Christian Wiman made the Best Reads last year with his memoir He Held Radical Light: The Art of Faith, The Faith of Art. It was poetry itself. This year his 2017 collection of poetry itself, Joy: 100 Poems, graces the list. Wiman has a wonderful soul, as we all do and would notice if we just paid attention. Wiman does. He collects a marvelously diverse group of poems here that help us stay with the small moments that have the capacity to open up to the things we desire.
As I noted in my review (which you can read by clicking the title above):
These are days that need joy. And this is a book that will soothe your soul and make you say, ‘Yes,’ (just like Muriel Rukeyser does in her poem of that title.) Even if it’s “stupid and lovely/To rush into Yes.”
Open your eyes,
Dream but don’t guess.
Your biggest surprise
Comes after Yes. (166-7)
Heartlands 
One response to “#4–Joy: Heartlands Best Reads of 2019”
[…] in 2018 for his exquisite memoir, He Held Radical Light: The Art of Faith, The Faith of Art, and in 2019 as editor of the collection, Joy: 100 Poems. In 2020 Wiman published a solo collection of poems […]
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