Beautiful Lightning: Spiritual Poems in a Difficult World

Beautiful Lightning as the subtitle (Spiritual Poems in a Difficult World) indicates includes poems that face often challenging if not unpleasant events but can still exhibit the sudden brilliance of lightning. Lightning can be dangerous but it can also enlighten and demonstrate a beauty of its own. These poems composed by an experienced and awardwinning poet lead the reader through an array of moments seen through a spiritual prism. That the spiritual dimension of a poem is not always explicit fits human experience as the divine is not only present in obvious places such as houses of worship but also in the most commonplace of locations and moments. There is spirituality in a young girl in a doctors office pointing at something no one else sees in spring mud in sun shining in ones hair in a mother making bread pudding for her family. Something as common as rain recalls Gods refreshing and strengthening grace. Conversely the overtly religious can call us to make a connection we have not made before. For example a poem about Barsabbas rejected as a replacement disciple summons readers to consider their own rejections and what they can make of them.