Between Mirage and Miracle

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Description: In this volume, Shepherd selects from these, and from other unpublished works, to shape a series of poems that seek to portray and even illuminate, to some extent, the life of the spirit. They begin by tracing the progress of a typical year--January through December--but also by noting, and celebrating at times, the high points of "The Christian Year": Lent-Easter, Pentecost, Thanksgiving, Advent-Christmas, and Epiphany. Other, more generally themed, less calendar-related poems follow, including poems that reflect on the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center--an attack in which several of the author's parishioners and friends were killed. This is a book to be dipped into, rather than read right through. It should provide fertile soil for the practice of daily prayer and meditation. Endorsements: "Barrie Shepherd's accessible poems invite belief and assent, as 'with bright and beckoning uncertainty' he explores 'the task of noticing / whatever has been there from the beginning' . . . While admitting that 'we had not known that dark could be so deep, ' he is ever available to 'all the holiness that hides in daily things.' These poems extend and transcend Barrie Shepherd's revelations of reality. In their honesty, range, and clarity, they offer pleasures as well as truths." --Daniel Hoffman, author of Brotherly Love, and Poet Laureate of the United States, 1973-1974 "If 'the Christian faith needs a fresh vocabulary and new images to recapture that initial astonishment, to express its radical, world-shattering impact, ' then Between Mirage and Miracle is a good place to begin to fill that need from the seemingly endless hints of holy connections, perspectives, and even revelations . . . This one you will find to be a good friend with whom you will want to have frequent, enriching conversations." --James Forbes, Union Theological Seminary "Barrie Shepherd counsels us not to read these poems from beginning to end. I could not honor his advice. They are like the dark, bright blackberries that grow near his Maine island cottage--sweet, tart, and deliciously ripe. For forty years, this poet has been gathering clusters of wonder in the brambly terrain of daily life. His practiced eye helps us see in the illusion-filled and miracle-starved landscape of ordinary circumstances, extraordinary things concealed in plain sight." --John S. Mogabgab, founding editor of Weavings Journal "You'll laugh and you'll cry. Ours is not a poetry magazine, but when Barrie Shepherd submits his poems they often find their way into print. Theology with verve. Pictures painted in words. Pithy sayings and extended dramas. All these and more await you as you ponder page after page of this collection of poems." --Jack Haberer, editor of The Presbyterian Outlook About the Contributor(s): J. Barrie Shepherd, Minister Emeritus of The First Presbyterian Church in New York City, has preached and lectured extensively across the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Africa. He was named William Belden Noble lecturer at Harvard in 1995 and Lyman Beecher Lecturer at Yale in 2002. Author of fourteen books, including Faces By the Wayside (Cascade Books, 2012), Shepherd's poetry appears frequently in such magazines as Weavings, The Christian Century, and The New Republic.