The following post, about Canadian poet F.R. Scott, is taken from my blog, Kingdom Poets, where you can become more familiar with dozens of the finest Christian poets and their work.
F.R. Scott (1899–1985) was a “first mover of Canadian poetry,” according to Louis Dudek. He was born in Quebec City, and went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. Scott studied law, and later became Dean of Law at McGill University. During the depression he became leftist in his political views, and became influential within the Canadian socialist movement. In 1970 he was offered a seat in the Canadian Senate, which he declined.
His credentials as a poet are equally impressive. F.R. Scott was the editor of such publications as McGill Fortnightly Review, The Canadian Mercury, and Preview — which helped him to initiate new poetry in Canada. He won the Governor General’s Award for poetry in 1981 for his Collected Poems. (In 1977 he’d already won the GG for nonfiction for his Essays on the Constitution.) Leonard Cohen recorded Scott’s poem “A Villanelle For Our Times” for his CD Dear Heather (2004) with musical accompaniment.
Unison
What is it makes a church so like a poem?
The inner silence – spaces between words?
The ancient pews set out in rhyming rows
Where old men sit and lovers are so still?
Or something just beyond that can’t be seen,
Yet seems to move if we should look away?
It is not in the choir and the priest.
It is the empty church has most to say.
It cannot be the structure of the stone.
Sometimes mute buildings rise above a church.
Nor is it just the reason it was built.
Often it does not speak to us at all.
Men have done murders here as in a street,
And blinded men have smashed a holy place.
Men will walk by a church and never know
What lies within, as men will scorn a book.
Then surely it is not the church itself
That makes a church so very like a poem,
But only that unfolding of the heart
That lifts us upward in a blaze of light
And turns a nave of stone or page of words
To Holy, Holy, Holy without end.
Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the award-winning author of the poetry collections Poiema (Wipf & Stock) and So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed (Rubicon Press). They are both available at: www.dsmartin.ca
Looking for a place to feel inspired and challenged? Like to share a smile or a laugh? Interested in becoming more familiar with Canadian writers who have a Christian worldview? We are writers who live in different parts of Canada, see life from a variety of perspectives, and write in a number of genres. We share the goal of wanting to entertain and inspire you to be all you can be with God's help.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
Write Canada is more than a professional networking conference. It’s a safe place where beginning and intermediate writers can learn ...
-
I've been writing professionally for most of my adult life. My first novel, THE JOSIAH FILES was published twenty years ago by Thom...
-
Our coordinator suggested that in our April posts on this blog site we might “write a post about who we are and what we write. . . . [and w...
-
No one has to tell writers that they're up against some pretty big obstacles these days. The latest Tsunami to hit the writing/publishi...
-
A phrase I do not remember hearing frequently, has surpized me in the last three days, at least twice, in totally unrelated con...
-
A young man and his obviously pregnant wife arrived at Toronto’s Pearson Airport. Between them they toted hand-baggage and lugged a couple ...
-
by Linda Hall If you haven't seen the “Which Downton Abbey Character Are You?” quiz, you soon will. It’s all over Facebook. Being a...
-
In our new reality of feedback on newspaper articles and comments on blogs, we all welcome interaction — or do we? I have, in the last while...
-
Monday began like any other day. My husband and I started out at slightly different times. I had a meeting to attend over the noon hour...
-
When I was in the seventh grade, our class was required to read a book called Jean Val Jean. As I got int...
4 comments:
I throughly enjoyed this poem, Don.
I like Scott's motif and movement (of course "the church" interests me, anyway), and I think his strict adherence to rhythm appeals to the traditional in me.
What a gorgeous poem! I am not familiar with this poet - so thank you for introducing him.
I wish I were a poet. When I read your poem, I thought, "This says it all." Thanks for sharing.
Excellent poem...I write in rhythmic lines so I don't completely understand this type of poem but the imagery is wonderful...Thank you for sharing it...
Post a Comment