Frederick William Faber

Frederick William Faber (1814―1863) is best known as a theologian and hymnist. He was born in Yorkshire into a Calvinist family of Huguenot descent, but as a student at Oxford University became greatly influenced by John Henry Newman. During this time he took extended vacations in the Lake District, to write poetry, and wrestle through theological issues. There he was befriended by William Wordsworth.

While a student at Oxford, Faber won the Newdigate Prize for poetry, which has also been won by such poets as Matthew Arnold and Oscar Wilde. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1839, however, in 1845 both he and Newman left to join the Catholic Church.

As was common for 19th century Christian poets, Faber wrote much of his verse in the form of hymns. Perhaps his best-known is — ironically — “Faith of Our Fathers.” By the twentieth century, however, this hymn was being included in Protestant hymnbooks, and A.W. Tozer included twenty pieces by Faber in his anthology, The Christian Book of Mystical Verse (1963).

The Eternity of God

O Lord! my heart is sick,
Sick of this everlasting change;
And life runs tediously quick
Through its unresting race and varied range:
Change finds no likeness to itself in Thee,
And wakes no echo in Thy mute eternity.

Dear Lord! my heart is sick
Of this perpetual lapsing time,
So slow in grief, in joy so quick,
Yet ever casting shadows so sublime:
Time of all creatures is least like to Thee,
And yet it is our share of Thine eternity.

Oh change and time are storms,
For lives so thin and frail as ours;
For change the work of grace deforms
With love that soils, and help that overpowers;
And time is strong, and, like some chafing sea,
It seems to fret the shores of Thine eternity.

Weak, weak, for ever weak!
We cannot hold what we possess;
Youth cannot find, age will not seek, —
Oh weakness is the heart's worst weariness:
But weakest hearts can lift their thoughts to Thee;
It makes us strong to think of Thine eternity.

Thou hadst no youth, great God!
An Unbeginning End Thou art;
Thy glory in itself abode,
And still abides in its own tranquil heart:
No age can heap its outward years on Thee:
Dear God! Thou art Thyself Thine own eternity!

Without an end or bound
Thy life lies all outspread in light;
Our lives feel Thy life all around,
Making our weakness strong, our darkness bright;
Yet is it neither wilderness nor sea,
But the calm gladness of a full eternity.

Oh Thou art very great
To set Thyself so far above!
But we partake of Thine estate,
Established in Thy strength and in Thy love:
That love hath made eternal room for me
In the sweet vastness of its own eternity.

Oh Thou art very meek
To overshade Thy creatures thus!
Thy grandeur is the shade we seek;
To be eternal is Thy use to us:
Ah, Blessed God! what joy it is to me
To lose all thought of self in Thine eternity.

Self-wearied, Lord! I come;
For I have lived my life too fast:
Now that years bring me nearer home
Grace must be slowly used to make it last;
When my heart beats too quick I think of Thee,
And of the leisure of Thy long eternity.

Farewell vain joys of earth!
Farewell, all love that is not His!
Dear God! be Thou my only mirth,
Thy majesty my single timid bliss!
Oh in the bosom of eternity
Thou dost not weary of Thyself, nor we of Thee!

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.

John of Damascus

John of Damascus (c. 675―749) is a Byzantine Greek monk, priest, theologian and poet ― born and raised in Damascus, but who lived most of his life in monasteries near Jerusalem.

He is particularly known for his defense of the use of icons. Images of Christ and of the saints were, and continue to be, central to Orthodox worship. This was against the iconoclastic campaigns Emperor Leo III started in 726. John of Damascus argued, that although the Old Testament prohibited graven images, when Christ came in the flesh as “the image of the invisible God” such restrictions were no longer applicable. His writings played a significant role during the Second Council of Nicaea (787), which convened to settle this dispute.

The following is an excerpt from Christopher Childers' translation of “Paschal Canon” which can be read in its entirety in the new anthology To Heaven’s Rim: The Kingdom Poets Book of World Christian Poetry, Beginnings to 1800, in English Translation, which was edited by Burl Horniachek. I am fortunate enough to have worked alongside Burl in the completion of this significant work.

from Paschal Canon

The day of resurrection, may all God’s people brim
------------------with light. The Lord’s Passover!
From out of death to life, from Earth to heaven’s rim,
------------------we’re borne by the Prime Mover
our God Christ, as we sing out his victory hymn.

May all our senses be perfected; may we see,
------------------in resurrection’s sheer
untouchable brightness, Christ the Lightning, and may we
------------------perceive His voice, and hear
His ringing welcome, while we hymn His victory.

Let fitting celebrations exalt the smiling skies;
------------------let raptures seize the earth.
Let all the seen and unseen cosmos melt in cries
------------------of universal mirth.
The transport of the ages, Christ, awakes to rise.

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.

Anna Akhmatova*

Anna Akhmatova (1889—1966) is a Russian poet who lived most of her life in Saint Petersburg. Her first poetry collection, Evening (1912), established her as a significant poet, and her next two books Rosary (1914) and White Flock (1917) continued to build her reputation.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Akhmatova chose to remain in Russia even as other writers were fleeing to the West. Requiem, which she primarily wrote between 1935 and 1940, at first was about the arrest of her common-law husband Nikolay in 1935, but then became even more about the arrest of their son Lev in 1938 and his subsequent trial and sentencing.

The following is the tenth section from Requiem as translated by Stephen Capas. It appeared in the literary journal Cardinal Points in 2021.

Crucifixion

1

Don’t weep for me, Mother,
As I lie in my grave.

Choirs of angels hymned the glorious hour,
Dissolved in flame, the heavens glowed overhead.
“Why hast though forsaken me, my Father?”
And “Mother, do not weep for me,” he said.

2

Magdalen sobbed and wrung her hands in anguish,
The disciple whom he loved was still as stone.
But no one dared to look toward the place where
The Mother stood in silence, all alone.

1940-43

This post was suggested by my friend Burl Horniachek.

*This is the second Kingdom Poets post about Anna Akhmatova: first post.

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.

Claude McKay

Claude McKay (1889—1948) is a significant poet of the Harlem Renaissance. He was born in Jamaica and raised in the Baptist church. His hometown was predominantly black, but when he moved to Kingston he experienced the racism which treated blacks as subservient. After returning home, he had his first two poetry collections published in London: Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads.

In 1912 McKay went to the U.S. to attend college, financed through prize money he had received for his first book. By 1914 he moved to New York City, leaving the thought of education behind. Here he, again, was troubled by racism. He spent a couple years in Europe — primarily in Holland, Belgium and London, and by 1921 he returned to New York.

His first novel, Home to Harlem (1928) started McKay’s shift from poetry to fiction, and later to essays. He continued to travel extensively, until the mid-1940s when he moved to Chicago to worked as a teacher for a Catholic organization.

The following poem was recently featured by Victoria Emily Jones in her blog Art & Theology. It is from McKay’s 1922 book Harlem Shadows (Harcourt Brace).

A Prayer

'Mid the discordant noises of the day I hear thee calling;
I stumble as I fare along Earth's way; keep me from falling.

Mine eyes are open but they cannot see for gloom of night:
I can no more than lift my heart to thee for inward light.

The wild and fiery passion of my youth consumes my soul;
In agony I turn to thee for truth and self-control.

For Passion and all the pleasures it can give will die the death;
But this of me eternally must live, thy borrowed breath.

'Mid the discordant noises of the day I hear thee calling;
I stumble as I fare along Earth's way; keep me from falling.

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.

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.

Joseph Beaumont

Joseph Beaumont (1616―1699) was a college friend of Richard Crashaw at Cambridge, although as a poet is less known. After having received his M.A., he was among those scholars at Cambridge who lost their positions due to Royalist sympathies.

Taking advantage of the time this gave him, he spent eleven months writing his most ambitious poem ― an allegorical piece called Psyche, written in Spenserian stanzas, and consisting of 30,000 lines. The poem represents the soul journeying through difficulties toward eternal peace. It is thought to be the longest poem written in English.

During this period he became the domestic chaplain to Matthew Wren, Bishop of Ely, and married his step-daughter. They had six children, only one of whom survived to adulthood.

At the Restoration in 1660, he was made Doctor of Divinity and one of the king's chaplains. He became Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, and later of Peterhouse College.

The House of the Mind

As earth’s pageant passes by,
Let reflection turn thine eye
Inward, and observe thy breast;
There alone dwells solid rest.

That’s a close immurèd tower
Which can mock all hostile power:
To thyself a tenant be,
And inhabit safe and free.

Say not that this house is small,
Girt up in a narrow wall;
In a cleanly sober mind
Heaven itself full room doth find.

Th’ infinite Creator can
Dwell in it, and may not man?
Here content make thy abode
With thyself and with thy God.

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.

Drew Jackson

Drew Jackson is a poet and the founding pastor of Hope East Village ― a church serving Manhattan’s East Village and Lower East Side. His first poetry collection God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God’s Unexpected Coming appeared in 2021 from InterVarsity Press. The poems in this collection spring from the first eight chapters of Luke’s gospel. Jackson has been receiving a lot of attention for this book, including through social media and as a finalist in the Christian Book Awards.

When asked why he selected the Gospel of Luke to focus on for these poems, he said, “Luke is intent on centering the voices of the marginalized in his telling of the gospel story. In particular, he brings to the fore the voices of the poor and women in how he tells this story. This was something that I wanted to shape this poetry collection…”

By the time this post goes up, his second book Touch the Earth: Poems on The Way (2023, IVP) will have appeared. It is a follow-up to his first collection, with poems relating to Luke 9 to 24.

The following poem is from God Speaks Through Wombs.

An Opportune Time (Out in these Streets)

Luke 4:13

I remember the day they gave me the talk:

Watch the way you walk,
out in these streets.

Pay attention to how you speak,
out in these streets.

In the car, try not to lean
out in these streets.

No durag, keep yourself clean,
out in these streets.

You won’t know at what moment,
out in these streets.

The man will be riding by,
out in these streets.

You gotta keep yourself ready,
out in these streets.

It will happen at an opportune time,
out in these streets.

Posted with permission of the poet.

This post was suggested by my friend Ryan Apple.

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.