Their glass-bottomed boats
Today would have been the first birthday of my second cousin, who died as a baby in a tragic accident last year, aged just four months old. His birth, after a roller-coaster year, brought enormous joy and his sudden death still, disbelief. What should have been a day [...]
Part 5 Chicken soup?
This is the last part of the talk given, oh over a month ago, to the Contemporary Theology Group in Canterbury. Where did that month go? Well, I've been to Cornwall and back, to Bristol and many other places in my head, connected especially with [...]
Part 4. Beauty and truth
continuing the text of the talk I gave in January to the Contemporary Theology Group in Canterbury on contemporary poetry and spirituality Another way in which contemporary poetry can relate to spirituality is through the way it can tell the truth about experience. Emily Dickinson [...]
Part 3 – Beauty, reverence, transcendence
'The Bright Field' describes something beautiful and the poem is also beautiful. The beauty lies in its imagery, ideas and resonances but also, and perhaps mostly, in its music and the way it is put together and, of course, these elements are inseparable. On the first hearing, especially if [...]
Contemporary Poetry and Spirituality 2. Poetry as container
This continues the text of my talk from last Wednesday... with a few more additions and asides ... A church or cathedral can be a physical container. Spiritual beliefs, religion, or a personal philosophy, can be theoretical and practical containers for the complexities of existence. A poem can [...]
