“Cornered by the Dark is a triumph.” 
—Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao\nW. H. Auden, Jorge Luis Borges, Howard Thurman, Julia Equivel, Thomas Merton, Langston Hughes, Pedro Pietri and Miguel Piñero, in their work make a connection between poetry, social criticism and the meaning of life together—that is a part of Harold Recinos’ literary labor. His work creates a fusion between the personal and the public in verse that is searching, expansive, and walking hurt streets. Cornered by the Dark is a work about truth-telling and witness-bearing to the marginal men, women, and children who tell their story about a culture of indifference and callousness while finding courage and compassion to hope in everyday life.\nCornered by the Dark is published under Paraclete Press's Iron Pen imprint. In the book of Job, a suffering man pours out his anguish to his Maker. From the depths of his pain, he reveals a trust in God's goodness that is stronger than his despair, giving humanity some of the most beautiful and poetic verses of all time. Paraclete's Iron Pen imprint is inspired by this spirit of unvarnished honesty and tenacious hope.

Cornered by the Dark: Poems (Paraclete Poetry)

Literature & Fiction

Recinos, Harold J.

Poetry

Iron Pen

Raising the Sparks, Jennifer Wallace's sixth poetry collection, is inspired by the alignment of Christian and Judaic traditions. The idea of raising the sparks,&nbsp;tikkun olam, comes from 16th&nbsp;century mystical Judaism--the belief that, if people worked to "gather or raise the sparks" from the sacred vessels that shattered at the moment of creation, a repair of the world from its initial splitting would be complete. It is the duty of each one of us to raise the sparks from wherever they are imprisoned and to elevate them to holiness. Also informing this work is the Jesuit idea of finding God in all things and conversing (without clerical intervention) directly with Jesus. The poems in this collection engage with these theological traditions by witnessing the human joys and challenges of attending to their mandates.

Raising the Sparks

Wallace, Jennifer

Begin with a Question explores how the life of faith is a continuous voyage, launched anew each bright day of the spirit or dark night of the soul. This is a book of contemplation and motion, a journey—often in stops and starts—toward the Divine, a pilgrimage paved with prayer, praise, pause, penitence, and (of course) questions. Urgent and universal, joyful or joyless, tinged with doubt or rinsed with hope, here are honest queries that probe, lift, and lead to discovery. Begin with a Question keeps us moving, seeking, reaching, lifting us out of ourselves to something beyond. Using a variety of fixed forms and free verse, the poet examines our relationship to the one who asks, “Who do you say that I am?” A book for seekers, doubters, and believers alike, these poems bring us face to face with anguish, anger, awe, and adoration. They give us permission not to demand answers, but to follow the questions that lead to the Alpha and Omega, to the I AM that keeps us spiraling along this twisting path toward God.\nBegin with a Question is published under Paraclete Press's Iron Pen imprint. In the book of Job, a suffering man pours out his anguish to his Maker. From the depths of his pain, he reveals a trust in God's goodness that is stronger than his despair, giving humanity some of the most beautiful and poetic verses of all time. Paraclete's Iron Pen imprint is inspired by this spirit of unvarnished honesty and tenacious hope.

Begin with a Question: Poems

Maddox, Marjorie

This collection of poems begins in the&nbsp;growing&nbsp;darkness&nbsp;of November, stretches through&nbsp;Advent and&nbsp;the seasons leading to&nbsp;Easter and to&nbsp;Pentecost,&nbsp;and ends in the&nbsp;budding light&nbsp;of&nbsp;the Scottish Orkney Islands,&nbsp;where the canonical hours measure time over centuries and where God broods over an austere and beautiful landscape. The measurement of time passing and returning, year after year, in the rhythms of the&nbsp;seasons and of the&nbsp;liturgical&nbsp;year, create the pace&nbsp;and&nbsp;the song. But&nbsp;in the biblical voices of Magdalene, Mary, Abel, and Eve, and in the&nbsp;grim historical and political realities&nbsp;of war and suffering, one also hears lament and finds the poet's clear-eyed gaze straight into life's challenges. Memory is at work here, too, in personal reminiscences&nbsp;and in&nbsp;theological reflection.&nbsp;As one philosopher has said, "All truth is God's truth."&nbsp; From Shade to Shine is published under Paraclete Press's&nbsp;Iron Pen&nbsp;imprint.&nbsp;In the book of Job, a suffering man pours out his anguish to his Maker. From the depths of his pain, he reveals a trust in God's goodness that is stronger than his despair, giving humanity some of the most beautiful and poetic verses of all time. Paraclete's Iron Pen imprint is inspired by this spirit of unvarnished honesty and tenacious hope.

From Shade to Shine: New Poems

Peláez Baumgaertner, Jill

Featuring 23 contemporary Catholic poets, from Julia Alvarez&nbsp;and&nbsp;Carolyn Forché to Timothy Murphy&nbsp;and&nbsp;Franz Wright, this anthology is an essential collection&nbsp;that captures&nbsp;the&nbsp;spectrum of the Catholic experience.&nbsp; Editors Ryan Wilson&nbsp;and&nbsp;April Lindner have collected the work of Catholic poets born in 1950&nbsp;and&nbsp;afterward. Featuring diverse styles, aesthetics,&nbsp;and&nbsp;forms, this selection demonstrates "the myriad ways the Church has left its mark on the imaginations of these notable contemporary poets." A treasury of vibrant beauty--this collection explores the personal, practical,&nbsp;and&nbsp;political, of faith, nature, life,&nbsp;and&nbsp;lament--a welcome gift to all lovers of poetry&nbsp;and&nbsp;language.&nbsp; "Poems represent the world&nbsp;and&nbsp;the people who inhabit it: they introduce us to plants, animals, human characters,&nbsp;and&nbsp;highly specific places. They show us striking images that may be familiar to us or entirely eldritch, tell us about experiences that might be akin to our own or quite different from our own. They delight us, seduce us, inspire us, instruct us, mock us, condemn us, console us,&nbsp;and&nbsp;mourn us. They challenge us, protest against us,&nbsp;and, sometimes, they baffle us. They celebrate the glories of the created world&nbsp;and&nbsp;its people,&nbsp;and&nbsp;they commemorate momentous occasions; they also curse the cruelty&nbsp;and&nbsp;the horror of the world&nbsp;and&nbsp;its people,&nbsp;and&nbsp;they lament catastrophes. They imagine other people's lives&nbsp;and&nbsp;other worlds. They invoke deities&nbsp;and&nbsp;absences. They also speak intimately of heartfelt truths, describe local haunts,&nbsp;and&nbsp;address ordinary people directly. They meditate on living, on dying,&nbsp;and&nbsp;on the passage of time. They tell us stories, they tell us lies,&nbsp;and&nbsp;they tell us stories that reveal the truth through lying, to paraphrase the great painter Pablo Picasso. They enchant us with beauty&nbsp;and&nbsp;appall us with terror. Above all, poems remember. Each poem is, on a fundamental level, an act of remembrance, a kind of handprint pressed against the wall of Time."--from the Preface of&nbsp;Contemporary Catholic Poetry

Contemporary Catholic Poetry: An Anthology

Product Description 
New York Times bestselling author and poet Nikki Grimes explains, “A study of scripture reveals that Jesus spent a lot of time with people in the margins. As an African American, I live in the margins, and I can tell you that it's a place most of us would rather not be. And yet, I know there is always glory to be found in the margins because of the Lord’s presence in, and with us. As Poet Laureate of my Grace Brethren Church in Southern California, it’s my job to distill the heart of the weekly sermon into a poem. I dive into each week’s chosen scripture, viewing it from my own perspective as Black, as woman, as poet, always a little left of center, and looking for the glory to be found in the margins of life, and of the text. Of course, those of us who live in the margins are not what anyone expects, and the very notion that God might speak through us, through me, may seem a bit wild. But he does. ‘I will pour out my spirit on all flesh,’ said the Lord. God’s busy in the hearts of all who call on him.” 
 Review 
“Leave it to the sensationally gifted Nikki Grimes to weld her devotions into one glorious body of text. It’s possible to feel these deeply rooted poems finding friends even as you read them. They will be spoken in resonant spaces to grateful congregations. They will find new homes in the middle of lonely nights. Generous renderings of familiar biblical stories and precious principles in her own inimitable voice. I bow down to ‘An Uncluttered Gospel’ and ‘Navigating No’ among so many gems and sing praises to Nikki for lifting us up.” — 
Naomi Shihab Nye, Young People’s Poet Laureate, Poetry Foundation 
“‘What is there / to recommend this world?’ Nikki Grimes asks, a universal question any human being who has ever suffered has posed. “One honest piercing look around / and there are tears enough / to wash away the world,” the poet acknowledges. The constant drum of sorrow, ‘Drought famine / murder and mayhem / night terrors breaching / the brightness of day’ all have the power to drive us to desolation. And yet, in the midst of her despair, the poet stops to listen and hears the answer to her prayer: ‘God whispers in our ear / Look, to me! Look here!’ Again and again in these poems, each of which serves as a powerful short homily and biblical exegesis, as well as poetic utterance, Grimes finds the grace she—and we—need to move forward and to do what Flannery O’Connor urges all people of God to do, to love the world even as we struggle to endure it. By turns celebratory and sorrowful, these hundred poems honor the movements of the restless human heart and offer a place of repose, bringing us finally to the joyful Good News that we need to be constantly reminded of: ‘The secret’s out: / the kingdom of God is here,’ and we are in its midst.” —Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, author of Andalusian Hours: Poems from the Porch of Flannery O’Connor and Love in the Time of Coronavirus: A Pandemic Pilgrimage 
“These poems of Nikki Grimes are like sermons in the standard sense, but also in the original Roman sense of ‘conversations’—clear, colloquial talk that is reverent about God and often gently irreverent about our failures to live lives of faith. The language of Glory in the Margins: Sunday Poems is clear and fresh, and the book’s messages based on the Bible will be insightful and consoling for readers of all ages and backgrounds.” —A.M. Juster, poet, author of Wonder and Wrath 
“Nikki Grimes is my big sister in the faith, and the poet laureate of Madison Street Church. Sunday in and Sunday out, with a raucous love for Jesus and a quiet intimacy with the English language, she humbly accepts the invitation, and takes the holy scalpel of God’s Word to our small church community. She combines the truth and grace of scripture with a surgical use of Spirit-led words that cut away our pretentious, cauterize our fears, and call our souls to hope. Her poems, shared at the start of every sermon, constantly consp

Glory in the Margins: Sunday Poems

Grimes, Nikki

A new collection from the best and most prolific poets published in the Christian Century over the past twenty-five years. The 34 poets whose work appears defy the narcissistic tendencies of so much contemporary poetry. They do not necessarily express a particular orthodoxy, but they do connect with something larger than the self. Theirs is poetry that attempts to revitalize language, especially theological language. It is poetry that attempts to upset the usual modes of expression and offers up new angles of vision, especially in regard to biblical stories. For most of the poets--though not all by any means--Jesus is the Word made flesh, and the Incarnation is the paradigm as poets attempt to enflesh the abstract, make the spirit tangible, and put into words the unsayable. Poets have a way of taking on what utterly cannot be done. And those are the poems that should appear in a journal of religious news and reflection. The poetic approaches and styles of the work of these poets are immensely varied, from the masterful narratives of Sydney Lea to the finely wrought lyrics of Charles Hughes to the always edgy and surprising poems of Bill Stadick to the most imagistic and prolific work of Luci Shaw to the provocative poems of Christian Wiman. Then there are the superb sonnets of Gracia Grindal and Angela Alaimo O'Donnell and the compelling explorations of the deep spirituality of the everyday that comprise Tania Runyan's vision. The poems in the journal often explore biblical themes, doctrinal issues, or theological conundrums. But many of the poems that appear in the Christian Century present human experience or encounters with the natural world that do not seem on the surface "religious" but reveal a deep humanity at the core. What defines all of these poems is a commitment to communicating with readers seeking truth, beauty, and authenticity.

Taking Root in the Heart: A Collection of Thirty-Four Poets from "The Christian Century"

History & Criticism

Poems of pain and forgiveness, for those who struggle to find healing from a childhood marked by addiction To Shatter Glass&nbsp;is essentially a memoir in poetic form, tracing seventy years of struggle and experience. In her early thirties, at the end of an abusive and childless marriage, Sister Sharon Hunter entered a modern convent. Neither sheltered nor immune from reality, she confronted demons of the past and trauma brought with her, unresolved and in need of healing. Her collection obliterates a common belief that men and women enter religious orders to escape life. Its fifty-six poems vary in style and capture the heart and imagination of those searching for straight&nbsp;answers to difficult questions. It touches on the need to know ourselves, to accept our humanity as defined by God, and to strive toward reconciliation through self-examination and forgiveness.&nbsp; To Shatter Glass&nbsp;is an invitation to wholeness for those scarred by family alcoholism.&nbsp;It is written for the quiet and sensitive buried by depression, and for those who may be too afraid to expose their wounds.&nbsp;It is for anyone who has experienced betrayal or the loss of a loved one through tragic circumstances.&nbsp;&nbsp; This is the first book in Paraclete's Iron Pen imprint.&nbsp;In the book of Job, a suffering man pours out his anguish to his Maker. From the depths of his pain, he reveals a trust in God's goodness that is stronger than his despair, giving humanity some of the most beautiful and poetic verses of all time. Paraclete's Iron Pen imprint is inspired by this spirit of unvarnished honesty and tenacious hope.

To Shatter Glass

Hunter CJ, Sister Sharon

"The word 'angel' means 'messenger' and the title poem of this book, 'Angels Everywhere,' presents the idea that what I often glimpse is a flicker of glancing light, as if a heavenly being is darting in and out of my viewing, allowing me entry into a realm beyond my physical, experiential world--brief revelatory messages from somewhere beyond. I'm hoping that as you read these poems, (more than once, aloud if possible) something like Wordsworth's 'intimations of immortality' will enliven your own perceptions of the world as you experience it. Maybe your own fleet of angels will show up!" --Luci Shaw, from the Introduction Angels Everywhere is published under Paraclete Press's&nbsp;Iron Pen&nbsp;imprint.&nbsp;In the book of Job, a suffering man pours out his anguish to his Maker. From the depths of his pain, he reveals a trust in God's goodness that is stronger than his despair, giving humanity some of the most beautiful and poetic verses of all time. Paraclete's Iron Pen imprint is inspired by this spirit of unvarnished honesty and tenacious hope. &nbsp;

Angels Everywhere: Poems

Shaw, Luci

Christian Poetry in America Since 1940: An Anthology

"One of the best, and least expected, anthologies in decades.” —Joseph Bottum, Poetry editor, New York Sun\nShowcasing thirty-five American poets born in or after 1940, this anthology confirms that one of the most vibrant developments in contemporary verse has been a renewed engagement with the Christian faith. Across a full spectrum of Christian belief, including the struggle to believe at all, these poets bring the power of their art to bear on serious questions: how to understand the goodness of God in a fallen and tragic world, how to reconcile universal truths with the particularities of human experience, how to render familiar events of salvation history in new language that generates its own epiphanies. As Christian engagement assumes a multiplicity of modes and voices, so does contemporary poetry in America. This volume, then, selective yet representative, features the work of early-, mid-, and late-career poets, formalists, free-verse poets, and experimenters in prosody. This anthology bears witness to the poetic mind as it seeks that which is above.

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