Religious
faith has inspired poets for likely as long as faith and poetry have existed.
About a third of the Old Testament is written in poetic form. The Greek and
Roman poets were inspired by their pantheon of gods. In Christian times, a
considerable amount of poetry made its way into church liturgy and popular
culture as well; the Christmas carol “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is only one of
many songs and poems that come from what are called the “O
Antiphons,” songs of appeal sung at the vespers service in the last week of
Advent. And faith continues to
inspire contemporary poets like Scott Cairns, Luci Shaw, Wendell Berry, Dana
Gioia, Mark Jarman, Julia Kasdorf, and many more.
Tania Runyan is another contemporary poet
inspired by faith, but her most recent collection demonstrates just how unusual
and surprising that source of inspiration can be.
The 54 poems
of Runyan’s What
Will Soon Take Place spring from an unexpected source – the Book of
Revelation in the New Testament, or what some faith traditions call “The
Apocalypse of St. John.”
To
continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak
Poetry.
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