When Poets Pray

by Marilyn McEntyre

Overview

Two dozen select prayer poems to learn from and live with

Poetry and prayer are closely related. We often look to poets to give language to our deepest hopes, fears, losses—and prayers. Poets slow us down. They teach us to stop and go in before we go on. They play at the edges of mystery, holding a tension between line and sentence, between sense and reason, between the transcendent and the deeply, comfortingly familiar. 

When Poets Pray contains thoughtful meditations by Marilyn McEntyre on choice poems/prayers and poems about prayer. Her beautifully written reflections are contemplative exercises, not scholarly analyses, meant more as invitation than instruc¬tion. Here McEntyre shares gifts that she herself has received from poets who pray, or who reflect on prayer, believing that they have other gifts to offer readers seeking spiritual companionship along our pilgrim way. 

POETS DISCUSSED IN THIS BOOK

Hildegard of Bingen 
Lucille Clifton 
Walter Chalmers Smith 
Robert Frost 
Wendell Berry 
Joy Harjo 
John Donne 
Gerard Manley Hopkins 
Said 
Marilyn McEntyre 
George Herbert
Thomas Merton 
Denise Levertov 
Scott Cairns 
Mary Oliver 
Marin Sorescu 
T. S. Eliot 
Richard Wilbur 
Francisco X. Alarcon 
Anna Kamienska 
Michael Chitwood 
Psalm 139:1-12

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467456883
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	05/28/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	303 KB

About the Author

Marilyn McEntyre is the award-winning author of several books on language and faith, including What's in a Phrase? Pausing Where Scripture Gives You Pause (winner of a Christianity Today 2015 book award in spirituality); Make a List: How a Simple Practice Can Change Our Lives and Open Our Hearts; Word by Word: A Daily Spiritual Practice; and Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies.
 Marilyn McEntyre is the award-winning author of several books on language and faith, including Where the Eye Alights, Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies, Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict, When Poets Pray, Make a List, Word by Word, and What's in a Phrase? Pausing Where Scripture Gives You Pause, winner of the 2015 Christianity Today book award in spirituality.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Natures God

Hildegard of Bingen: From Meditations 7

Lucille Clifton: "spring song" 13

Walter Chalmers Smith: "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise" 18

Robert Frost: "A Prayer in Spring" 22

Wendell Berry: "Prayer after Eating" 27

Joy Harjo: "Eagle Poem" 30

Wrestling

John Donne: "Holy Sonnet XIV" 37

Gerard Manley Hopkins: "Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord" 42

SAID: Psalm (from 99 Psalms) 48

Marilyn McEntyre: "Assurance" 53

Praying

George Herbert: "The Call" 61

Thomas Merton: "The Candlemas Procession" 66

Denise Levertov: "The Avowal" 70

Galway Kinnell: "Prayer" 74

Scott Cairns: "Possible Answers to Prayer" 79

Mary Oliver: "Praying" 84

Marin Sorescu: "Prayer" 87

Witnessing

T. S. Eliot: From "The Dry Salvages" 93

Richard Wilbur: From "The Eye" 97

Francisco X. Alarcon: "L. A. Prayer" 103

Anna Kamienska: "Those Who Carry" 109

Michael Chitwood: "On Being Asked to Pray for a Van" 113

Anonymous Truck Driver's Prayer: by a Young Ghanaian Christian 117

Known and Knowing

Psalm 139:1-12 125

Praying with Poems, Praying through Poems: An Afterword 129

Works Cited 133

List of Permissions 137

Editorial Reviews

06/14/2019

McEntyre (What's in a Phrase? Pausing Where Scripture Gives You Pause) invites readers to interact with 24 poems around the theme of prayer with the aim "to share gifts I have received from poets who pray, or who reflect on prayer, confident that they have other gifts to deliver to readers who seek in them the spiritual companionship one pilgrim can offer another along the way." The poems vary by style, geography, and time period. The meditations succeed in leading to mindful responses. For instance, Scott Cairns's "Possible Answers to Prayer" reminds us that many prayers "underestimate and underutilize the power of prayer to widen the heart and the scope of compassion by connecting one's own immediate needs with those of the world." Readers will be challenged to think beyond personal needs to a universe that needs assistance. McEntyre's selections and commentary help bring us alongside a poet who expresses needs and thoughts clearer than one could imagine. VERDICT Will appeal to religious readers who might be reticent to read poetry as well as those who enjoy it. Strongly recommended for all libraries.—Ray Arnett, Anderson, SC

Library Journal