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An Evening of POETRY – JULY 14, 2017 with Poets – Dylan Krieger & Tomas Simmons Pianist – Scott Graham & Special Guests Donna McKenzie – Doug Williams Publisher – Ron Starbuck Reading the works of Saint Julian Press Poets INTRODUCTIONS & FIRST SET OF POEMS EROS I I - 34 EROS I I - 35 Nin e t e e n Summer of ’63 Psalm ’66 Spirit ANTICIPATION OF BLOSSOMS HE MARKED MY BODY AFTER JANE KENYON’S BRIEFLY IT ENTERS, AND BRIEFLY SPEAKS Birdless Bird Elixir AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WORK – by RON STARBUCKTHE READINGS – PART ITHOMAS SIMMONS The Body at Rest What Was There Father Silent Revel If Borges’ Lover Had Written “The Plain Sense of Things” DYLAN KRIEGER Works from “Giving Godhead & Dreamland Trash saint drain a ritual feeding // in need of meter canticle cannibal phobiaphile atomoso THE READINGS – PART IITHOMAS SIMMONS
A Fable Now The Book of J Residuum Near The End DYLAN KRIEGER draw one // pick again pre-extinction syndrome submissive’s song etc. etc. apolitical apology
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 Presidio – Bay Ridge Trail – Presidio Cemetery Overlook THE YOUNG DEAD SAILORS DO NOT SPEAK
BY ARCHIBALD MACLEISH The young dead soldiers do not speak. Nevertheless, they are heard in the still houses: who has not heard them? They have a silence that speaks for them at night and when the clock counts. They say: We were young. We have died. Remember us. They say: We have done what we could but until it is finished it is not done. They say: We have given our lives but until it is finished no one can know what our lives gave. They say: Our deaths are not ours: they are yours, they will mean what you make them. They say: Whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say, it is you who must say this. We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning. We were young, they say. We have died; remember us. NOW ~ POEMS BY THOMAS SIMMONS SAINT JULIAN PRESS is excited to announce the release of NOW, a new book of poems by Thomas Simmons. Thomas served as an associate professor for the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies at MIT, and for over two decades in the Department of English at the University of Iowa. He lives close to Iowa City, among four of his six children, who range in age from two to 30. His published works of nonfiction and scholarship include The Unseen Shore: Memories of a Christian Science Childhood (1992); A Season in the Air: One Man’s Adventures in Flying (1993); Erotic Reckonings: Mastery and Apprenticeship in the Work of Poets and Lovers (1994); Ghost Man: Reflections on Evolution, Love, and Loss (2001); The Burning Child: Essays on Mental Health and Illness (2005); Imperial Affliction: Eighteenth-Century British Poets and Their Twentieth- Century Lives (2010); and Poets’ First and Last Books in Dialogue (2012). NOW Poems by Thomas Simmons THE BODY AT REST In the evening we are all of us our children, Frightened of unconsciousness, the story's end. This is the end of the story. Rest now. We are inside human history, that infinitesimal Shaft of light not yet past the Milky Way. Forget the all in motion, forget that what we see Shifts because we see it. Past Newton, who dreamed Einstein but, too horrified at what he saw, dreamed Aristotle in return, who liked things as they stayed. The igneous rock outside his door could not be assayed Except in its native stillness. Our stillness now. We have fallen a long way, but see, now, how Our mutual light recedes as our diminished sun Appears to set. Some days it is enough to have done Simply what we have done, and in our night Begin to dream our journey past the speed of light. SADNESS It is one thing to observe the interstellar dark. It is another thing entirely not to be observed by it, To deduce its indifference to our being, to being— You may say: “We make our own meaning.” I have said it. But if I answer, “Nevertheless” “What I most want is someone here when I awake,” You may well laugh at the non-sequitur, Wondering if I am serious or, well, merely Morose. Merely. As if sadness did not Soar out, impervious to gravity, well Into interstellar space, only to find That it had outstripped itself, That it was now merely sadness Without a context, without a name. WHAT WAS THERE And when it was done, He set it, just there, on the table, Between the two kerosene lamps. Invisible, indivisible, it was his heart Returned to its primal state. Only he could see it. People Came and went. He lit the lamps Each night for its sake. No matter Whether the people knew, whether The poem knew. Poems know nothing. They point toward things—most of them, Most times, within the realm of the visible, Or something just adjacent, love or the planet On the table. This, this was wholly other. He had made it to defy his life’s labour. Thomas Simmons © 2016 Saint Julian Press, Inc. NOW – Press ReleaseThrough the Spoken Word - Reflections on the Sacred Poetry Reading and Conversation at the Rothko Chapel Willis Barnstone, Aliki Barnstone, and Tony Barnstone Presented in partnership with Saint Julian Press Poetry offers a window to the Holy that dialogue cannot, reflecting essential human truths in artful form. Join a unique opportunity to engage with three acclaimed and evocative poets from the Barnstone family in a sacred place that is also rich with family history. The Rothko Chapel was designed, in part, by the architect Howard Barnstone, Willis’ brother. Each of the poets will read from their collections, examining their concepts of the Divine and challenging our own, as well as engage in conversation with each other and the audience. To listen or watch the presentation from this evening of poetry at the Rothko Chapel, please go to this URL on their website. Through the Spoken Word - Reflections on the Sacred ~Rothko Chapel © 2017 Photos by Ben Doyle Runaway Productions ~ Poetry Reading and Conversation ~ with Willis Barnstone, Aliki Barnstone, and Tony Barnstone ~ Presented in partnership with Saint Julian Press.  Rothko Chapel © 2017 Photos by Ben Doyle Runaway Productions There is Something About Being An Episcopalian
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.” - John 17:21 No matter where we may be on our journey in life, as Christians and Episcopalians, we are reconciled through Christ, and the Holy Spirit dwells within us each. We live in this spirit of reconciliation. Indeed, the Holy Spirit is actively at work within the world and within us, teaching us to be as one, to be in union with the divine and one another. “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” – John 14:26-27 Do not let your hearts be troubled, do not be afraid. This beautiful concept of Unity and Non-Duality compliments one another intimately. Unity and Non-Duality are spiritual concepts found in Christian scripture, in all the great core religions and wisdom traditions of humanity and human history, in myth and metaphor, in storytelling, and most especially in poetry. All sacred scriptures are poetry. Imagine the literature found in all the books of the Bible, the literature of all faiths, as sacred poetry–Spiritual Poetry. Imagine scripture as a type of software program we are using to program our minds; the Spirit-Soul operating system, the Divine Core Language of Creation (DCLC) perhaps, with many variations or versions. Sacramental spiritual practices (praxis), like ritual, prayer, and meditation are an extension of this as well. Such practices and participation in a sacred community are helping us to grow spiritually, programing our mind. And they are marked by an outward and visible sign, and an inward and spiritual grace in union with Christ and new life in the Holy Spirit. For many Christians, and especially Episcopalians, these sacramental practices center on the celebration of the Eucharist & Great Thanksgiving (Holy Communion), Holy Baptism, Confirmation, Reconciliation & Forgiveness, Healing & Unction, Liturgy & Prayer —literally the work of the people, Marriage & Ordination, and participation in a sacred community of faith, seeing God working within and all around us. “Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.” – The Episcopal Church Book of Common Prayer One of the many reasons I love being an Episcopalian–Anglican, is the liturgy we use is poetry. The writing is inspired. It is both spiritual and poetic in nature; it has a literary quality and uses symbolic imagery. Reading or listening to inspired poetry is a sacramental experience, in this sense, it is similar to the Eucharist, where we receive the body and blood of Christ, the Logos, Christ as the Word. God's sacred Word, Christ as the Logos, the Trinity, as well as the words we hear and pray as liturgies are absorbed into our being, they are what we are becoming, a more Christlike future self. Except there is no time, time is an abstraction, and God is a Verb. God is Spirit and Love; God is eternal loving-kindness working within the world. Here are the Eternal Now and the Reign of God that are both imminent and infinitely present; where God is found here and now, and known in this moment. This future self already is, since God's love is eternally transforming and boundless, without end. This spiritually whole and wholly reconciled part of us, exists now. It is God's Spirit reaching within us to lead us forward, to discover the fullness of our own humanity. The Holy Spirt dwells within us and is an intimate part of our whole being, moving within us and across all creation. It is a Mystery. We know this, it is written within us, it is part of God’s universal plan. And the close connection our Spirit-Soul has, an eternal one, to the Divine Ultimate Mystery of God, knows this at the deepest levels of the soul-spirit-self-mind, —our full spiritual consciousness. In a subtle divine memory that flows and moves throughout our whole being. In Christian theology, we speak of Christ as being both fully human and fully divine. Christianity has celebrated this divine aspect for over two thousand years. What has been so often, not understood or celebrated as clearly, is the human side of this equation, this dance, this Perichoresis, and living in the fullness of our humanity and living a more abundant spiritual life. Perichoresis, is an ancient term in Christian theology, which refers to the indwelling of the Trinity, of how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are intimately connected within their unity as one that there is an indwelling between them all. And that this indwelling is shared with us, in and through Christ, in the Paschal Mystery of Christ as the Incarnate Word, the Word Made Flesh. Our presence on this earth, in this reality, is no accident; it is a gift. We are here to learn and in many cases to teach or help one another, to love one another in our fragile common humanity, to heal the world, to create heaven on earth. When we take time to pay attention, it is a blessing. It is a blessing to see how God, the Divine Ultimate Mystery is calling us into a relationship with one another. When we stop judging one another so quickly, and start loving one another in the frailness and vulnerability of our humanity, this is a blessing. And in the end, invoking our human nature to love, and to come through with grace and graciousness. Indeed, embracing the fullness of God's love for everyone, is an intimate part of our faith and practice. Being gracious and accepting of others, especially those whom we may not fully understand or appreciate is how we work through our human diversity and come to know and be known. In his book, Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, in writing about Thich Nhat Hanh’s idea of “interbeing,” theologian Paul F. Knitter tells us that understanding God through relationships is critical and that the source and power of our relationships are driven by the presence of the "Holy Spirit.” There can be no exclusion here, since it's all happening for a reason. God has prepared and repaired our hearts for this moment in time, this moment of reconciliation, normalization, and acceptance. A moment where we are completely open to one another, just as we are, as who we are now, as God has touched and helped us form our lives. The importance of this concept is summarized by this: "behind and within all the different images and symbols, Christians use for God–The Creator, Father (Abba), Redeemer, Word, Spirit, the most fundamental, the deepest truth Christians can speak of God is that God is the source and power of relationships.” This is true across any sacred community or faith where the Spirit, unseen and invisible, is moving in and with and through all of humankind, calling us into a relationship with one another, even across faiths, across all of humanity. There have been many times in my journey when I have known this, where I feel the Spirit actively at work in all of our relationships, and in the process opening up new relationships. Another way to view this, as Paul Knitter explained to me once in a conversation, is that in meditation, Buddhism asks us “to let go of all concepts, and to let go, and open ourselves radically and utterly to the present moment, and in the trust, this moment contains all we need." "This setting aside of words and imagery and opening oneself to what St. Paul calls God as Spirit, letting that Spirit make itself (or herself or himself) felt within us, grow within us, to lead us.” It is ultimately a process of letting God be God, of being itself, and then living abundantly into the promise of our life, where we are truly given all that we need. We find this idea beautifully expressed in these two scriptures from the Gospel of John, and the book of Romans. “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” – John 14:26-27 “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” – Romans 8:26-27 
The Bishop of Texas
POETS CAFE radio broadcast of Tuesday, 11/22 @ 12:30 PM PST on KPFK radio 90.7 fm Los Angeles.
Poets Cafe broadcasts every Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. (except for 2nd Tuesdays). Guest: Ron Starbuck Produced by Marlena Bond With host Lois P. Jones RON STARBUCK is an Episcopalian, a Poet and Writer, and author of There Is Something About Being An Episcopalian, When Angels Are Born, and Wheels Turning Inward, three rich collections of poetry following a poet’s mythic and spiritual journey that crosses easily onto the paths of many contemplative traditions. He has been deeply engaged in an Interfaith-Buddhist-Christian dialogue for many years, and holds a lifelong interest in literature, poetry, Christian mysticism, comparative religion, theology, and various forms of contemplative practice. He has been a contributing writer for Parabola Magazine. And has had poems and essays published in Tiferet: A Journal of Spiritual Literature, an interview and poem in The Criterion: An Online International Journal in English, The Enchanting Verses Literary Review, ONE from MillerWords (Feb. 2016), and Pirene's Fountain, Volume 7 Issue 15, from Glass Lyre Press (Oct. 2014). A collection of essays, poems, short stories, and audio recordings are available on the Saint Julian Press, Inc., website under Interconnections. STARBUCK is also the Publisher-CEO of Saint Julian Press, Inc., a new literary press. Saint Julian Press as a literary and educational organization embraces a vision to create a local and worldwide community, by engaging in an artistic dialogue that promotes world peace, cultural conversations, and an interfaith awareness, appreciation, and acceptance. In our mission as a new creative imprint we hope to identify, encourage, nurture, and share transformative literature and art of both past and living masters. While giving emerging artists, poets, and writers a place they may come home to and share their work; celebrating the enduring mystery within creation that calls us into relationship with one another. Forming an independent press to work with emerging and established writers and poets, and tendering new introductions to the world at large in the framework of an interfaith and cross cultural literary dialogue has been a long–time dream. Saint Julian Press has just released its fifteenth book of poetry, seven of those books have been published this year, in 2016. ST. JOHN'S LUTHERAN CHURCH ~ EASTON, KANSAS when i was a boy it was easy for me to imagine living the cowboy life, like John Wayne somewhere in Kansas which is where i was born and mostly raised or even further out west among the mesas and cactus southwest of home by only a few hundred miles my imagination ran rowdy in those days we lived in the far suburbs of Kansas City but on the close edge of a cultivated countryside where small farms and ranches were stretched and scattered between subdivisions creeks and stream beds were our favorite play fellows they were the wild companions and places of our childhood and of my heart i believe still there was a small field i once walked by on occasion where two horses grazed, and where i would often stop to say hello, they weren’t shy at all about galloping up to the fence, anxious for me to pet their broad foreheads and dive deeply into the the black pools of their pupils where sunlight and stars floated forever speaking out loud with a neigh and a nod whispering horse sense to my ear my maternal grandfather and grandmother were farm folk all their life, wedded to the land and the changing seasons the rhythm of their lives guided by the movement of earth and moon and Sunday morning church at St. John’s Lutheran where relatives and neighbors gathered weekly, some still do i can still see my grandmother’s face and her secret smile like Mona Lisa’s, knowing more than any child may imagine and her soft loving eyes, wise with wonder for the world her hands bent with arthritis, but never a complaint as she snapped snap beans for dinner or kneaded dough for bread i can still taste the delight of those farm days especially the strawberries and shortcake in summer vine ripe juicy tomatoes exploding with flavor into the back of your mouth and throat and i can still see my grandfather too, so clearly even now his hands especially, so strong and so sure calloused from years of work on the farm, but so very gentle i can remember as a small child, crawling up on his lap as he sat in his rocking chair by a pot bellied stove, truly and how he held each of us in turn, all his grandchildren, joyfully patient eyes twinkling like some dime store Santa even though he was bald and beardless wearing blue jean overalls with brass buttons and snaps we’d play with there was no safer place in the entire world you know Wheels Turning Inward by Ron Starbuck Hardcover: 136 pages Publisher: FriesenPress (August 26, 2010) Language: English ISBN-10: 1770671129 ISBN-13: 978-1770671126  IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER ~ CHRISTINA ROSSETTI In the bleak mid-winter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak mid-winter Long ago. Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him Nor earth sustain; Heaven and earth shall flee away When He comes to reign: In the bleak mid-winter A stable-place sufficed The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ. Enough for Him, whom cherubim Worship night and day, A breastful of milk, And a mangerful of hay; Enough for Him, whom angels Fall down before, The ox and ass and camel Which adore. Angels and archangels May have gathered there, Cherubim and seraphim Thronged the air - But only His mother In her maiden bliss Worshipped the Beloved With a kiss. What can I give Him, Poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb; If I were a wise man I would do my part; Yet what I can, I give Him - Give my heart.  Mary
The night when she first gave birth Had been cold. But in later years She quite forgot The frost in the dingy beams and the smoking stove And the spasms of the afterbirth towards morning. But above all she forgot the bitter shame Common among the poor Of having no privacy. That was the main reason Why in later years it became a holiday for all To take part in. The shepherds’ coarse chatter fell silent. Later they turned into the Kings of the story. The wind, which was very cold Turned into the singing of angels. Of the hole in the roof that let in the frost nothing remained But the star that peered through it. All this was due to the vision of her son, who was easy Fond of singing Surrounded himself with poor folk And was in the habit of mixing with kings And of seeing a star above his head at night-time. — Bertolt Brecht
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Music on iTunes
Title: In the Bleak Midwinter Album: Mystic Christmas Artists: Mystic Harmony Year Recorded: 2008 Genre: World Original Release Date: December 10, 2008 Release Date: January 13, 2009 Label: Mister Carmody Productions, Llc Copyright: (C) 2008 Mister Carmody Productions, Llc |
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Confessions of a Cowboy Christian and Practicing Buddhist
Beyond miles and miles of Sonoran and Chihuahuan desert
Criss-crossing the Southwest and Northern Mexico,
Where local folks know how to stand, tall in the saddle, as they say
Across a landscape that seems to go nigh on to forever
Even beyond the Boundlessness of you, O God,
Here imaginations may touch the beauty of all creation
And horizons meet the very edge of eternity.
Here you may see beyond all boundaries
From Terlingua to Tucson,
Marfa to Manhattan, Edna to El Paso
Across vistas of high desert plains,
Mountains,valleys, arroyos,
Streams and rivers merging together.
Where fingers of saguaro cactus
Point upwards in prayer,
While honey and velvet mesquite,
Whitethorn acacia,
Althorn, ocotillo, lechugilla,
Agave and creosote bush
Bow with grace when touched by the breath of
God Traveling on windblown currents.
O Lord, let such a landscape echo back
Through each of us,
Expanding our sight, to become a vision
That comes to see heaven reflected
Through your divine made eyes.
May such a vision arise in us all
As it did for Christ and the Buddha
To echo, again and again
As we view heaven
Through divine made eyes.
Saint Julian Press
Ron Starbuck © 2010
AMERICA EMERGING ~ LET AMERICA BE ~ AN AMERICA OF ALL PEOPLE
Let America
Be an America
Of all People
All Colors
Cafe de Olla
and
Cafe au Lait
Cappuccino
and
Caffe Macchiato
Caffe Marocchino
and Mocha
With white frothing
Smooth Vanilla Eiskaffee
Let it be the home
Of all Nations
And all Faiths,
All People
Which it
Is already
Let us welcome...
The stranger
The homeless
The tired
The poorest
Of the poor
As our own
Ancestors were
Welcomed once
Those seeking safety
From war and violence
Those wishing with
Tired hearts and souls
Some goodwill
Seeking peace in
A world
Where they
Have known
So little
For from them
We will gather
New dreams
And renewed
Strengths
Where we will
Taste the foods & flavor
Of a newly emerging
American culture
Creating a heritage
Of Diversity
From each
One of them
We will learn
A humility
Of Spirit
And gratitude
So many
Of us
Have Lost
Poem ~ Ron Starbuck © 2016
Inspired by, Let America Be America Again ~ Langston Hughes.
The artwork above and at the top was created from a photograph found on this Share America web site, taken by Jesse Garrison. It’s a great photo, one that captures the diversity of America as found in New York City. We are a nation of immigrants and refugees.
Share America Web Site
https://share.america.gov/food-talk...
With this credit given on the website page: Many cultures and colors in the melting pot that is New York City (Flickr/Jesse Garrison). Thank you Jesse Garrison for sharing this photo on the Share America site.
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EROS by Kevin McGrath
In the genius of poetry and throughout the vicissitudes of human affection Eros is a vital instrument of our life, the irresistible and forceful agency of earthly nature which draws our being into a cycle of time and the year; it is the perpetually circular movement of creativity and destruction, of happiness and sadness, and the primary origin of all worldly metaphor. These lyrics are taken from the four continents of America, Europa, Asia, and Africa, as human love arises from the void and then--having become aware of its incompleteness and having endeavoured to alter that condition--returns to the void. "Mysteriously Kevin McGrath's lucid and utterly lovely poems read at once like exquisitely precise evocations of specific concrete moments, feelings, landscapes--a bird, the wind, rain falling on a river--and at the very same time, and again with exquisite nuance and precision, the poems also trace out, one after another, a luminous web of reflections and meditations on the moments, passages, and landscapes of our lives. These are poems to be read and re-read and savored over and over, as in the old Sufi tradition." Leila Ahmed, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity, Harvard University. "Kevin McGrath's Eros is--to adapt one of his own metaphors--a voyage of exploration across the oceanic movements of love and longing. McGrath's rippling verses capture with exquisite grace the alternating roar and whisper of desire's tidal swell." David Franklin Elmer, Professor of The Classics, Harvard University. SAINT JULIAN PRESS |
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DHARMA RAIN by Terry Lucas
DHARMA RAIN by poet Terry Lucas creates a new poetic language that will delight everyone. In his poem “Psalm ‘66” he returns us to a time of our youth and ‘V8–Muscle–Cars’ that roar down Main Street USA or back–country roads. In the “Summer of ’63,” he invokes a thoughtful nostalgia for “the only girl he cared about” in his teen years, even though she was Hollywood star, she still took his heart. While his poem “Surrender” raises ‘Lost Hallelujahs’ from an evangelical tradition, which nurtured him as a child. And then, challenged him to transform and grow into a more thoughtful spirituality as an adult. These poems trace a transformational journey across a sacred landscape that is deep and true.
~ Ron Starbuck, author of When Angels Are Born and There Is Something About Being An Episcopalian |
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Saint Julian Press proudly presents a new collection of poems by Terry Lucas, which will be available on October 28, 2016 through fine book distributors and retailers.
"Watch your step," warns the speaker in "Vortices," one of the gripping poems in Terry Lucas's Dharma Rain. Good advice for approaching Lucas's second full-length collection, for in these poems, "everything enters you." From the grim realities of "The Arrival," "Horse Latitudes," and "A Short History of Baby Incubators" to the wry humor of "Science Fact or Fiction" (about the history of "Giving the finger") and the delicious wit of "Psalm '66" to an amazing series of poems placing John Calvin as a kid growing up in Texas in the '50s, the poems of Lucas's new book confront the mysteries of science, faith, and desire in exquisite forms, delicious language, and keen intelligence. — Wendy Barker In these ambitious, far-reaching poems, Terry Lucas alternates between his own spiritual agon, specifically his wrestling with Calvinistic ghosts in the persona of a boy named Calvin, and his eclectic, lyrical investigations of such subjects as wild dogs, the spirit, Tassajara, the New Mexico desert, becoming a poet, survivors of barrel descents over Niagara Falls, and a short history of baby incubators. In his fresh new visions of the world stripped of its former fashions, ideologies, and mythologies, Lucas writes as if he’s observing the world for the first time on his own heuristic terms in both dexterously formal and free verse. The result is a bold, often iconoclastic chronicle of a poet who “one day…just left / the stains in the whorls of his fingertips, the taste / on his tongue, and went home forever / to the work that had called him from birth.” — Chard deNiord |
BIRD LIGHT by Elizabeth Cohen
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Rainer Maria Rilke, nearly 100 years ago ended the first stanza of the Duino Elegies–First Elegy, with this verse. "Throw the emptiness out of your arms to add to the spaces we breathe; maybe the birds will feel the expansion of air, in more intimate flight.”
In BIRD LIGHT, Elizabeth Cohen captures this “more intimate flight” and creates a new poetic language of healing and transformation. She deftly weaves together images of birds and nature that parallel life–changing events.
“It happened to me. The Robin Redbreast / the mud swallows on the porch / egrets in the field…the polysyllabic jays / the velvet scrimshaw of my nights etched with bats / all replaced by infinite changeable things / Everyone, everywhere, sleeping with television.”
In an elegant and earthly voice, she speaks to us of hidden loss and sorrow, softened by joy and love and living a vibrant life. We are drawn into the conversation in delightful ways, and renewed by a promise healing.
~ Ron Starbuck
In BIRD LIGHT, Elizabeth Cohen captures this “more intimate flight” and creates a new poetic language of healing and transformation. She deftly weaves together images of birds and nature that parallel life–changing events.
“It happened to me. The Robin Redbreast / the mud swallows on the porch / egrets in the field…the polysyllabic jays / the velvet scrimshaw of my nights etched with bats / all replaced by infinite changeable things / Everyone, everywhere, sleeping with television.”
In an elegant and earthly voice, she speaks to us of hidden loss and sorrow, softened by joy and love and living a vibrant life. We are drawn into the conversation in delightful ways, and renewed by a promise healing.
~ Ron Starbuck
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Pre-order on Amazon |
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BEARING THE CAST
SAINT JULIAN PRESS is excited to announce that in the spring of 2017, we will be publishing BEARING THE CAST, a new book of poems by Skip Renker.
Many of the poems in Bearing the Cast evoke rivers, real and imagined, where “love undisguised on the waters” can be difficult to bear. By turns wondering, skeptical, humorous, and grateful, these poems seek the sources of paradox: stillness and motion, time and the Divine, love and death, silence and the sounds of owls, horses, trout rising to feed. They explore a world that contains both “dragonflies with side-mounted eyes, impersonal and voracious” as well as barefoot seekers at “the doors of the holy.” These poems urge us to bear, even savor, the world’s cast.
Skip Renker has degrees from Notre Dame and Duke and an MFA from Seattle Pacific University. His poems have appeared in California Quarterly, Poetry Midwest, Small Brushes, Spirit First, and numerous other publications, as well as the Atlanta Review, Passages North, and Allegheny River anthologies. He’s published two chapbooks, Birds of Passage (Delta Press), and Sifting the Visible (Mayapple Press), and he conducts workshops and college classes in meditation and writing. Skip’s a father and grandfather, and lives with his wife Julia Fogarty in Midland, MI.
you may do this
in any moment
of any day
as a prayer
as a meditation
simply
close your eyes
and imagine him
on that holy night
in that
upper room
where he first
took the bread
and gave thanks
broke it and
offered it
to his followers
asking them to
partake of
this my body
given for you
this day, as a
remembrance
and something more
then he
took the cup
and gave thanks
asking them to
drink of it often
the Cup of Christ
a new testament
found in my blood
a forgiveness
do this, he asked
in remembrance me
as a means
of grace
as an
everlasting
celebration
held here, now
with him, his real
and sustaining
presence
calling us
into
relationship
with him and
with all creation
with you
every hour
of every day
is it any
wonder that
angels and archangels
fall silent
in this
moment
then sing
alleluias
without end
IN his work and writing, theologian Paul F. Knitter tells, us that understanding God through relationships is critical and that the source and power of our relationships is driven by the presence of the "Holy Spirit."
The importance of this concept is summarized by this: "behind and within all the different images and symbols, Christians use for God; Creator, Father (Abba), Redeemer, Word, Spirit, - the most fundamental, the deepest truth Christians can speak of God is that God is the source and power of relationships.” 1
Saint Julian Press Poem
Ron Starbuck © 2016
1. Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, Paul F. Knitter, Chapter 1, Nirvana and God the Transcendent Other, pages 14-23. Publisher: Oneworld Publications (July 25, 2009) ISBN-10: 1851686738 * ISBN-13: 978-1851686735 Paperback: 336
A POET'S WORK
 Trinity Episcopal Church Midtown Houston | "A poet's work is to help expanded humanity's literary and cultural dialogue, and to magnify and transform our mortal perceptions. We do so by engaging fresh forms and symbols and vocabulary. We create new languages describing the experience of life. We offer words, and in our imaginations try our best to capture the 'ineffable and intangible - tongues of angels and heaven.'" ~ Ron Starbuck |
The Literature & Poetry of Faith ~ The Paschal Mystery
there is something
old and new at work
within the world
temporal and eternal
undying, and yet fragile
worldly, and everlasting
a Word, made flesh
a thought given form
a form, which is
formless, a Spirit
unseen and invisible
which is known
through love
intimately sought as
a grace freely given
a first born child, who is both
human and divine
a reconciliation
made real
in heaven and
here upon the earth
an indwelling
a resurrection
of the flesh
and a healing
of the soul
Ron Starbuck © 2016
From ~ Alternative Forms of the Great Thanksgiving
Eucharistic Prayer B ~ Episcopal Book of Common Prayer
"At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of
interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses,
and this fragile earth, our island home.
By your will they were created and have their being.
From the primal elements you brought forth the human race,
and blessed us with memory, reason, and skill. You made us
the rulers of creation. But we turned against you, and betrayed
your trust; and we turned against one another.
Have mercy, Lord, for we are sinners in your sight.
Again and again, you called us to return. Through prophets
and sages you revealed your righteous Law. And in the
fullness of time you sent your only Son, born of a woman, to
fulfill your Law, to open for us the way of freedom and peace.
By his blood, he reconciled us.
By his wounds, we are healed."
THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT BEING AN EPISCOPALIAN
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SAINT JULIAN PRESS RECORDINGS ~ Copyright 2016
SAINT JULIAN PRESS RECORDINGS ~ Copyright 2016
SAINT JULIAN PRESS
COPYRIGHT 2016
TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH MIDTOWN HOUSTON
There Is Something About Being an Episcopalian
There Is Something About Being an Episcopalian, is a poetic and literary celebration of life within any sacred community, life among our families, friends, and neighbors.
Each poem is offered in the hope that we may find a new life and a new creation in serving God as the Ultimate Divine Mystery, humanity, our sacred and social communities, and welcoming the unknown stranger, while practicing humankind's ancient traditions of true hospitality and acceptance.
These poems are a profound calling to engage in a deeper and more open dialogue, not only across the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, but within and throughout Christianity and all the great faiths of humankind. All of humanity's sacred writings, rites, literature, and liturgy of humankind are inspired poetry.
So that, through literature, we might transform our perceptions from east to west and north to south, and open the way to a greater understanding between faiths and spiritual traditions. This is certainly something, which a fearful world needs desperately today and tomorrow.
As my friend, theologian Paul F. Knitter once wrote in a sermon, quoting Christian theologian, John B. Cobb, "Jesus is the way, that is open to other ways."
"Jesus is the way that is open to other ways. Jesus is not the way that excludes, overpowers, demeans other ways; rather he is the way that opens us to, connects us with, calls us to relate to other ways in a process that can best be described as 'dialogue'."
In his book, Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, in writing about Thich Nhat Hanh's, Buddhist teachings on "interbeing," Paul F. Knitter tells us that understanding God through relationships is critical and that the source and power of our relationships is driven by the presence of the "Holy Spirit."
The importance of this concept is summarized by this: "behind and within all the different images and symbols, Christians use for God; Creator, Father (Abba), Redeemer, Word, Spirit, - the most fundamental, the deepest truth Christians can speak of God is that God is the source and power of relationships."
If Christians were to reframe or to re-imagine the message of the Gospel for the Twenty-First Century, the "Good News" of the Gospel, I believe that this would be a message that calls all of us into a deeper understanding of the Divine Mystery, which is to be found in human relations.
New life enriching and life affirming relationships we discover through an interfaith dialogue that is radically open, radically inclusive, and grounded in the historical and orthodox tradition within the church. We discover this also in the Great Commission, which Christ gave to his Disciples and to all Christendom.
These poems arise out of my own worldview, personal faith, and spiritual practices, and from within an ecumenical and interfaith dialogue. They ask and encourage the reader to engage in such a radical openness, not only within their own faith and traditions, but with other faiths too.
As a Christian and as an Episcopalian, I want to use the language and symbols that I know and love so well, and offer that what is drawing us together is the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit, who is actively at work within the world in many forms and instances, across many faiths, in words both familiar and unfamiliar. And to recognize that there are many interconnections; however, you may imagine the Spirit at work within the world, calling us into a relationship with one another and into the fullness of our humanity.
God's Holy Spirit, who helps us to actualize our fullest potential within life, to know and be known, to love and be loved, and who accepts us unconditionally: to know God as and through love.
A poet's work is to help expanded humanity's literary and cultural dialogue, and to magnify and transform our human perceptions. We do so by engaging new forms and symbols and vocabulary.
We create new languages describing the experience of life. We offer words, and in our imaginations try our best to capture the "ineffable and intangible - tongues of angels and heaven."
This book is a poetic celebration of life and humanity through a literary language as something sacred, symbolic, and metaphorical, as fingers pointing at the moon, pointing from the unfathomable silence within towards the Divine Mystery of creation.
"Out of this silence the poet within conceives unknown - unheard languages of the spirit, new words and verses flowing out unhindered as a blessing."
Many Blessings,
Saint Julian Press
Ron Starbuck
NOTES
Each poem is offered in the hope that we may find a new life and a new creation in serving God as the Ultimate Divine Mystery, humanity, our sacred and social communities, and welcoming the unknown stranger, while practicing humankind's ancient traditions of true hospitality and acceptance.
These poems are a profound calling to engage in a deeper and more open dialogue, not only across the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, but within and throughout Christianity and all the great faiths of humankind. All of humanity's sacred writings, rites, literature, and liturgy of humankind are inspired poetry.
So that, through literature, we might transform our perceptions from east to west and north to south, and open the way to a greater understanding between faiths and spiritual traditions. This is certainly something, which a fearful world needs desperately today and tomorrow.
As my friend, theologian Paul F. Knitter once wrote in a sermon, quoting Christian theologian, John B. Cobb, "Jesus is the way, that is open to other ways."
"Jesus is the way that is open to other ways. Jesus is not the way that excludes, overpowers, demeans other ways; rather he is the way that opens us to, connects us with, calls us to relate to other ways in a process that can best be described as 'dialogue'."
In his book, Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, in writing about Thich Nhat Hanh's, Buddhist teachings on "interbeing," Paul F. Knitter tells us that understanding God through relationships is critical and that the source and power of our relationships is driven by the presence of the "Holy Spirit."
The importance of this concept is summarized by this: "behind and within all the different images and symbols, Christians use for God; Creator, Father (Abba), Redeemer, Word, Spirit, - the most fundamental, the deepest truth Christians can speak of God is that God is the source and power of relationships."
If Christians were to reframe or to re-imagine the message of the Gospel for the Twenty-First Century, the "Good News" of the Gospel, I believe that this would be a message that calls all of us into a deeper understanding of the Divine Mystery, which is to be found in human relations.
New life enriching and life affirming relationships we discover through an interfaith dialogue that is radically open, radically inclusive, and grounded in the historical and orthodox tradition within the church. We discover this also in the Great Commission, which Christ gave to his Disciples and to all Christendom.
These poems arise out of my own worldview, personal faith, and spiritual practices, and from within an ecumenical and interfaith dialogue. They ask and encourage the reader to engage in such a radical openness, not only within their own faith and traditions, but with other faiths too.
As a Christian and as an Episcopalian, I want to use the language and symbols that I know and love so well, and offer that what is drawing us together is the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit, who is actively at work within the world in many forms and instances, across many faiths, in words both familiar and unfamiliar. And to recognize that there are many interconnections; however, you may imagine the Spirit at work within the world, calling us into a relationship with one another and into the fullness of our humanity.
God's Holy Spirit, who helps us to actualize our fullest potential within life, to know and be known, to love and be loved, and who accepts us unconditionally: to know God as and through love.
A poet's work is to help expanded humanity's literary and cultural dialogue, and to magnify and transform our human perceptions. We do so by engaging new forms and symbols and vocabulary.
We create new languages describing the experience of life. We offer words, and in our imaginations try our best to capture the "ineffable and intangible - tongues of angels and heaven."
This book is a poetic celebration of life and humanity through a literary language as something sacred, symbolic, and metaphorical, as fingers pointing at the moon, pointing from the unfathomable silence within towards the Divine Mystery of creation.
"Out of this silence the poet within conceives unknown - unheard languages of the spirit, new words and verses flowing out unhindered as a blessing."
Many Blessings,
Saint Julian Press
Ron Starbuck
NOTES
- Sermon by Professor Paul F. Knitter, from Union Theological Seminary in NYC, entitled "Jesus: The Way That is Open to Other Ways".
- Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, Paul F. Knitter, Chapter 1, Nirvana and God the Transcendent Other, pages 14-23. Publisher: Oneworld Publications (July 25, 2009) ISBN-10: 1851686738 * ISBN-13: 978-1851686735 Paperback: 336
- The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra – Thich Nhat Hanh. Publisher: Parallax Press; Revised edition (November 9, 2005) ISBN-10: 1888375922 * ISBN-13: 978-1888375923
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THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT BEING AN EPISCOPALIAN |
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I BELIEVE LORD
Jesus said to him, “If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” - Mark 9:23-25 (NRSV)
In any good story told or read, even watched; the storyteller depends upon the reader to suspend their sense of disbelief. We do this with books, movies, and digital media. When was the last time you enjoyed a really good book or movie, like the latest Star Wars, Captain America, or Marvel Comics movie?
In 1817 the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor suggested that if a writer could infuse a "human interest and a semblance of truth" into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgment concerning the implausibility of the narrative. It is another type of literary device.
Most of us have read or seen The Lord of the Rings trilogy and enjoyed those stories for exactly what they are, a wonderful, wonder filled fantasy adventure. I have read them ten times or more; I’ve lost count.
We enter the story completely, so engrossed and involved in the tale. It becomes true for us. The people, places, and time are real. We live in Middle Earth; we eat in Middle Earth; we dream in Middle Earth; we become the characters in the story, and we walk away from our experience much richer.
J.R.R. Tolkien knew these stories would capture our imagination. He knew they would transcend belief and unbelief, and we would enter them in magical ways. Middle Earth fills our minds with myth, mystery, metaphor, allegory, life lessons, spiritual and human truths, and esoteric qualities that point us towards a greater mystery dwelling within and a part of us.
The stories make us wonder and stretch our imaginations. They expand our imaginations. And we discover a great value in this wonderment that takes us beyond, in letting our imaginations move us beyond a point, to a new knowingness. It does not matter if the story is factual or not, or made up from someone’s imagination. We enter the story and are possessed and transformed by a deeper truth that like a Buddhist or Hindu Sūtra, threads its way all through the story.
We understand intuitively that the story does not need to be factual, or literally true, for it to have this value, or to unveil and reveal a divine truth. The story becomes a revelation, an epiphany, an advent, a new creation, a quality that all great literature contains. When well-written and highly imaginative, such stories transform and transcend, unveiling a deeper truth.
Poetry and stories of sacred literature from many faiths, fill us with heroic wisdom. They fill us with wonder, and provide an inward view as contemplative poets, thoughtful, pensive, meditative, reflective.
Ah, but is it also something more too, the poet within and my imagination wonders? Is it part of the Divine Spirit, the Holy Spirit, actively at work within the world, inspiring us? I think that it is, certainly. However, you may understand the Spirit at work in your own life. The word inspired means to be: aroused, animated, or imbued with the spirit to do something, by or as if by supernatural or divine influence: an inspired poet or storyteller. J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis were certainly inspired storytellers who wove their Christian faith into the stories they wrote,
The power in Sacred Scripture & Story is in how it inspires us to become connected with and to one another, creation, and the Divine Ultimate Mystery of God.
The Dhammapada
Translated by Thomas Byrom
Choices
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with an impure mind
And trouble will follow you
As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with a pure mind
And happiness will follow you
As your shadow, unshakable.
The True Master
The man who is awake
Shines in the radiance of the spirit.
A master gives up mischief.
He is serene.
He leaves everything behind him
He does not take offense
And he does not give it.
ART: Ballantine's 1965 The Lord of the Rings – Cover Art by Barbara Remington
Houston: Press Release - For immediate release, Saint Julian Press proudly presents a new collection of poems by Jeffrey Davis, available on May 23, 2016 through fine book distributors and retailers.
Praise for Coat Thief
"Like walking meditations, the poetic feet of Jeffrey Davis's Coat Thief invoke mindfulness through grounded, regular movement. Profoundly attuned to the beauty of daily existence, these poems upend and expand conventional perceptions of magnitude as they give prominence to sneaker prints, earthworms, egg cartons, and other often unnoticed objects. These are poems filled with wonder, poems that demonstrate over and over that we need not rely on esoteric experience for transcendence––because it is, we learn from Coat Thief, the ordinary that is most extraordinary. Yes! It is possible for poetic feet to connect our soles and souls more intimately to the earth, and with Davis, the closer we are to the earth, the closer we are to the divine."
~ Melissa Studdard, I Ate The Cosmos for Breakfast
SAINT JULIAN PRESS ~ PRESS RELEASE
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Publisher's Blog
Ron Starbuck is an author, poet, the Publisher-CEO of Saint Julian Press, and an Episcopalian. with certain Buddhist leanings who values comparative literature and literary dialogues in many forms.
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