Editors Ilya Kaminsky and Katherine Towler have gathered conversations with nineteen of America’s leading poets, reflecting upon their diverse experiences with spirituality and the craft of writing. Bringing together poets who are Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Native American, Wiccan, agnostic, and otherwise, this book offers frank and thoughtful consideration of themes too often polarized and politicized in our society. Participants include Li-Young Lee, Jane Hirshfield, Carolyn Forché, Gerald Stern, Christian Wiman, Joy Harjo, and Gregory Orr, and others, all wrestling with difficult questions of human existence and the sources of art.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
Introduction: Ilya Kaminsky and Katherine Towler ix
Editors’ Note xii
Infinite Obligation to the Other: Carolyn Forché 2
The Devotion of a Mourner: Gerald Stern 20
Doubt and Seeking: Kazim Ali 32
The Circular Path: Jane Hirshfield 46
What Remains Unseen: Jean Valentine 66
The Possibility of God: Jericho Brown 80
Inches of Progress: Grace Paley 94
Footsteps Over Ground: Fanny Howe 106
The Subject Is Silence: Li-Young Lee 120
God the Mother: Alicia Ostriker 134
To Be of Service: Marilyn Nelson 150
Incantation: Annie Finch 164
Not a Butler to the Soul: G. C. Waldrep 180
Beyond Time and Place: Joy Harjo 202
Natives of the Earth: Eleanor Wilner 214
A Convert’s Story: Julius Lester 228
Nimble Believing: Christian Wiman 242
Homelands: Dunya Mikhail 256
The Given: Gregory Orr 272
Acknowledgments 289
Introduction: Ilya Kaminsky and Katherine Towler ix
Editors’ Note xii
Infinite Obligation to the Other: Carolyn Forché 2
The Devotion of a Mourner: Gerald Stern 20
Doubt and Seeking: Kazim Ali 32
The Circular Path: Jane Hirshfield 46
What Remains Unseen: Jean Valentine 66
The Possibility of God: Jericho Brown 80
Inches of Progress: Grace Paley 94
Footsteps Over Ground: Fanny Howe 106
The Subject Is Silence: Li-Young Lee 120
God the Mother: Alicia Ostriker 134
To Be of Service: Marilyn Nelson 150
Incantation: Annie Finch 164
Not a Butler to the Soul: G. C. Waldrep 180
Beyond Time and Place: Joy Harjo 202
Natives of the Earth: Eleanor Wilner 214
A Convert’s Story: Julius Lester 228
Nimble Believing: Christian Wiman 242
Homelands: Dunya Mikhail 256
The Given: Gregory Orr 272
Acknowledgments 289