Poets and Poems: Catherine Lawton and “Where All Things Meet, Mirror & Mingle”

Faith poetry has a long history, extending back at least to the Psalms of the Old Testament of the Bible and likely even earlier. What’s almost curious, but understandable, is how contemporary poetry has separated, largely if not entirely, into secular and religious streams. It’s a mirror of the culture at large, but not everyone mimics that mirror. 

But not every poet has followed that divergence. Some take a more holistic approach, integrating all of life in their poetry. One of those poets is Catherine Lawton. 

 

Lawton is an author, essayist, and a poet. She’s published numerous books, including fiction, memoirs, non-fiction works like Write and Publish Organically, and poetry collections such as Glimpses of Glory. Her newest poetry collection, Where All Things Meet, Mirror & Mingle, reinforce her recurring poetic theme of life and faith as a collective whole

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

At the typewriter – poem by Amelia Friedline at Innocence Abroad.

 

“The Scholars,” poem by William Butler Yeats – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Hair on Fire at the Church Lady’s Brunch – Renee Emerson at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Ars Poetica – poem by Megan Willome at Every Day Poems.

“Write & Publish Organically” by Catherine Lawton

Sometimes I think more people write about writing than actually write. I follow several writer blogs, web sites, online magazines, and Substack listings, and just keeping up with those can be overwhelming. I’ve read and read lots of books on the subject. This is all in addition to the writing itself. 

But it is a good idea to step back from time to time and think critically about what you do and how you do it. And to figure out if you can do it better. A new book on writing that is aimed at Christian writers but easily applies to all writers is Write & Publish Organically by Catherine Lawton. And it is a gem. 

 

Lawton uses a rhyming scheme to explain what she calls organic writing and publishing.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Shrouded Veterans: A Soldier for the Pope and Lincoln – Frank Jastrzembski at Emerging Civil War.

 

“The Raven Days,” poem by Sidney Lanier – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Remembrance of What Is – Christine Norvell at The Imaginative Conservative.

“The Animals in Our Lives,” Edited by Catherine Lawton

If we didn’t have a pet as a child or an adult, we can likely think of animals that left an impression, often a major one. The childhood dog I remember the best was Skipper, a collie-German shepherd mix who was one of the most loving dogs I’ve known. He arrived at Christmas when I was six, and he became a playmate, a friend, a companion, and many times a big tease. 

The Animals in Our Lives: Stories of Companionship and Awe is a collection of pet stories, written by various authors and assembled and edited by Catherine Lawton. It includes 43 stories of dogs, cats, farm animals, unusual pets, and wild animal encounters.

 

You’ll meet Shelly, the dog who helped Lawton work through empty-nest syndrome; Bogar, the dog who lived through the Holocaust; Grace the therapy dog; Bob the angel cat; the sheep who behaved like a pony; a peacock who served as a sign; the cows who served as the audience for a prayer meeting; singing crickets, Dostoevsky the iguana, and Bo Bo the Hedgehog (who brought cheer and hope to a boy during the Chinese Cultural Revolution), among many others. 

 

Catherine Lawton

Most of the accounts are stories, but poems are also included. “Heartwarming” is an overused word; these stories and poems are that, but they also serve to encourage, to cheer (and cheer up), and to strike a note of wonder at the ways animals of all kinds find their ways into our lives and our hearts. 

 

The founder of Cladach Publishing, Lawton is the author of several books – two poetry collections (Remembering Softly: A Life in Poems and Glimpsing Glory); the non-fiction book Journeys to Mother Love; Face to Face, a novel; and the children’s story Something is Coming to Our World. She received a B.A. degree in English from Pasadena College / Point Loma Nazarene University and has worked as a teacher, church musician, editor, publisher, and speaker. She lives in Colorado.

 

The Animals in Our Lives is a small gem of a book. It reminds us of the animals in our own lives. It certainly reminded me of the animals on my own life, like the spaniel who slept at my feet while I wrote two novels and the bald eagle who flew alongside me while I was biking along the Missouri River. The collection of stories and poems is a delightful reminder of how pets and wild animals can both bring joy into our lives.

 

 

Related:

 

Glimpsing Glory: Poems by Catherine Lawton.

"Glimpsing Glory: Poems" by Catherine Lawton

There are times when you need to read a certain kind of book. It might be an old, revered novel; a well-written memoir that is as striking in its language as its profundity; a well-told work of history whose story simply grips up and won’t let go; or a collection of poetry that quiets the turmoil in your soul. These books generally have to find you in the right moment at the right time; you can’t go looking for them when you don’t know what it is you need.

Glimpsing Glory: Poems of Living & Dying, Praying & Playing, and Belonging & Longing by Catherine Lawton found me in the right place at right time. A combination of virus-restricted movement, growing horror at our country tears itself apart with violence, riots, and looting, and the sense that the country’s elites have indeed abandoned the people they should be leading have all taken a toll. And then along came Glimpsing Glory to remind me what was important.

The 65 poems (66 if you include the introduction) are divided in seven sections: relating, communing, trusting, living, dying, praying, and word-playing. Each poem is generally short, or shorter, and uses simple language. Each has a point, and one might argue, the same point – that this life is filled with glimpses, or hints, of the eternal and the glory of God. 

Sometimes that glimpse is obvious; sometimes, it’s subtle. But you read each of the poems and you find that inner turmoil settling down, replaced by a quiet and peace that seem to surround you. These poems all share that sense of quiet, whether they’re talking about family relationships, jazz bands, high school reunions, a mother’s song, or a deathbed vigil for a loved one. 

You even find that peace in a childhood memory of floating sticks in a stream, one that brings you full circle when your hair is graying.

Water Under the Bridge

Catherine Lawton

We were kids dropping

sticks off the bridge,

watching them splash,

catch in whirls,

tumble over rocks,

lodge in debris.

Some sailed smoothly

under and away, gone.

Others took time.

Time took us away

from that river bridge

to seas, coasts, plains

watered by other streams,

rooting in other shores;

till, years later, those

stuck sticks of dreamy

youth begin to dislodge

and float again, together—

worn, grayed, wiser—

on the relentless current

to the teeming ocean

where all streams lead.

You watch those sticks float, and you can see the glimmers of light caught on the water as the sticks sail into shadow. It’s a simple, common childhood memory that decades later remind you of the eternal.

The founder of Cladach Publishing, Lawton is the author of five books – two poetry collections (Remembering Softly: A Life in Poems and Glimpsing Glory); the non-fiction book Journeys to Mother Love; Face to Face, a novel; and the children’s story Something is Coming to Our World. She received a B.A. degree in English from Pasadena College / Point Loma Nazarene University and has worked as a teacher, church musician, editor, publisher, and speaker. She lives in Colorado.

You can wait and left a poetry collection like Glimpsing Glory find you, or you can actively seek it out. Either way, you’ll find balm for a troubled soul.