Between Mirage and Miracle: Selected Poems for Seasons, Festivals, and the Occasional Revelation - Hardcover

by J. Barrie Shepherd (Author)

In this volume, Shepherd selects from these, and from other unpublished works, to shape a series of poems that seek to portray and even illuminate, to some extent, the life of the spirit.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.

Author Biography

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.