The Poems of Padraig Daly

Padraig Daly is an Augustinian priest in the Dublin parish of Ballyhoden. He’s published several poetry collections and translations from poets writing in Irish and the Italian poet Edoardo Sanguineti.

In his own poetry, and especially The Last Dreamers: New and Selected Poems, the reader finds Daly focused on faith and how it is expressed, in the importance of daily life (be it in Ireland or Italy), in rituals, in loving and comforting, and in prayer.

To continue reading, please see my post today at The Master’s Artist.

We Still Don’t Have an Intro

Six more chapters, more than three fourths of the way in the book, and our hero Paul Chowder still hasn’t written his introduction to the volume of poems. He’s visited Longfellow’s house, laid a plank floor, cleaned up the barn, sliced his fingers a few times, and bought a bead making kit.

And he’s talked a lot about poetry.

Led by Lyla Lindquist at Tweetspeak Poetry, we’ve been reading The Anthologist by Nichloson Baker. It claims to be a novel, and I think it’s that, but it could also be that introduction that Chowder is unable to start for his anthology of poems that rhyme. Whatever it is, it’s also a fairly in-depth if idiosyncratic introduction to the poetry of the late 19^th and 20^th centuries.

Chowder clearly thinks Walt Whitman is suspect, the French started it all by translating Poe into free verse (in French, of course), and the abominations of abominations is Ezra Pound. Still, the introduction awaits. Chowder seems to have moved beyond even feeling guilty about not doing it. My own anxiety has lessened as well; it’s amazing how anxious I was getting about a fictional character avoiding doing his work. I considered suggesting that he read Julia Cameron’s The Artist Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, which is all about dealing with creative blocks (and the book we discussed at TweetSpeak before this one).

I’d been having the nagging feeling that I’d read something like this before, and I think I’ve identified it – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The Anthologist is like a Hitchhiker’s Guide to Poetry, except in this case we know the answer and the question. (If you haven’t read the Hitchhiker series, the hero of the story has the answer to everything in the universe – the number 3. He simply has to find the question.)

Chowder takes down rabbit hole after rabbit hole (anything to avoid writing that introduction). But what is slowly emerging is the understanding that there is a method to what often seems like stream of consciousness madness. Something is indeed going on here, and it’s about more than the decline of poetry that rhymes and similar global disasters.

We’re on a roller coaster ride of poetry, catching glimpses of Whitman, Swinburne, Teasdale, Millay, Lindsay, Eliot, Pound (the villain), Elizabeth Bishop, and even Billy Collins and Ted Kooser. We learn where the U.S. poet laureate program came from, and how Vachel Lindsay killed himself by drinking Lysol. We see all the politics of poetry, and who gets cut from what anthology. And we keep reading, even if listening to Chowder is like driking water from a fire hose.

Can you tell I’m enjoying this crazy weird book?

Please visit TweetSpeak Poetry to see what Lyla Lindquist has cooked up to try to explain the chapters we’re discussing today.

Book Spine Poetry

I have a post over at TweetSpeak Poetry today – Poetry on the Spines of Books. It’s about finding the poetry staring at you from your bookshelves.

I tired one or two myself, and the “poem” featured in the photograph above is the result.

The credible company

coloring outside the lines,

finding joy

beyond bullet points,

breaking free,

leading change,

creating the corporate soul.

For the record, here are the titles and authors who provided the “lines:”

The Credible Company by Roger D’Aprix.

Coloring Outside the Lines by Roger Schank.

Finding Joy by Mac Anderson.

Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson.

Breaking Free by David Noer.

Leading Change by John Kotter.

Creating the Corporate Soul by Roland Marchand.

So take a look at TweetSpeak Poetry today. There’s no telling where this might end.

At Work As It Is in Heaven

Today over at The High Calling today, I’m interviewing J.B. Wood on his new ebook, At Work As It Is in Heaven. The interview begins at THC and finishes up here. I reviewed the book on July 13, and found it to be one of the best I’ve read on the subject.

Talking to Jim is just as insightful as reading his book and the columns he writes for The High Calling. He combines a wealth of corporate experience and his Christian faith to address the questions, can we live our faith at work, and how do we do that?

His answers are compelling – and challenging.

Is there or will there be a tension between "God and others first" and personal ambition? How does a Christian keep personal ambition in perspective -- knowing that he or she has gifts that God wants to see exercised?

I think ambition gets a bad rap, especially from the Evangelical church. Ambition is not limited to greedy MBA’s. Anyone who has a dream is ambitious. Anyone who builds a church is ambitious. The Bible warns against “selfish ambition” as the stumbling block to our spiritual lives, where we get caught up in our own versions of life and status and popularity rather than seeking out the best interests of others in the process. Sure, it’s a challenge to keep the selfish ego in check, but that applies as much to the high school drama student or mega-church pastor as it does to the investment banker.

The workplace today is a curious and sometimes conflicting combination of the command-and-control hierarchy, or the old industrial model, and the consensus or network model. What understanding does a Christian need to have to navigate that combination?

The Christian has to be him/herself with God’s truth and indwelling Spirit as the foundation of character and conduct. Either model can work, and both are imperfect, which will invariably bring conflict, tension, misunderstandings, etc. Much depends on the organizational history and culture. I think it’s the Christian’s job to bring excellence, grace, character and compassion, whatever the structure.

Clearly we're not supposed to spend our time at work handing out tracts and evangelizing our colleagues with sermons. Our employers pay us in the expectation that we do something that creates value for the organization. So how do we live our faith in the workplace?

I for one am absolutely convinced that our faith is lived out by simply being our best selves while fully engaging in our work. That’s it. We don’t have to do anything special at work to “prove” something to Jesus about our devotion or salvation. By being our best selves, made in the image of God, seeking His guidance, filled with His spirit, looking out for the best interests of others, displaying the highest of values, ethics, and character in all of our business conduct and interactions with colleagues, we are glorifying God.  That gives you plenty to work with.

 

What do you say to the Christian who reads the book and says, "This is all fine and good but you don't know my workplace, my day-to-day reality. It's a viper's nest."

Hmmm. I feel for them. I heard a high-powered speaker recently (an investment banker!) talk about being tired of “parking his soul at the door” before going into the office. His antidote was in finding a “Stillpoint” and “Soul-Crafting” his business as a way to anchor his values and character in the midst of the viper’s nest work-world. It sounded like it worked for him, although he was clearly in a position of influence and power in his situation.

Ultimately, one shouldn’t stay in a work environment that is unhealthy or destructive to one’s soul. If at all possible, seek a new place of employment. Life’s too short, and each of us has some level of control over these things. 

So is our work -- our daily work wherever and whatever it is -- a kind of mission?

Yes, although it may not be a blinding-light kind of mission. Life is a constant unraveling, and our job is to make the most of what’s right in front of us, in order to get the nudge to see whatever’s next. If you call that a mission, then that’s what our daily work is. 

What would you like to see happen when someone reads and understands this book?

 I hope it gives them a sense that they are not alone, that God has them at their place of work for a purpose, whatever the circumstance, that God’s kingdom can be furthered in the very act of showing up to work every day and channeling their efforts to the greater good of those around them. God’s grace is always available, but we must participate. There’s always hope.

Related:

The interview at The High Calling (live at 7 a.m. Central time).

J.B. Wood blogs at Shrinking the Camel.

My review of At Work As It Is in Heaven.

Photograph: Office Buildings in London by Vera Kratochvil via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

A Contemporary Prodigal

Never have I read a better contemporary illustration of the story of the prodigal son than I’ve read in Out of a Far Country by Christopher Yuan and Angela Yuan.

Yet it is not the story of one prodigal. It’s the story of two. And perhaps three, and more. Though it may be hard for many of us who call ourselves Christian to recognize ourselves in this story, the fact is we are there, too.

Christopher Yuan comes from an upper middle class family in Chicago. His father Leon is a dentist; his mother Angela a homemaker who also serves as her husband’s business administrator. Christopher goes to college and then medical/dental school, the expectation being that he will join the family practice. On the surface, the life of the Yuan family seems placid, stable and normal.

Except that Angela and Leon have an increasingly empty, loveless marriage, both of them carrying old family baggage and expectations.

And except that Christopher is gay. He tells his parents and experiences almost immediate rejection. He returns to his friends, the people he believes accept him for what he is.  And his finds that acceptance is transient.

He turns to drugs, an integral part of the gay club culture he enmeshes himself in. And then he becomes a drug dealer, part of the drug sales and distribution system that apparently blankets the country.

Angela finds her way to faith. Never part of a church or religious tradition, she still manages to find her way, after coming close to suicide. She begins to spend an enormous amount of time on her knees. Praying. An unused shower stall in the Yuan home becomes her prayer room.

Christopher’s high-flying lasts for a time, and then he crashes, virtually overnight. Most of his friends abandon him. His parents don’t. Instead, despite of the gigantic mess he’s made of his life, his parents accept him and love him.

And just when you think the story has hit rock bottom, you find it hasn’t. It gets worse.

Out of a Far Country contains many stories, and many themes. Brokenness is everywhere. Even the “most lost” living the worst lives can be redeemed. Sin has consequences – in spite of redemption. Loving is more important that judging. Forgiveness is vital. God can do miraculous things with broken people.

All of those stories and themes belong to the rest of us as well. We may not deal drugs or live destructive, drug-fueled lifestyles, but we all know brokenness, the need for forgiveness, and the need for love.

The Yuan family is a living testimony for the rest of us.

Related:

Christopher Yuan’s web site.

We call her name

She walks in Homer in a robe

of saffron; in Virgil she lies in a bed

of saffron. Her wonder intrigues

Shakespeare, and Tennyson,

even Thoreau watches her crisp

the pond’s edge. It takes a later time

to turn the dawn into darkness,

the light fractured and torn

into ragged shreds of memory.

Turning to the light as we call her name,

we hear only the echo 

of a terrible silence.

In Greek mythology, Aurora is the goddess of the dawn.

Illustration: Aurora, acrylic on wood panel by Mike Hale.

Saturday Good Reads

Another tragedy, and the name Aurora joins the name of Columbine. The online world reacts and responds immediately, and a poem by John Blase does what only poetry can do.

Yet amid the terrible pain, there is still beauty, and grace, and goodness. A little bit of it is here.

Prose

“Safe Places” by Sarah Salter at Living Between the Lines.

“The River Waves” by L.L. Barkat at Seedlings in Stone.

“Finding Gratefulness in Oncology’s Outpatient Wing” by Shawn Smucker.

“So I Stopped Eating” by Emily Wierenga via Shawn Smucker.

“Darlin – I’m Dang Close” by Darlene at Simply Darlene.

“An Open Letter to the Buried” by Billy Coffey at What I Learned Today.

“Happy Birthday, Lord of the Rings” by Chris Yokel.

“We Treat Them Like Lepers” by Michael Perkins at The Handwritten.

“The Most Beautiful Gift” by Kimberlee Conway Ireton.

Poetry

“Morning at Great Pond” by Megan Willome.

“Beauty Beyond Words, and Yet I Want them So Badly” by Jerry Barrett at Gerald the Writer.

“Kingdom Poets: C.S. Lewis” by D.S. Martin for The Rabbit Room.

“Whatever is convenient” by Brian Miller at WayStationOne.

“Palm Reading” by Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

“Like a River” by Chris Galford at The Waking Den.

“Royal Priesthood” by Chris Yokel.

“Thinking” by Nancy Rosback at A Little Somethin’.

“Building” by Betsy Brown for Curator Magazine.

“20 July 2012” by John Blasé at The Beautiful Due.

Paintings and Photographs

“Go On, Job, Bread & Water” by Jack Baumgartner at The School for the Transfer of Energy.

“North Umpqua Study 3,” watermedia on Yupo by Randall David Tipton at Painter’s Process.

“Wandering Westward: Moments of Intimacy” by J of India’s daughter-in-law at Neither Use Nor Ornament.

“Real Life: The Summer and the Wild” by Kelly Sauer.

“Corn at Sunrise” and “Coneflowers at Sunrise” by Tim Good at Good Photography.

Cartoons

“Hero Worship 2” by My Bad Sheep

Videos

“Shine on Us” by Josh Wilson (et al).

“What Makes You Beautiful” by The Piano Guys.

Photograph: Tower of London by Vera Kratochvil via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.