Dave Harrity

Dave Harrity is a Kentucky poet, and an Assistant Professor of English at Campbellsville University. He is the founder of Antler — a community-building and spiritual-formation organization designed to encourage the integration of creativity in devotional practice. Visit Antler here. The heart of Antler can be seen in Harrity's book, Making Manifest: On Faith, Creativity, and the Kingdom at Hand, which consists of meditations and writing exercises.

My friendship with Dave Harrity began many years ago at the Festival of Faith & Writing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It's been good to witness his development as a writer and speaker. His poetry chapbook, Morning & What Has Come Since, was released by Finishing Line Press in 2007, and was nominated for several awards. At that time Nicholas Samaras declared, "...we welcome the arrival of David Harrity whose observations are acute, [and] whose turns of phrase are artful, arresting and original..."

I am so pleased to have been able to assist him as editor for his first full-length poetry collection, These Intricacies, which has just appeared as part of the Poiema Poetry Series from Cascade Books. The following is from These Intricacies.

from Novena (6)

Let me know the distance
from your ghost to my bones.

Let these knees singe the ground
under coal-brushed clouds.

Let my voice grow into prayer
with my face against the soil.

Let the seed begin the tree,
the taproot kiss through stone.

Let hands grow to branches,
divide and rise to green.

Let fingers flower into leaves
and wander to the sky.

Let churning be an icon,
the beginning to your reach.

Let rain create the heat,
and batter every leaf.

Let lines of lightning chalk the sky,
fierce flare to flash and rush.

Let my pieces smolder
in the absence of your touch.

Posted with permission of the poet.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. His latest poetry collection, Conspiracy of Light: Poems Inspired by the Legacy of C.S. Lewis, is available from Wipf & Stock as is his earlier award-winning collection, Poiema.