A substantive, streamlined look at early Christian poetry and music.
A debut book provides a blend of scholarship and creative translation focusing on Christianity’s formative years.
Though contemporary Christians of all types are used to singing hymns in church, the praise song has a history in the Judeo-Christian tradition going back perhaps four millennia, existing in the earliest biblical texts; scholars find it in the first Psalms, Exodus, and arguably even Genesis. Glendinning offers a sturdy contribution to this tradition in these new English renderings of Christian hymns from the Middle Ages. Some are reworked from Latin originals by giants of the ecclesiastical tradition; Thomas Aquinas is here, as are Abelard, Ambrose, and Bonaventura. Others come from dimmer stars in the pantheon, among them Fulbert of Chartres, Marbod of Rennes, and Alan of Lille. But each of these verses earns its place in this volume. Here is the end of a lauds song by Aquinas: “O Lamb of God, salvation’s grace, / That opens for us Heaven’s door, / We know the throes that all must face, / O bide with us, our strength restore!” And here is a piercing stanza from the lesser-known Paulinus of Aquileia: “Like teeming olive trees of God, the two, / A candelabrum’s fervent arms of gold, / Two luminaries lighting Heaven’s sky, / They loose and cast aside the chains of sin, / Unlock the gates of Paradise anew.” Glendinning is right to point out that both of these passages—along with many others in this valuable, satisfying compendium—engage a common theme: the urge to “prepare one’s soul for eternity.” And this shared concern acts as a narrow ribbon lacing together these 40-odd poems from roughly 1,000 years of religious history. But as remarkable as Glendinning’s work as a translator is, the academic writing here is even more impressive. In an extended introduction and brief prefaces to each set of hymns, the author presents historical context, formal analysis, and his own translation theory. Even better, he rolls out all this worthy material without the unnecessarily complicated jargon that mars many similar scholarly volumes.
A substantive, streamlined look at early Christian poetry and music.Pub Date: March 12, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4602-4977-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An emotional, captivating Christian story in verse.
Heidish (A Misplaced Woman, 2016, etc.) presents an account of St. Francis of Assisi’s life, as told from his father’s perspective in poetic form.
St. Francis is known as a saint who believed in living the Gospel, gave sermons to birds, and tamed a wolf. Over the course of 84 poems, Heidish tells her own fictionalized version of the saint’s journey. In his youth, Francesco is an apprentice of his father, Pietro Bernardone, a fabric importer. The boy is a sensitive dreamer and nature lover who sees “natural holiness in every living thing.” As an adult, Francesco decides to pursue knighthood, but God warns him to “Go back, child / Serve the master.” He joins the Church of San Damiano, steals his father’s storeroom stock, and sells it to rebuild the church. His furious father chains him in the cellar, and the bishop orders Francesco to repay the debt. Afterward, father and son stop speaking to each other; Francesco becomes a healer of the sick and a proficient preacher. After failing to broker a peace agreement during wartime, Francesco falls into depression and resigns his church position. He retreats to the mountains and eventually dies; it’s only then that Pietro becomes a true follower of St. Francis: “You are the father now and I the son / learning still what it means to be a saint,” he says. Heidish’s decision to tell this story from Pietro’s perspective is what makes this oft-told legend seem fresh again. She uses superb similes and metaphors; for example, at different points, she writes that St. Francis had eyes like “lit wicks” and a spirit that “shone like a clean copper pot.” In another instance, she describes the Church of San Damiano as a place in which “walls crumbled / like stale dry bread.” Following the poems, the author also offers a thorough and engaging historical summary of the real life of St. Francis, which only adds further context and depth to the tale.
An emotional, captivating Christian story in verse.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9905262-1-6
Page Count: 146
Publisher: Dolan & Associates
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A poignant collection by a talented poet still in search of one defining voice.
A debut volume of poetry explores love and war.
Divided into four sections, Osaki’s book covers vast emotional territories. Section 1, entitled “Walking Back the Cat,” is a reflection on youthful relationships both familial and romantic. “Dying Arts,” the second part, is an examination of war and its brutal consequences. But sections three and four, named “Tradecraft” and “Best Evidence” respectively, do not appear to group poems by theme. The collection opens with “My Father Holding Squash,” one of Osaki’s strongest poems. It introduces the poet’s preoccupation with ephemera—particularly old photographs and letters. Here he describes a photo that is “several years old” of his father in his garden. Osaki muses that an invisible caption reads: “Look at this, you poetry-writing / jackass. Not everything I raise is useless!” The squash is described as “bearable fruit,” wryly hinting that the poet son is considered somewhat less bearable in his father’s eyes. Again, in the poem “Photograph,” Osaki is at his best, sensuously describing a shot of a young woman and the fleeting nature of that moment spent with her: “I know only that I was with her / in a room years ago, and that the sun filtering / into that room faded instantly upon striking the floor.” Wistful nostalgia gives way to violence in “Dying Arts.” Poems such as “Preserve” present a battleground dystopia: “Upturned graves and craters / to swim in when it rains. / Small children shake skulls / like rattles, while older ones carve rifles / out of bone.” Meanwhile, “Silver Star” considers the act of escorting the coffin of a dead soldier home, and “Gun Song” ruminates on owning a weapon to protect against home invasion. The language is more jagged here but powerfully unsettling nonetheless. The collection boasts a range of promising poetic voices, but they do not speak to one another, a common pitfall found in debuts. “Walking Back the Cat” is outstanding in its refined attention to detail; the sections following it read as though they have been produced by two or more other poets. Nevertheless, this is thoughtful, timely writing that demands further attention.
A poignant collection by a talented poet still in search of one defining voice.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-984198-32-7
Page Count: 66
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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