Sunday, 17 July 2016

Lovesongs & Reproaches By L. William Countryman



This collection is in the tradition of the Psalms, full of passion, rejoicing in the goodness of God and Creation, and yet also raging against the ills of Creation and the God that seems to stand by and let it happen. This is a really rich and powerful collection.

Of these latter day psalms I find that many of those I have tabbed for future reference reflect on the challenge of capturing ideas about God within our language, for example here is an extract of one;

... Your beauty is beyond our power
to express. It draws us; we respond.
We never grasp it, reduce it
successfully to words. And we never stop
trying...

There is a powerful connection between age old ideas and modern cadences, as an example;

… My gratitude mixes itself
with the guilt of a survivor. I wonder
if I am one of those rich that Amos
denounced for battening off the poor.
I suppose I am. How does anyone
live in the tangle of our times
without being a part of the web
of unequal exchange?

And from another one;

… Your Spirit is well-named, as busy
and untiring as the wind, as close to us
as our breath; and we never know
if the initiative is hers or ours.
Perhaps it is both. Even she
cannot play violin on a drum.
She plays the instrument she finds.

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