Charles L Bartow – författare

Dust and Prayers offers an evocation of love, human and divine, and of the struggles of believers and unbelievers. It depicts something of the human condition apart from God and, through praise and lament, with humor and pathos it speaks of the divine remedy. It speaks of creation, too, and of the Creator, and of humanity (created in God's image), as dust and spirit. Its voice at times is free of the constraints of rigorous poetic forms. At other times its voice is set free by adherence to them. Its cry is biblical: Lord, "e;I believe; help my unbelief"e; (Mark 9:24)! It references the Psalms, the Prophets, the Gospels, the Apostle Paul's letters, and strains to come to terms with God's Holy Presence felt as Holy Absence in, with, under-and in front of-the text. Its hope is grounded in the blessed disturbance with which the Christ, attested in Holy Scripture, proffers the "e;blessed assurance"e; that we are his.

The poems of Cries of Earth and Altar speak of human laughter, mystery, work, play, sorrow--and even rage--as an oblation set upon heaven''s high altar, which, as Calvin noted, is Christ himself. Upon that altar, the cries of earth are made a cry of glory, "Abba, Father" (Mark 14:36; Rom 8:15)! With the exception of those poems labeled "out of season," each poetic text is given a place in the Christian liturgical calendar: Advent-Epiphany, Transfiguration Sunday, Lent-Pentecost, and Ordinary Time. In the concluding essay, poetry and preaching are spoken of as fragile indicatives that implicitly call into question all claims of inviolability and permanence for humanly wrought systems of thought, common life, and governance. They survive as verbal, vocal, and physical gesture, as ink turned into blood.

Holy Scripture bears witness to life as God intended it and intends it still. It also witnesses to what has been made of life east of Eden. Preaching and poetic witness to life "through faith for faith" (Rom 1:17), therefore, must be attempted with humility and with empathy for all sorts and conditions of human being, looking to Jesus who "humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:8).

Holy Scripture bears witness to life as God intended it and intends it still. It also witnesses to what has been made of life east of Eden. Preaching and poetic witness to life "through faith for faith" (Rom 1:17), therefore, must be attempted with humility and with empathy for all sorts and conditions of human being, looking to Jesus who "humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:8).