Devotions

Timothy Murphy's Devotions revives this major but neglected poetic genre with variety and amplitude. In over two hundred short poems, Murphy explores the vicissitudes of modern spiritual life. Some of the poems are inspirational, celebrating the joyous mysteries of faith. Others confront the sorrows and failures of contemporary life presenting unvarnished the painful dramas of sin, despair, repentance, and redemption. Murphy celebrates the saints, but he has not forgotten the battered, the drunkards, the sinners, among whom the poet numbers himself. In these poems, the drama of redemption is not abstract but personal. Dana Gioia, Past Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts