Habitation of Wonder

Abigail Carroll

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781532630262
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Religious Poetry
• Index: Literature

Habitation of Wonder is an offering of poems that travels the intersection of the natural landscape and the landscape of spirit. Here, the moon is a "white comma / in the breath of space." Crocuses are "ephemeral prophets, first of the sun's spring projects." The ocean is "a vast / perpetual sacrifice on the altar / of the shell-glittering shore." The collection opens with "Genesis, " a reimagining of the creation story with song as the divine instrument of creation. Five themed sections flow from "Genesis" like a musical thread, investigating the material elements from which we originate and in which we take shelter, as well as the gifts of language and faith, which make us more than merely "a constellation of salts." In its own way, each poem invites the reader to "tenant beauty"--as well as to tenant uncertainty. When beauty and uncertainty collide, they spark wonder. As these poems suggest, wonder is simply another name for the world in which we live--and the world that lives in us.

CREED

Toward A Winter Retreat Packing List

A flashlight,

a skein of yarn,

a brush—

a flashlight

because

stars shiver forth

only their own brightness,

pinning tight the dark;

a flashlight because

a page of words

in the middle of the night

illuminates the mind

like the moon’s blue net

on a pasture

of snow;

a flashlight because

it all starts

with this: God from God,

light from light—

and on the sixth day,

that light got stuck

in Adam’s cells,

began swimming in

and out of his lungs;

a flashlight—

and a skein of yarn

because fingers love

to dance and move, love

to twine wool and flax

and doubt

into symmetry

and prayer;

a skein of yarn

out of which to spin

a scarf and the very notion

of warmth;

a skein of yarn because

to work is not

to be alone, because

what is community

but a sequence of purls

and knits, the invisible sum

of a thousand tiny knots?

a skein of yarn—

and a brush

because night

needs sweeping

from the hair just as sleep

needs washing from the face;

a brush because

Eve’s locks were her crown

and glory,

and in this life

we could all use a little more

beauty; a brush because

questions seek an answer;

wrongdoing, forgiveness;

what is the heart after all

but a tangle of love

and fear, a perfect

snarl of desire

and resistance?

A flashlight

a skein of yarn

a brush—

because the church

is a body with feet,

fingernails, and hair,

because Christ’s only hands

on earth are ours, and our hold

on earth is only

to what kindles,

what joins,

what sings,

what sifts,...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Genesis (I)
• WATER
• WOOD(S)
• AIR
• WORD
• CREED