October 2025

As the Nobel Prize for Literature was announced, Bill and Jan discussed poets who influenced our lives and our thinking. These poets did not win the Nobel Prize, but maybe, we think, they should have.

Sometimes poetry is a very well hidden secret. In high school English Lit classes, poetry usually was only for erudite students who were concerned with rhyme and meter. William Shakespeare’s poems and sonnets were read and parsed. Now rap and hip-hop – how far have we come!

How far have I come! Most of my adult life as a teacher, I had to read for information. In retirement, reading for enjoyment has become a welcome passion.

I’m not a poet, but I admire those who are, particularly these two who are often considered mystics: Jalaluddin Rumi, 13^th century Persian poet especially the poem “The Guest House”, and John O’Donohue, contemporary (1956–2008) Irish poet -- any poems in To Bless the Space Between Us: a Book of Blessings. These are poems about which I have journaled the most, because of a meeting of souls in each poem, the poet’s and mine. When I first read these poems, I experienced something touching a very special place, leaving an imprint on my soul that has never diminished.

I’m not a poet but I have written some poetry. In my retirement, as I sort through old files, I find poems that were 'given to me' and I wrote them down. I say 'given to me', because those words came from such a deep place, I could never recover them again. My favorite poem is about a long white feather that gently floated down from the tympanum overhead, as I was sitting on the central portal steps of the Basilica of Sainte Marie Madeleine in Vézelay, France.

There are some poets who have entered my acquaintance for only a brief time but have left lasting memories. I will name one, Amanda Gorman. Did you hear her recite her poem “The Hill We Climb" at the 2021 presidential inauguration of Joe Biden? 

Can you think of names of poets whose work you admire or who inspired you? Is there a particular theme that appeals to you? What poetic styles draw you – narrative, free verse, lyric, ode, limerick, or maybe haiku?

Here’s a challenge. Allow the following poem to pique your interest.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky.

Let it stoke some embers. Renew your interest in poetry. Call upon your muse. Recite – now write.

--Jan

Jan has mentioned both classic and contemporary poets. Allow me to introduce you to a contemporary poet who reflects on classic texts. The poet is Scott Cairns. In his 2007 book Love’s Immensity: Mystics on the Endless Life, Cairns offers his own poetic paraphrases of classic Christian texts, starting with St. Paul and ending with St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

The book’s title is drawn from Cairns’ poem, “The Death of Death,” echoing St. Athanasios (4^th century). “Put fear aside,” the poem begins, for death has met its match. Death – “that ephemeral occasion” – has been defeated, has “met its utter end.”

As seeds cast to the earth, we

will not perish,

but like those seeds

shall rise again – the shroud

of death itself having been

burst to tatters

by love’s immensity.

Evagrios of Pontos (also 4^th century) offers Cairns abundant thoughts on prayer, including both wondrous promises – “Practice genuine patience, and your prayer / will always taste of joy” – and blunt warnings – “Sure, you can justify your anger – even during prayer – / just know that you have soiled yourself before God.”

St. Catherine of Siena (14^th century) inspires Cairns to write, “A soul rises up, restless / with shuddering desire for God,” before concluding, “Thus / loving she will pursue Truth, / and drape herself in His beauty.”

Love’s immensity – an awareness of the amazing breadth and depth of God’s love – is more than just the book’s title. It is a recurring theme in these poems. Inspired by Isaac of Nineveh (6^th century), Cairns contemplates “The Measure of His Mercy”:

As a grip of sand is

flung into the sea,

so do the sins of all flesh

enter the mind of God.

In case that image is not clear enough, he goes on to spell it out: “The compassion of the Creator is not daunted / by the wickedness of His creatures.”

With Irenaeus (2^nd century), Cairns assures us

The tender flesh itself

will be found one day

– quite surprisingly –

to be capable of receiving,

and yes, full

capable of embracing

the searing energies of God.

Go figure. Fear not.

-- Bill

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