Stride Magazine: Attention speaking attachment

My latest review of poetry for Stride Magazine is on Breath Notes, edited by Linda Kemp, amd The Moral Theology of the Devil / Clothed with the Sun by Linda Kemp:

'Breath Notes is a chapbook that gathers responses to a call for poems attending to religion, faith and spirituality. This focus is an interesting, but entirely appropriate, one for a Press that also publishes a journal of experimental poetics. A similar engagement with religion, faith and spirituality is also to be found in the recent work of the anthology’s Editor, Linda Kemp, including her most recent collection of poems, The Moral Theology of the Devil / Clothed with the Sun.'

My poetry reviews for Stride include a review of two poetry collections, one by Mario Petrucci and the other by David Miller, a review of Temporary Archive: Poems by Women of Latin America, a review of Fukushima Dreams by Andrea Moorhead, a review of Endangered Sky by Kelly Grovier and Sean Scully, a review of John F. Deane's Selected & New Poems, a review of God's Little Angel by Sue Hubbard and a review of Spencer Reece's 'Acts'.

My articles for Stride Magazine include 'Five entries in Prog 50' - a piece about five entries found in Prog 50 an encyclopaedia of Prog Rock edited by artist and musician Maurizio Galia - and an article about my 'Five Trios' series of poems. 'Five Trios' is a series of five long poems on thin places and sacred spaces in Essex and East London, each of which are also located within the Diocese of Chelmsford. The five poems in the series are:

• 'Barking';
• 'Bradwell';
• 'Broomfield';
• 'Pleshey'; and
• 'Runwell'.

These poems have been published by Amethyst Review and International Times.

To read my poems published by Stride, click here, here, here, here, here, and here. My poems published in Amethyst Review are: 'Runwell', 'Are/Are Not', 'Attend, attend' and 'Maritain, Green, Beckett and Anderson in conversation down through the ages'.

I am among those whose poetry has been included in Thin Places & Sacred Spaces, a recent anthology from Amethyst Press. I also had a poem included in All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich, the first Amethyst Press anthology of new poems. International Times have also published several of my poems, beginning with 'The ABC of creativity', which covers attention, beginning and creation, and most recently 'The Edge of Chaos', a state of existence poem.

Stride magazine was founded in 1982. Since then it has had various incarnations, most recently in an online edition since the late 20th century. You can visit its earlier incarnation at http://stridemagazine.co.uk. I have read the poetry featured in Stride and, in particular, the work of its editor Rupert Loydell over many years and was very pleased that Rupert gave a poetry reading when I was at St Stephen Walbrook.

Rupert Loydell is the editor of Stride magazine, contributing editor to International Times and a writer and abstract artist. He has many books of poetry and several collaborative publications in print, and has edited anthologies for Shearsman, KFS and Salt. His critical writing has appeared in Punk & Post-Punk (which he is on the editorial board of), Journal of Writing and Creative Practice, New Writing, English, Text, Axon, Short Fiction in Theory and Practice, Musicology Research, Revenant, The Quint: an interdisciplinary journal from the north and Journal of Visual Art Practice. He has also contributed chapters to Brian Eno. Oblique Music (Bloomsbury, 2016), Critical Essays on Twin Peaks: The Return (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Music in Twin Peaks: Listen to the Sounds (Routledge, 2021) and Bodies, Noise and Power in Industrial Music (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).

Rupert has recently contributed several guest posts to 'Between'. These have been interviews musicians including Nick Battle and Steve Scott who contributed to the early days of christian rock in the UK. I have also published an interview with Rupert himself in which he shares his thoughts on that same period of christian rock, as well as speaking about other aspects of his career and interests. These posts can be read here, here, and here.

I have also written reviews of poetry for Tears in the Fence beginning with 'Modern Fog' by Chris Emery. My second review was of 'The Salvation Engine' by Rupert Loydell and my third was of 'For All That’s Lost' by David Miller. My poetry pieces for International Times are: an interview with artist, poet, priest Spencer Reece; an interview with the poet Chris Emery; plus reviews of 'Breaking Lines' at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art and 'What Is and Might Be and then Otherwise' by David Miller. I have also published pieces on poetry at Seen and Unseen - a profile of the poet Theresa Lola - and the Journal of Theological Studies - a review of Faith, Hope and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination by Malcolm Guite. For more on poetry, read my ArtWay interview with David Miller here and my interview with Rupert Loydell here. See also Rupert Loydell's interview with poet and musician Steve Scott. My own dialogues with Steve can be read here, here, here, here, and here.

Several of my short stories have been published by IT including three about Nicola Ravenscroft's EarthAngel sculptures (then called mudcubs), which we exhibited at St Andrew's Wickford in 2022. The first story in the series is 'The Mudcubs and the O Zone holes'. The second is 'The Mudcubs and the Clean-Up King', and the third is 'The mudcubs and the Wall'. My other short stories to have been published by International Times are 'The Black Rain', a story about the impact of violence in our media, 'The New Dark Ages', a story about principles and understandings that are gradually fading away from our modern societies, and 'The curious glasses', a story based on the butterfly effect.

My key literature posts (including poetry) are:

• There were giants in those days (1)
• There were giants in those days (2)
• There were Giants in those days (3)
• There were giants in those days (4)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (1)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (2)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (3)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (4)
• The Modern & Contemporary Catholic Novel (5)
• The poetry of connection
• Debate: Has Fiction Lost It's Faith?
• Jesus is having a moment in literary fiction
• Endo & Scorsese: Approaching Silence
• Contemporary Fiction and Christianity
• Debate: Has Fiction Lost It's Faith? (2)
• Jack Clemo: The Invading Gospel
• Dealing with faith and with secularism is difficult but necessary now
• The poet’s eloquently passionate struggle at the junction of doubt and devotion
• Christian Arts renaissance: Major or minor?
• T.S. Eliot: Christianity, fragmentation and reconciliation
• Jesus Novels & Films: The Greatest Story Ever Told
• Acts of the Assassins and Jesus Novels
• Czeslaw Milosz, Oscar Milosz and Simone Weil
• Blogs: cryingforavision & Stride magazine
• Tasos Leviaditis: The Blind Man with the Lamp
• Religious concerns in Greek poetry
• Thomas Merton and Latin American poets
• American Catholic poets & writers
• Connections of Sister Corita Kent and Norman Nicholson
• Ernesto Cardenal RIP
• Czeslaw Milosz, Jerzy Andrzejewski, Oskar Milosz, and Aleksander Wat
• Faith, Mystery & Poetry
• Elizabeth Jennings & David Gascoyne: Mystical Experience and the Making of Poems
• Roots of the Catholic Literary Revival

See also 'Art and Faith: Decades of Engagement: Introduction, 1880s, 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

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Linda Kemp - Poetry reading.

Ways in which young and old can minister to each other

Here's the sermon that I shared at St Catherine's Wickford, St Mary's Runwell and St Gabriel's Pitsea this morning:

The film ‘The Road’ stars Viggo Mortensen in an epic post-apocalyptic tale of the survival of a father and his young son as they journey across a barren America that was destroyed by a mysterious cataclysm. Reckoned to be a masterpiece, the film imagines a future in which people are pushed to the worst and the best that they are capable of and a future in which a father and his son are sustained by love.

It is a film in which an older person supports and encourages someone younger, as in the story of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, where Simeon and Anna recognised and encouraged the potential in the baby Jesus (Luke 2: 22-40). 

This story is a wonderful example of the way in which young and old can minister to each other. It is the older folk in this story who see and encourage the potential in the young child Jesus. They spoke about and praised God for Jesus’ potential in ways that amazed his parents despite all the revelations that they themselves had already received. It may well be that they had begun to settle into the usual and ordinary pattern of care for their baby and had therefore lost their focus on the special nature of their child.

For teenagers it can often be difficult to accept that older people have something positive to contribute to their lives. They are often at the stage in life where they are testing things out for themselves and wanting to blaze their own trail through life. But those around them who are older in their family or church and at school can all be a positive influence as they recognise and encourage what they may have to offer.

That was certainly the case for me, as I look back on my teenage years. Like the boy in the film, I was inspired and encouraged by my dad who has remained a big influence on my life, but I was also encouraged in creative writing by a teacher at my school and brought back to faith by a youth leader at my youth club. So, if you are a young person here today, be on the lookout for adults who see your potential and encourage it, as Simeon and Anna did for the young Jesus, and if you are a person of years and experience look out for young people that you can encourage and affirm.

Every child is a unique combination of personality and possibilities that will lead to a life that will never be repeated. However, for many children their potential and their possibilities are never fully identified and explored and when this is the case their unique potential is often expressed in destructive activities. In our churches and communities, it can often be those who are older that have the wisdom and time to see the potential that lies latent in young people.

One of the most exciting pieces of youth work that I ever saw came when a youth worker arranged for small groups of young people to go to after-school groups in the homes of elderly people from their church. At these groups there was time to think about the Bible and time for the older people to teach skills of cookery and art to the young people. Deep friendships were formed between young and old and the whole family of one of the young people became Christians as a result of this initiative.

And this kind of initiative is not only one way. It is not just about older folk sharing their skills and time with the young. Young people are able to give much in return to those who are older. Think how blessed Simeon and Anna were by their encounters with the baby Jesus. Simeon had waited all his life for this moment having been promised that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s promised Messiah. “Now, Lord,” he says, “you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace.” What a wonderful conclusion this was to Simeon’s life; the fulfilment of all his hopes, dreams and prayers.

Those of you who are grandparents know all about this – the joy that comes into your lives through your grandchildren but, in Church we don’t need to be grandparents to receive this joy if we share in the ministry of Simeon and Anna by using our wisdom and time to see and encourage the potential that lies latent in young people.

Then, be aware that it may take time for that potential to be fully realised. Simeon and Anna recognised Jesus’ potential when he was only a baby and Mary, his mother, remembered the things they said and treasured them in her heart. But it was thirty years later that Jesus began the ministry which was to fulfil the potential they had seen in him. And for those first thirty years of his life, he lived a very ordinary life. Over those years, his parents might well have wondered when are the things that Simeon and Anna spoke about going to happen? When is the potential that they saw in Jesus going to be realised?

TV talent shows suggest that our hopes and dreams can be achieved overnight but life doesn’t always develop in the way that we expect and it is important not to get frustrated when our hopes and dreams may not be realised instantly. Many people need significant life experience before their potential can be fully realised and we therefore need to persevere in order to get to a place in our lives where that occurs. The time it took for Jesus' potential to be realised in the way predicted by Simeon and Anna can therefore be an encouragement to patience in our lives as we wait for our potential to come to fruition.

Simeon and Anna also had to watch and wait themselves in order to see the Lord’s promised Messiah. Because they were prepared to watch and wait, they saw for the new thing that God was about to do for Israel and for the world. Anna was in the Temple every day looking and listening for all that God would reveal to her. Simeon, too, was alert to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who led him into the Temple to see Jesus. As we wait for our prayers to be answered, are we looking and listening to see and hear what God is wanting to reveal to us in our waiting.

We often need to wait for the right time for God’s purposes to come about. When we pray, God may well answer our prayers by asking us to wait. Waiting can be frustrating as when we are waiting for a bus in the rain or part of a long queue that seems to be taking forever. But we have a choice about what we do as we wait; will we just while away the time or will we look around us and see what there is to see as we wait.

W. H. Vanstone wrote a wonderful book called The Stature of Waiting in which he argued that it is only to human beings as we wait that “the world discloses its power of meaning” and we become “the sharer with God of a secret – the secret of the world’s power of meaning.” For many of us because we don’t stop and reflect the world exists for us simply as a “mere succession of images recorded and registered in the brain” but when we do stop, wait, look and listen then we “no longer merely exist” but understand, appreciate, welcome, fear and feel.

So, watching and waiting is vital if we are to understand and not simply receive the answers to prayer that God longs to give to us. It may well be that it was because of the length of his wait that Simeon was able to identify Jesus as the Lord’s promised Messiah.

As we watch and wait we can grow in our understanding of our world and we can see the potential and possibilities in the young. These are important ministries in which we can share. Someone in your youth did this for you. Now is the time when we can do this for others. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Mumford and Sons - I Will Wait.