So the thirst of the psalmist in 42 & 43 is the very thing that waters him? Where do God and the enemies fit into this.
I was going to post an extensive rebuttal to your vignette, but you can't argue with an aphorism, so I guess I'll just ponder it for the rest of the day.
I used to think that you could be a truly captivating poet if only you could write a 15 or 20-line poem as good as your 2-line poems, but maybe minimalism is just your style. If one of your poems was on display at the Moder Art Museum of Fort Worth, it would be on a tiny little canvas without a frame in the center of a huge concrete wall.
Yeah, it does seem a bit unbiblical doesn't it, Josh? This is definitely drawn from personal experience rather than theological reflection. I had in mind something Henri Nouwen said, "The closer I become with God, the more I long for him. And the more I long for him, the closer we become." This strikes me as true, at least in my own prayer life. I continue to try to find ways to name the dreadful loneliness we experience as somehow related to God.
That said, I don't think that kind of move is absent in the psalter. A great deal of the psalms are spoken in pain and we don't hear God's response. What we have in the psalms is a collection of broken lives lived before God and, as they are part of the canon, the church has called that faith. I think that is the tradition I am trying to align myself with, to somehow connect the loneliness, the utter silence, with God.
I loved the metaphor of the Art Museum. I think that fits my aesthetic nicely. Also, I am too lazy to write longer.
And yet it seems to me that writing, far from being an obstacle to perfection in my own life, has become one of the conditions on which my perfection will depend.
- Thomas Merton
...every time I overcome these fears and trust not only my own unique way of being in the world, but also my ability to give words to it, I experience a deep spiritual satisfaction. . . . What I am gradually discovering is that in the writing I come in touch with the Spirit of God within me and experience how I am led to new places.
3 comments:
Love this one.
So the thirst of the psalmist in 42 & 43 is the very thing that waters him? Where do God and the enemies fit into this.
I was going to post an extensive rebuttal to your vignette, but you can't argue with an aphorism, so I guess I'll just ponder it for the rest of the day.
I used to think that you could be a truly captivating poet if only you could write a 15 or 20-line poem as good as your 2-line poems, but maybe minimalism is just your style. If one of your poems was on display at the Moder Art Museum of Fort Worth, it would be on a tiny little canvas without a frame in the center of a huge concrete wall.
Yeah, it does seem a bit unbiblical doesn't it, Josh? This is definitely drawn from personal experience rather than theological reflection. I had in mind something Henri Nouwen said, "The closer I become with God, the more I long for him. And the more I long for him, the closer we become." This strikes me as true, at least in my own prayer life. I continue to try to find ways to name the dreadful loneliness we experience as somehow related to God.
That said, I don't think that kind of move is absent in the psalter. A great deal of the psalms are spoken in pain and we don't hear God's response. What we have in the psalms is a collection of broken lives lived before God and, as they are part of the canon, the church has called that faith. I think that is the tradition I am trying to align myself with, to somehow connect the loneliness, the utter silence, with God.
I loved the metaphor of the Art Museum. I think that fits my aesthetic nicely. Also, I am too lazy to write longer.
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