Roger Wagner

Roger Wagner is primarily known as a painter, however he also writes poems. His Fire Sonnets is a collection of poetry that is accompanied by his own wood cuts. He is also in the process of producing five illustrated books of his own translations of the Psalms; the first three volumes of The Book of Praises are available on his website.

His paintings appear in collections around the world, including the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. In 2014 he painted the first portrait of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, which is housed in Auckland Castle.

The following poem shares its name with one of his most famous paintings (1989, Oil on canvas 154.8x188cm), which is part of a private collection. Composer J.A.C. Redford has also set two of Roger Wagner's sonnets to music, including this one, in a piece entitled "I Saw The Cherubim".

The Harvest is the End of the World and the Reapers are Angels

- Matthew 13 v39

I saw the cherubim one summer’s night
Reaping it seemed a field of endless wheat.
I heard their voices through the fading light
Wild, strange and yet intolerably sweet.
The hour such beauty first was born on earth
The dawn of judgment had that hour begun
For some would not endure love’s second birth
Preferring their own darkness to that sun.
And still love’s sun must rise upon our night
For nothing can be hidden from its heat;
And in that summer evening’s fading light
I saw his angels gather in the wheat:
Like beaten gold their beauty smote the air
And tongues of flame were streaming in their hair.

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.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning*

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806—1861) is one of the nineteenth century's most influential poets. She was so admired by Emily Dickinson that she had a framed picture of the English poet in her bedroom.

Elizabeth Barrett suffered a spinal injury while saddling a pony, when she was 15 years old; that, along with a lung ailment, eventually made her an invalid. "Books and dreams were what I lived in and domestic life only seemed to buzz gently around, like bees about the grass," she said years later. In her teens she taught herself Hebrew so she could read the Old Testament, and later began learning Greek.

Her father was overly protective of her, and disapproved of her romance with Robert Browning. In 1846 the couple eloped and moved to Italy, where her health improved significantly. They soon settled in Florence, where they lived until her death 15 years later. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's sarcophagus is in the Protestant Cemetery in Florence.

A Child's Thought of God

They say that God lives very high;
But if you look above the pines
You cannot see our God; and why?
And if you dig down in the mines,
You never see Him in the gold,
Though from Him all that’s glory shines.
God is so good, He wears a fold
Of heaven and earth across His face,
Like secrets kept, for love, untold.
But still I feel that His embrace
Slides down by thrills, through all things made,
Through sight and sound of every place;
As if my tender mother laid
On my shut lids her kisses’ pressure,
Half waking me at night, and said,
“Who kissed you through the dark, dear guesser?”

*This is the second Kingdom Poets post about Elizabeth Barrett Browning: first post, third post, fourth post.

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.

Laurie Klein

Laurie Klein is active in many aspects of the arts including as a poet, songwriter and visual artist. She has taught theatre arts at Whitworth University in Spokane, and is one of the founding editors of the journal Rock & Sling, which now makes its home at that university. She won the Predator Press Chapbook Prize for Bodies of Water, Bodies of Flesh (2004), and the 2007 Thomas Merton Prize for Poetry of the Sacred. Her first full-length poetry collection Where the Sky Opens has recently appeared as part of the Poiema Poetry Series from Cascade Books. As her editor I am thankful for the chance to work with Laurie in making this fine book available.

Her poem "Lauds in a Pocket" appeared at my blog The 55 Project in May of 2014, and is included in her new book. The following poem is also from Where the Sky Opens.

Jonah’s Whale Addresses the Almighty

Ruler of oceans, who can fathom
your summons? Pity my moans,
this small throat aching for everyday air.
Doubts are lice. They eat into brain and heart.
With a word, I’m consigned to an unknown shore.
Oh, maker of magnificent tails, reconsider
stranding me, far from the circle of my kind!
By your gift, salt is my song; your call
unleashes this sonar lament.

Never mind. You command my breath, as ever,
so let the columns of bubbles
rise, like prayers, our net
to enfold a wayward son. I’ll do as I’m told, only
ease the lung-numbing gulp, the intestinal hell.
Then, may whatever end you design
close its mouth over me.
Not to leap, not to swim—but this I ask—
let me sink into you, before beaching.

Posted with permission of the poet.

This is the first Kingdom Poets post about Laurie Klein: second post.

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.

Kelly Cherry

Kelly Cherry taught at the University of Wisconsin—Madison for more than 20 years. She is the author of several novels, story collections and nonfiction books. Her many poetry collections include: Natural Theology (1988), Death and Transfiguration (1997), and Hazard and Prospect: New and Selected Poems (2007). She served as the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2010 to 2012. She lives on a small farm in Virginia with her husband, the fiction writer Burke Davis III.

She is one of the poets to be included in an upcoming anthology of contemporary Christian poetry, which I am editing for the Poiema Poetry Series (Cascade Books), and which is slated to come out early in 2016. She recently told me she is working on a sequence of poems about Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

The following poem is included in Hazard and Prospect.

Virgin and Child

I’ll say that there are bits of gold
---------stuck in her hair, star-bits, brilliant
------------------blue slivers at the edge of the painting
that seem to dance in the light
---------from the fire.
------------------I’ll say there’s a fire even though there can’t be
and I’ll say the painting is as large as a room
---------and it can be. She moves in it
------------------as if it is a room,
the gold bits gleaming like candles
---------that consume nothing, not even themselves.
------------------The child crawls out of her arms
and onto the floor
---------and his plump wrists
------------------and knees
are like loaves of bread,
---------his mouth smells of milk,
------------------his palms are so tiny
there’s no room for even one nail hole.
---------She steps out of the frame,
------------------her hair sparkling
and the background to everything lapis lazuli and glittering,
---------and when she calls to him, clapping
------------------and laughing,
he hurtles toward her,
---------on all fours of course,
------------------and she catches him up
and swings him over her head,
---------and her hair with the stars pinned in it
------------------and the dancing blue background
slip backward into space
---------and it is the child’s face
------------------risen now, looking down,
into her face,
---------mother and son
------------------meeting each other’s eyes
as we look on.

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.

John Meade Falkner

John Meade Falkner (1858—1922) is a British novelist and poet. He was also quite successful in business, becoming the chair of the arms manufacturer Armstrong Whitworth. For many years he was the company's ambassador to foreign governments — spending much time in Europe and South America.

He published guidebooks for Oxfordshire, Bath and Berkshire, and three novels, the most famous of which is Moonfleet (1898).

After retirement he settled in Durham, becoming an Honorary Reader in paleography at the university, and an Honorary Librarian at the cathedral.

Christmas Day. The Family Sitting

In the days of Caesar Augustus
There went forth this decree:
Si quis rectus et justus
Liveth in Galilee,
Let him go up to Jerusalem
And pay his scot to me.

There are passed one after the other
Christmases fifty-three,
Since I sat here with my mother
And heard the great decree:
How they went up to Jerusalem
Out of Galilee.

They have passed one after the other;
Father and mother died,
Brother and sister and brother
Taken and sanctified.
I am left alone in the sitting,
With none to sit beside.

On the fly-leaves of these old prayer-books
The childish writings fade,
Which show that once they were their books
In the days when prayer was made
For other kings and princesses,
William and Adelaide.

The pillars are twisted with holly,
And the font is wreathed with yew,
Christ forgive me for folly,
Youth’s lapses — not a few,
For the hardness of my middle life,
For age’s fretful view.

Cotton-wool letters on scarlet,
All the ancient lore,
Tell how the chieftains starlit
To Bethlehem came to adore;
To hail Him King in the manger,
Wonderful, Counsellor.

The bells ring out in the steeple
The gladness of erstwhile,
And the children of other people
Are walking up the aisle;
They brush my elbow in passing,
Some turn to give me a smile.

Is the almond-blossom bitter?
Is the grasshopper heavy to bear?
Christ make me happier, fitter
To go to my own over there:
Jerusalem the Golden,
What bliss beyond compare!

My Lord, where I have offended
Do Thou forgive it me.
That so when, all being ended,
I hear Thy last decree,
I may go up to Jerusalem
Out of Galilee.

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.

Norman Nicholson*

Norman Nicholson (1914—1987) is an English poet, born in the town of Millom, Cumbria, where he lived his entire life—with the exception of almost two years in his teens in a tuberculosis sanatorium.

He was born the year WWI started, and "born again" the year WWII started—1939. Both place and faith are significant themes in his verse. He valued life away from large cities, and was a fervent environmentalist. He was over 40 when he met and married his wife, Yvonne.

When he was in his twenties, he was a protégé of T.S. Eliot who published his work with Faber & Faber. In addition to seven collections of poetry, he also wrote novels, plays, criticism and essays. When he died The Times obituary acclaimed him 'the most gifted English Christian provincial poet of his century'.

Carol for the Last Christmas Eve

The first night, the first night,
The night that Christ was born,
His mother looked in his eyes and saw
Her maker in her son.

The twelfth night, the twelfth night,
After Christ was born,
The Wise Men found the child and knew
Their search has just begun.

Eleven thousand, two fifty nights,
After Christ was born,
A dead man hung in the child's light
And the sun went down at noon.

Six hundred thousand or thereabout nights,
After Christ was born,
I look at you and you look at me
But the sky is too dark for us to see
And the world waits for the sun.

But the last night, the last night,
Since ever Christ was born,
What his mother knew will be known again,
And what was found by the Three Wise Men,
And the sun will rise and so may we,
On the last morn, on Christmas morn,
Umpteen hundred and eternity.

*This is the second Kingdom Poets post about Norman Nicholson: first post

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.

O Antiphons

The O Antiphons are ancient poems written in Latin, and which are sung or recited at Vespers in various churches, including by Lutherans, Anglicans and Catholics. They date from at least the eighth century, if not earlier.

The seven antiphons each proclaims a different name for Christ, and are featured during Advent.
-------December 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
-------December 18: O Adonai (O Lord)
-------December 19: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
-------December 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
-------December 21: O Oriens (O Dayspring)
-------December 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the nations)
-------December 23: O Emmanuel (O With Us is God)

Two fine Christian poets have recently found inspiration in the O Antiphons for their own poetry Malcolm Guite in Sounding the Seasons (2012), and Jill Peláez Baumgaertner in What Cannot Be Fixed (2014).

Five of the seven Antiphons are used in the following Christmas carol. John Mason Neale translated the hymn into English for his hymnal Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861).

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times did'st give the Law,
In cloud, and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

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.