An Evensong [Hardcover]

Like the religious service for which this romantic collection is named, An Evensong employs poetic forms within an ecclesiastical context as it endeavors to order and make meaning of our broken world. Using characters and settings as varied as monks in medieval monasteries, middle-aged sons in suburban shopping malls, poets in funeral parlors, and combat veterans in college classrooms, these poems form a congregation that longs to receive grace, and yet this revelation often seems beyond mere human grasp. To assist with this mystical pursuit, the verses turn to the scriptures, mythology, history, and the arts to discern some truth from these transcendent traditions. Although the poems do not shy away from humanity's propensity for destruction, their inherently creative discipline leads them on a journey toward a creative God, one whom they might glimpse with hope and wonder. Thus, the collection becomes a meditation on devotion and worship, much like its namesake's liturgy, interested in how our relationship with the Word creates a meaningful existence. Awake and observant, Nathaniel Schmidt'sAn Evensonginvites us into reckoning by its rich articulation of the grandiose and the quotidian. Full of surprising accessibility in the face of their erudition, and bustling with gratitude for the Romantic and Metaphysical poets who have shaped his tradition, Schmidt's poems break, blow, and burn to name the truest wisdoms of our luminous being--mind, body, and soul. --Dave Harrity, author ofThese Intricacies If poetry is meant to open up what is frozen within us, Schmidt's poetry does that through its surprising juxtapositions, startling images, range of language, and allusive quality.This is the poetry of a celebratory journey, leading us more and more into the surprising quality of human creativity. --Gary Schmidt, Professor of English, Calvin College Schmidt's poems embody his eager desire to receive and explore the world, a desire akin to hatchlings who stretchl3K