Nellie deVries

Nellie deVries is a Michigan poet, and the author of the new collection Japanese Garden: Four Seasons of Poems. (Resource Publications, 2026). Although she has authored three books for children through Baker Book House, this is her first poetry collection.

She was one of the participants in my festival circle group at the Festival of Faith & Writing back in 2014, and shared her poetry in my subsequent blog The 55 Project. Since then her poems have appeared in such publications as: Peninsula Poets, VietNow, Heart of Flesh, Exhale, and the anthologies Busy Griefs, Raw Towns; Michigan Roots, and Adam, Eve, & the Riders of the Apocalypse.

The following poem appeared in the anthology Adam, Eve, & the Riders of the Apocalypse edited by D.S. Martin (Poiema/Cascade, 2017).

Dwelling

2 Corinthians 5; 2 Timothy 4

In a Roman prison
the tentmaker looks at his hands,
calloused and needle-pricked,
and remembers a metaphor he had written:
...if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed,
we have a building from God, an eternal house
in heaven, not built by human hands.

He shudders at the chill autumn winds
and groans, longing to be clothed
wiht his heavenly dwelling.
With cold-gnarled fingers he grabs a quill
and writes, My dear son, I long to see you.
Bring my cloak, and my scrols, especially
the parchments. Come to me quickly.
Do your best to get here before winter.

Posted with permission of the poet.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of six poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Poiema/Cascade), plus three anthologies — available through Wipf & Stock. His new book The Role of the Moon, inspired by the Metaphysical Poets, is now available from Paraclete Press.

Petrarch*

Petrarch (1304―1374) is an Italian writer and intellectual who composed both in Latin and in the Italian vernacular. His masterwork, today known as Canzoniere, is a collection of 366 poems that have immeasurably influenced the Western tradition.

He was born in Arezzo, south of Florence. As a boy he met Dante Alighieri, who, like his parents, was of the White Guelph party, and a fellow Florentine exile. When he was 26, Petrarch received the patronage of the wealthy Colonna family, which enabled him to pursue his own interests, and to amass the largest private library in Europe. Especially in his latter years, he was a devout Roman Catholic who daily recited the Liturgy of the Hours.

Appearing this month from W.W. Norton is A.M. Juster’s new translation of Petrarch’s Canzoniere. He explains that his goal “was to imitate closely Petrarch’s music and fresh language, while being faithful to the text [trying to] sidestep problems of recent translations by translating sentences as units and avoiding word-for-word translation unless it worked as poetry.”

Dana Gioia’s responded to this new translation by saying, “I find it impossible to overpraise this new edition of Petrarch’s Canzoniere… A.M. Juster’s rhymed translations re-create Petrarch’s forms without losing either their lyrical passion or vernacular energy.”

from Canzoniere 264

I ponder, and self-pity then assails
my thoughts so much it keeps on leading me
to weeping differently,
since, seeing every day the end is near,
I ask God for those wings repeatedly,
so that with them my intellect could sail
out of this mortal jail
and up into the realm of Heaven’s spere,
and yet, until right now, no sigh, nor tear,
nor prayer has done much good, which fits the bill,
since anybody who can stand up straight,
yet falls along the way, deserves the fate
of lying on the ground against his will.
I see, trustworthy still,
forgiving, open arms; through torn apart
by what some do, my heart
is gripped by fear that rocks my mental state;
someone prods me; and it may be too late.

Posted with permission of the translator.

*This is the third Kingdom Poets post about Petrarch: first post, second post.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of six poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Poiema/Cascade), plus three anthologies — available through Wipf & Stock. His new book The Role of the Moon, inspired by the Metaphysical Poets, is now available from Paraclete Press.

Matthew Bridges

Matthew Bridges (1800—1894) is a poet and hymn-writer whose first book Jerusalem Regained: A Poem appeared in 1825 (L.B. Seeley and Son). He was an Anglican minister who at first wrote critically of Roman Catholicism. Under the influence of the Oxford Movement and John Henry Newman, he transferred his allegiance to the Catholic Church in 1848. His poetry collection, Babbicombe, or Visions of Memory, appeared in 1852.

Later in life he lived for several years in Quebec, but returned to England before he died.

The following hymn was written in 1851as a result of Bridges’ reflections on John’s Book of Revelation, including Revelation 19:12. The lyrics you see below are Bridges’ original version. In 1868, an Anglican priest named Godfrey Thring added six further verses to the hymn. The version you are likely familiar with has been distilled down to four verses —for printing in hymn books — from the earlier twelve.

Crown Him with Many Crowns

Crown him with many crowns,
The Lamb upon his throne;
Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns
All music but its own:
Awake, my soul, and sing
Of him who died for thee,
And hail him as thy matchless king
Through all eternity.

Crown him the Virgin's Son!
The God Incarnate born,—
Whose arm those crimson trophies won
Which now his brow adorn!
Fruit of the mystic Rose
As of that Rose the Stem:
The Root, whence mercy ever flows,-
The Babe of Bethlehem!

Crown him the Lord of love!
Behold his hands and side, —
Rich wounds, yet visible above,
In beauty glorified:
No angel in the sky
Can fully bear that sight,
But downward bends his burning eye
At mysteries so bright!

Crown him the Lord of peace!
Whose power a scepter sways,
From pole to pole, —that wars may cease,
Absorbed in prayer and praise:
his reign shall know no end,
And round his pierced feet
Fair flowers of paradise extend
Their fragrance ever sweet.

Crown him the Lord of years!
The Potentate of time, —
Creator of the rolling spheres,
Ineffably sublime!
Glassed in a sea of light,
Where everlasting waves
Reflect his throne, —the Infinite!
Who lives, —and loves—and saves.

Crown him the Lord of heaven!
One with the Father known, —
And the blest Spirit, through him given
From yonder triune throne!
All hail! Redeemer, —Hail!
For Thou hast died for me;
Thy praise shall never, never fail
Throughout eternity!

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of six poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Poiema/Cascade), plus three anthologies — available through Wipf & Stock. His new book The Role of the Moon, inspired by the Metaphysical Poets, is now available from Paraclete Press.