Tag: Gerard Manley Hopkins
-
Giving Hopkins a Chance to Name the World
When I read a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem to a group, I generally start by saying, “Don’t worry about getting it all on first hearing. Just let the words flow over you and see how you feel.” That’s how I started on him, though tremendously helped by a book in the Augsburg Fortress 40 Day…
-
The Rough Beauty & Devotional Poetry of Kimberly Johnson
About halfway through Kimberly Johnson’s 2002 poetry collection, Leviathan With a Hook, you find yourself face-to-face with the themes that have since come to characterize much of her work: a moment that opens the world, a rich encounter with nature and transcendence, and a little hint of disturbing fire. It’s all right there in “Up…
-
The Coasts of Anhedonia – Poetry
The land, this land, is not a problem to be solved. It is a matrix, this mother, for health. The great migrations of the day— from Syria, the South, central Africa— are symptoms of a greater dis location. It’s not just about resources and economic opportunity (or lack thereof). These are…
-
Tinder Mercies – Poetry
‘But everywhere I look I see fire; that which isn’t flint is tinder and the whole world sparks and flames.’ —Annie Dillard, ‘On foot in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley’ ‘I have found the dominant of my range and state— Love, O my God, to call thee Love and Love’ —Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘Let Me Be to…
Heartlands 