Ordering of Love

Praise for The Ordering of Love
By Madeleine L’Engle

“In a brilliant marriage of myth and manner, histories sacred and profane, prayers of petition and of praise, these poems both articulate and illumine the trouble in the gap in which we live–the gap between human affections and Divine Love. L’Engle is unfailing in her willingness to see through–not around–human suffering, and in so doing announces no final severing of spirit and flesh but an enduring vision of resurrection in that crux, in the cross, in the One in Whom all things meet, continuing.”
–Scott Cairns, author of Slow Pilgrim and Philokalia: New and Selected Poems


“I love L’Engle’s poetry for the way it incarnates not only the great Truths of the faith, but all the little truths of our ordinary existence–our working and playing and loving and fighting and dreaming and idling and all the rest of it–and for the way it shows us that those big and little truths should not, cannot, be separated.”
–Carolyn Arends, recording artist and author

“Why is L’Engle one of the defining poets of our time? Because when life hurts, she does not shrink from the wounds. She clarifies the murk with hope as we feel the lift of grace.”
–Calvin Miller, Beeson Divinity School
Birmingham, Alabama


“We are, all of us, the richer for this carefully crafted and prayerfully rendered collection.”
–Phyllis Tickle, Author, The Divine Hours



“Poetry, at least the kind I write, is written out of immediate need; it is written out of pain, joy, and experience too great to be borne until it is ordered into words. And then it is written to be shared.”
–Madeleine L’Engle


Madeleine L’Engle’s writing has always translated the invisible and intricate qualities of love into the patterns and rhythms of visible life. Now, with compelling language and open-hearted vulnerability, The Ordering of Love brings together the exhaustive collection of L’Engle’s poetry for the first time.

This volume collects nearly 200 of L’Engle’s original poems, including eighteen that have never before been published. Reflecting on themes of love, loss, faith, and beauty, The Ordering of Love gives vivid and compelling insight into the language of the heart.