Jennifer Reeser

Jennifer Reeser is a formalist Louisiana poet who has published five collections, including: An Alabaster Flask, and Sonnets from the Dark Lady and Other Poems, which was a finalist for the Donald Justice Prize.

She has been highly praised by such formalist poets as X.J Kennedy and A.M. Juster, who called her “…our top Native American poet.” As a translator, she has published poetry from Russian (Anna Akhmatova), French, and various Native American languages.

Her recent collection Indigenous (Able Muse Press) was awarded “Best Poetry Book of 2019” by Englewood Review of Books. Her new book Strong Feather is scheduled to appear this March.

The following poem is from Indigenous and was included in the anthology Christian Poetry in America Since 1940 (2022, Paraclete Press).

O Great Spirit

Great Spirit of the God who is alive,
Whose risen Son I seek before the dawn
Who makes the black and gold sunflower thrive
The earthworm loosen soil beneath the lawn;
Great Spirit, grant my late grandmothers’ looks
Attend me while I rub her cherry hutch.
Great Spirit, grant my late grandfather’s books
Preserve his signature I love to touch.
Surround and show to me that massive clouds
Of witnesses ― undauntable or docile.
Allow their countenances to enshroud
My shoulders, spoken of by Your Apostle.
Send generous Nunnehi to my steeple,
Returning me at last to my dark people.

Posted with permission of the poet.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of five poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Cascade) ― a book of poems written from the point-of-view of angels. His books are available through Wipf & Stock.

William Baer*

William Baer is a poet, playwright, fiction writer and university professor. He is the author of twenty two books, including six poetry collections ― the most recent of which is Love Sonnets (2016, White Violet Press). He has won the T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize, and the X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize. Baer is a champion of the New Formalism, having edited several poetry anthologies highlighting metrical poetry, and he founded the journal The Formalist. He is also the founding director of the Richard Wilbur Poetry Series.

William Baer has taught creative writing, cinema, and world cultures at the University of Evansville, in Indiana.

The following poem first appeared in Louisiana English Journal, and is from his collection Psalter.

Gethsemani

--------------------(Luke 22:44)

This is the bloody chalice of agony
borne of what’s to come. Which catches his breath
with wracking fears of what will come to be:
the whips, the thorns, the crucifixion and death.
It is an agony borne of sacrifice:
taking upon himself, in this lonely place,
every single evil, sin, and vice,
redeeming the entire human race.
It is an agony borne of the dreadful fact
that despite his efforts from now to Pentecost,
not all the world will properly react,
and many will still reject him and be lost.
And so, his blood, like sweat, without a sound,
Seeps through his flesh and trickles to the ground.

Posted with permission of the poet.

*This is the second Kingdom Poets post about William Baer: first post.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. His latest poetry collection is Ampersand (2018, Cascade). His books are available through Amazon, and Wipf & Stock, including the anthologies The Turning Aside, and Adam, Eve, & the Riders of the Apocalypse.