Litany of Flights (eBook)

Poems

Laura Reece Hogan (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020
96 Seiten
Paraclete Press (Verlag)
978-1-64060-611-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Winner of the 2020 Paraclete Poetry Prize, Litany of Flights is a luminous examination of the journey of the soul, from moments of loss to moments of incandescent transformation. These poems remind us to behold the extraordinary in the ordinary, and that the secret workings of the divine occur even through the difficult: "the painful paring of your hollow bones has made you light." Drawing on the beauty of the natural world, the devastating effects of drought and wildfires, tender moments of daily experience, and lessons of the saints, the poet creates a landscape of light and darkness, with unexpected turns into divine presence and absence. Through a spiral of red-tailed hawks, the nest of a mourning dove, the parting of waters, and the ripeness of a persimmon, this shimmering collection invites the reader to singular and transfiguring flight.

Litany of Flights

(from the forthcoming collection)


 


First, the winged movement, steady, forward. Scrub jays in flitting


progress, hawks in predator glide, a ringing up, a knife-sharp slope


 


down. Second, the effortless type, wind-splayed, motionless pinions


in thermal recline, as the Psalmist says, blessings breeze his love even


 


in sleep. Third, the hungry, against the gale, the destination singular


and the sun dipping crimson. Fourth, the metallic, business or pleasure.


 


Fifth, the whirring kind, all hummingbird. A picnic, apples and chocolate


in the garden with roses, both flower and child. You miss it when it's gone. 


 


Sixth, a baffling flight of stairs, winding upward, passage and yet vehicle,


spiraling to unseen landings—hope courses in the kaleidoscopic lights.


 


Seventh, soar to the sun. Eighth, melt in bitter hubris. You know the story.


Ninth, escape. A flight out of Egypt, a path through the sea cleared by


 


divine hand. The times you ran, the times you were left behind in lament.


Tenth, only rotting in the belly of a whale tames your stubborn turn from


 


Nineveh. Eleventh, flights of despair and of yearning, two sides of one


letting go, hard-earned release back into the wild, unbound by expectation,


 


featherlike. Twelfth, in a moment, caught up high by the Beloved, the one


making all things work together, wings, body, arch, air—caught up, like the


 


Shulamite bride, to regions beyond aeronautical wisdom, transported in joy.


See, he says, the painful paring of your hollow bones has made you light.


 

Autor

Laura Reece Hogan is the award-winning author of the poetry chapbook O Garden-Dweller (Finishing Line Press, 2017) and the nonfiction spiritual theology book I Live, No Longer I (Wipf & Stock, 2017). She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, and one of ten poets featured in the anthology In a Strange Land (Cascade Books, 2019). Her poems can be found in America, First Things, The Christian Century, The Cresset, The Windhover, Dappled Things, Anglican Theological Review, Whale Road Review, and other publications. Laura earned a J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, and an M.A. in theology from St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, California. She is a professed Third Order Carmelite. She can be found online at www.laurareecehogan.com.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 24.11.2020
• Reihe/Serie: Paraclete Poetry
• Reihe/Serie: Paraclete Poetry
• Verlagsort: ORLEANS
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Lyrik / Dramatik ► Lyrik / Gedichte
• Schlagworte: Laura Reece Hogan • Paraclete Poetry Prize • Poetry
• ISBN-10: 1-64060-611-4 / 1640606114
• ISBN-13: 978-1-64060-611-1 / 9781640606111