poetry
Inventing a voice for Louis Till
John Edgar Wideman counters the official record of Emmett Till’s father with a more empathetic version.
by Amy Frykholm
Can the world be saved by poetry?
I was skeptical. Then I heard a poet read one of his poems.
How Paterson sidesteps the clichés embraced by La La Land
Escapism can be delightful. But artistic creation also uses the fodder of daily life.
Elegies without consolation
An anthology of poetry mourning the demise of the Church of England
Millay the poet, Millay the woman
Readers won't easily trace Edna St. Vincent Millay's personal life in this collection.
Poetry that bids us welcome
How is it that the poems of a 17th-century aristocrat still resonate with us?
Politics into poetry
Need a book to replenish your political and spiritual imagination this election season? I recommend Adrienne Rich's Collected Poems.
A garden of gratitude: Poet Ross Gay
"I've learned a lot from working with trees. More important, I've worked with people on imagining how to love each other."
interview by Amy Frykholm
she: robed and wordless, by Lou Ella Hickman
This slim volume of poetry gives voice to the women of the Bible, named and unnamed.
Ordinary grace
The reversals in this book aren’t easy. There is nothing sentimental or giddy about them. They are real. They are ordinary.
Shadows of a saint
Williams was at once theologian, mystic, poet, novelist, editor, playwright, and critic, not to mention (possibly) a living Anglican saint.
Poetic nothingness
This collection is suffused with one of poetry’s most fundamental aims: making meaning out of suffering and loss.
by Anya Silver
Poetic solitude
From his youth Lax experienced a love of God that would not abate, calling him toward both solitude and engagement with others.
by Scott Cairns
Glimpses of Mary
In the latest issue of the Century, Philip Jenkins writes about how the veneration of Mary cuts across religious difference in Egypt. Egypt was the place where Mary first lit up the imaginations of Christians, but apparently her appeal is not limited by culture or religious heritage. Lately I’ve come across a couple of enchanting books that illuminate this for me.
By Amy Frykholm
Splitting an Order, by Ted Kooser
Simple, measured, and settled, the poems in Ted Kooser's new collection were composed by an artist with nothing further to prove.
reviewed by Jeffrey L. Johnson
E. E. Cummings: Complete Poems, 1904–1962 and The Collected Poems of James Laughlin
E. E. Cummings and James Laughlin didn’t write with metaphysical or philosophical ambition. But that doesn’t mean their poetry doesn’t matter.
reviewed by Jon Sweeney
Gold, by Barbara Crooker
Barbara Crooker enters the shades and brush strokes of daily life with such reverence that readers want to take notice, live better, and die better.
reviewed by Tania Runyan