Waldo Williams

Waldo Williams (1904―1971) is a Welsh poet who, although he was raised as an English speaker, wrote in the Welsh language. He married Linda Llewellyn in 1941; he was grief-stricken when she died of tuberculosis only two years later, and he never remarried. In 1953 he joined the Quakers.

Waldo Williams was known as a Christian pacifist, and as a Welsh nationalist. He protested against the Korean War and military conscription by refusing to pay income tax; such action led to him twice being imprisoned.

Dail pren (The leaves of the tree) was the only volume of his poems published during his lifetime. The most comprehensive collection of Williams’ poetry in translation is Anthony Conran’s The Peacemakers: Selected Poems published by Gomer Press in 1997.

The following poem was translated by Menna Elfyn

What is it to be human?

What is staying alive? To possess
A great hall inside of a cell.
What is it to know? The same root
Underneath the branches.

What is it to believe? Being a carer
Until relief takes over.
And to forgive? On fours through thorns
To keep company to an old enemy.

What is it to sing? To receive breath
From the genius of creation.
What's work but humming a song
From wood and wheat.

What are state affairs? A craft
That's still only crawling?
And armaments? Thrust a knife
In a baby's fist.

Being a nation? What can it be? A gift
In the swell of the heart.
And to love a country? Keeping house
In a cloud of witnesses.

What's the world to the all powerful?
A circle spinning.
And to the children of the earth?
A cradle rocking.

This post was suggested by my friend Burl Horniachek.

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.

Phillis Wheatley*

Phillis Wheatley (circa 1753—1784) is a black American poet whose book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral appeared on the eve of the American Revolution in 1773. She had been kidnapped as a child from her African home, by slave traders, and sold to tailor John Wheatley in Boston.

Growing up with the Wheatley’s children she learned to read and write. Her poem “An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of the Celebrated Divine…George Whitefield” (1770), drew attention to her talent sufficiently to lead to the publication of her book in London, England. She was a social success there, but returned to Boston, due to the illness of her mistress, Susanna Wheatley. She was given her freedom, prior to the deaths of John and Susanna. Her life of freedom did not turn out well, though; she was abandoned by her husband (also a freed black slave) was forced to hire herself out as a servant, and died in poverty at age 31.

The following poem ― being an elegy, arranged in couplets, and focussing on Christian truths ― is typical of Phillis Wheatley’s poetry.

On the Death of a Young Lady of Five Years of Age

From dark abodes to fair etherial light
Th' enraptur'd innocent has wing'd her flight;
On the kind bosom of eternal love
She finds unknown beatitude above.
This known, ye parents, nor her loss deplore,
She feels the iron hand of pain no more;
The dispensations of unerring grace,
Should turn your sorrows into grateful praise;
Let then no tears for her henceforward flow,
No more distress'd in our dark vale below,
Her morning sun, which rose divinely bright,
Was quickly mantled with the gloom of night;
But hear in heav'n's blest bow'rs your Nancy fair,
And learn to imitate her language there.
"Thou, Lord, whom I behold with glory crown'd,
"By what sweet name, and in what tuneful sound
"Wilt thou be prais'd? Seraphic pow'rs are faint
"Infinite love and majesty to paint.
"To thee let all their graceful voices raise,
"And saints and angels join their songs of praise."
Perfect in bliss she from her heav'nly home
Looks down, and smiling beckons you to come;
Why then, fond parents, why these fruitless groans?
Restrain your tears, and cease your plaintive moans.
Freed from a world of sin, and snares, and pain,
Why would you wish your daughter back again?
No––bow resign'd. Let hope your grief control,
And check the rising tumult of the soul.
Calm in the prosperous, and adverse day,
Adore the God who gives and takes away;
Eye him in all, his holy name revere,
Upright your actions, and your hearts sincere,
Till having sail'd through life's tempestuous sea,
And from its rocks, and boist'rous billows free,
Yourselves, safe landed on the blissful shore,
Shall join your happy babe to part no more.

*This is the second Kingdom Poets post about Phillis Wheatley: 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.

Jane Tyson Clement

Jane Tyson Clement (1917―2000) is a poet, playwright and short story writer who grew up in Manhattan. She always felt more at home in Bay Head, New Jersey, at her family’s summer house away from the city. These experiences imprinted on her mind the images of beauty in the natural world which would appear in her writing for years to come.

Once married, she and her husband joined the Bruderhof, a pacifist, Christian community which aligned well with their own attitudes.

In 1952 she published the chapbook The Heavenly Garden, but her poems primarily remained hidden for years. After her death in March of 2000, her family collected her poetry which was published as No One Can Stem The Tide (Plough).

In 2019 Plough Publishing published The Heart’s Necessities ― a book of Jane Tyson Clement’s poetry, but also the story of her life, with appreciations and tribute from Becca Stevens, a singer/songwriter who has set several of Clement’s poems to music.

The following poem was written in April 1977.

The Spider

I watch the spider fling
its most improbable thread ―
from aspen limb to birch
and back again.

So do we fling our faith
from star to star
and under God’s eternal, watching care
the perfect orb
will come.

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.

Pier Giorgio Di Cicco*

Pier Giorgio Di Cicco (1949―2019) is a Catholic priest and the author of more than 20 books of poetry ― most recently Wishipedia (2018, Mansfield Press). He briefly taught Italian and Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto, and served as the Poet Laureate of the City of Toronto between 2004 and 2009.

At the time of his death on December 22nd from a heart attack, his role was providing chaplaincy services at St. Columbkille Roman Catholic Church in Orillia, Ontario.

The following poem is from his book Names of Blessing (2009, Novalis). B.C. poet Richard Osler shared this poem in an essay on “Poetry As Prayer.”

Dedication

I sing for you.
I am made for song.
It is my purpose, to invent new music, as a kind of prayer
that everything is, a cane tapping, a child running, the way
a leaf falls in its arpeggio. Everything states “consort”,
“orchestration”, and even music is to Him what is unrecognizable
to us:
the poor conversation, the bad day; it is our forcing
of a called tune that makes us deaf. For his musics weave
like wind, taking a sudden turn, holding up leaves, blowing the
snow.
We tap into his musics and call it a page, a song.
When our will is congruent to what we hear,
we are poets,
and people of prayer.

*This is the second Kingdom Poets post about Pier Giorgio Di Cicco: 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.