Spiritual Poetry: Three Collections

Spiritual poetry is some of the oldest poetry known. Some 75 percent of the Old Testament is written in poetic form, and the Psalms are written entirely in poetic form. In fact, five books – Job Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon – are known as the poetical books.

This genre of poetry continues to be popular today. Poets like Malcolm Guite, Mark Jarman, Luci Shaw, and Wendell Berry have written spiritual poems, and faith infuses their poetry generally. While spiritual poems are often characterized by praise, this isn’t the only way they are written. Three recent collections demonstrate some of the different ways that faith can be written as poetry.

Ben Palpant

Sojourner Songs is poet Ben Palpant’s second collection of poetry; his first, A Small Cup of Light: a drink in the desert was published in 2014. He began writing poetry as a result of a health collapse some years ago; he began writing poetry as a way to explore the idea of “suffering in the presence of a living God.” A Small Cup of Light was praised by a number of Christian writers and theologians, including J.I. Packer, the author of Knowing God.

In his new collection of 59 poems, Palpant includes many that serve as meditations on scripture. In fact, not only does he include the references, he also includes a section in the book that reprints the scriptures cited as well. Most of the references are from the Old Testament.

This one, inspired by Isaiah 30:15-25, includes a number of proverbs, ostensibly “notes from a prophet” but the prophet , in this case, is the poet.

At the Still Point

I carry a satchel

stuffed with notes from a prophet.

I read each,

one at a time,

on lonesome nights,

under darkening skies.

“Fear multiplies exponentially

with each glance

over the shoulder.”

“He who runs

shall get trampled

by fear’s phantoms.”

“He who fears

shall be like one standing naked

and alone in an open field.”

“He who seeks salvation

must turn and run toward fear.”

“He who clings

to the still point

of the turning wheel

shall be saved.”

So now I sit

with my satchel

and rest until morning.

I wait

and watch

for the dawn

here,

at the still point

of this whirling wheel.

Sojourner Songs is a lovely collection. The individual poems sound intimately familiar, because we are all sojourners in this life, all waiting and watching at “the still point of this whirling wheel.”

Brandon Hadley

Spiritual poems don’t have to be tied to specific Bible references. Most of the 52 poems in Poems from the Wilderness by Brandon Hadley, in fact, do not have specific Bible references, and yet they are no less faith-based than ones that do.

Hadley ‘s poems speak from the wilderness, another way of describing our sojourn in the earthly life. His subjects range from the seasons and times of the day to human love, Lake Michigan, and Don Quixote. Many of them, however, read like psalms, such as this one.

Breathless

What a road

That I have travelled thus far

The sorrow I have born

To come to this place

To find friend and lover

Who takes me as I am

Who brings no expectation

Or wants to change who I am

To laugh when I am goofy

To bring a gleaming smile

To my somber face

I had long-lost hope

That I could have all this

Amazed and Astonished

I am left breathless

After traveling a road in sorrow, a kind of desert, the poet meets a friend and lover who accepts him as he is – which could also describe meeting God for the first time. Poems from the Wilderness is a collection of poems about hope.

Zach Czaia

In some ways, Saint Paul Lives Here (In Minnesota) by Zach Czaia seems more recognizable as a contemporary collection of poetry than many spiritual poetry collections. And yet it is infused with faith, and with the all-too-human emotions of anger and doubt. One hears the voice of the psalmist and the prophet, praising and questioning, shaking a fist and confessing weakness and sin.

The 41 poems cover a range of topics, not the least being the priest child abuse scandals that shook the Catholic Church to its foundations. In several of the poems, Czaia wrestles with what happened and his knowing an involved priest like Jacob wrestles with the angel in the Book of Genesis. The poet won’t let go, and while he’s not been a victim he wrestles with even naming one abuser, as if naming would humanize him.

Other poems address such subjects as the poets William Blake, W.H. Auden, and Dante; teaching in public schools; relationships with family; and biblical subjects such Jesus’ death, Peter’s wife, the Garden of Gethsemane, and this meditation on a specific Bible verse.

john chapter thirteen verse eight

unless i wash you

unless i wash

unless i

wish for more than is given

than is allotted than has been

swept gathered to measure overflowing

that has been imagined—

bodies torn in villages on land on

sea heads of a character hammered

through daisies

unless i ask for this

way this possibility of the meeting

of a gaze a face i don’t see

the eyes bleary face smudged from poor

use misuse abuse the winters long

unless i wash this face

wash it with hands trembling

slow tender tracing across the scored face

unless i

break in the sun till the sun breaks down

unless

little lorax with his whisper

unless your song profane as well as

holy

lying long not dying windily

then

your body that cradle of

regret-baby hoping to become promise-man

will be disappointed will inherit

nothing

Saint Paul Lives Here is a moving, thought-provoking collection.

These three works are a few examples of spiritual poetry – meditations on scripture; mediations without scriptural references; and coming to grips with the contradictions and doubts associated with faith and the church.

Top photograph by Any Bay via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.