Two of the new poems are named for two American poets – Scott
Cairns and Luci Shaw.
 |
| Malcolm Guite |
Guite
is a poet, an Anglican priest, chaplain of Girton
College at the University of Cambridge, a lecturer and speaker, and a rock band musician part of the
Cambridge-based group Mystery Train. He’s published several books, including several poetry
collections, such as Sounding
the Seasons, The
Singing Bowl, and Word in
the Wilderness. He’s a lecturer and speaker. And he’s a rock band
musician part of the Cambridge-based group Mystery Train. He received his
undergraduate and masters degrees from Cambridge, and a Ph.D from Durham
University, where his dissertation focused on the poets Lancelot Andrewes
and John Donne and their
influence on T.S. Eliot.
Read
these poems called Parable and Paradox.
Find a quiet place to read them aloud. Read them, and calm your spirit.
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