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Stars Shall Bend Their Voices

Poets' Favorite Hymns and Spiritual Songs

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Tag: Kimberly Johnson

Kimberly Johnson: All Creatures of Our God and King

KJohnson2Kimberly Johnson
It’s not the repeated alleluia. It’s not the catalogue of earthy beauty. It’s not the open-throated Ptolemaic chime. What undoes me is the single minor chord.

 

Author Jeffrey JohnsonPosted on April 16, 2018April 19, 2018Tags All Creatures of Our God and King, Kimberly JohnsonLeave a comment on Kimberly Johnson: All Creatures of Our God and King

Contributors

Jay Hopler
Jay Hopler
Maurice Manning
Maurice Manning
Kate Daniels
Kate Daniels
Zeina Hashem Beck
Zeina Hashem Beck
Mark Jarman
Mark Jarman
Kaveh Akbar
Kaveh Akbar
Jacqueline Osherow
Jacqueline Osherow
Richard Chess
Richard Chess
Sydney Lea
Sydney Lea
Margaret Gibson
Margaret Gibson
Kathleen Norris
Kathleen Norris
Patricia Jabbeh Wesley
Patricia Jabbeh Wesley
Kwame Dawes
Kwame Dawes
Edward Hirsch
Edward Hirsch
Scott Cairns
Scott Cairns
Dana Gioia
Dana Gioia
Shara McCallum
Shara McCallum
Robert Hass
Robert Hass
Jason Gray
Jason Gray
Yehoshua November
Yehoshua November
Kimberly Johnson
Kimberly Johnson
Lorna Goodison
Lorna Goodison
Linda Gregerson
Linda Gregerson
Alicia Ostriker
Alicia Ostriker
Vijay Seshadri
Vijay Seshadri

Praise

Editor Johnson invited an array of poets and essayists to write of their choice hymns. He said of the poets, “They became like a temporary congregation to me.” Among essayists, Kwame Dawes writes a magnificent piece (the song chosen is “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”). Dawes states this is as not only a grounding principle of faith for him, but one shared equally with his wife, Lorna — it is “their hymn.” It’s a privilege to read the various hymns that are life-changing, and because poets feel as they write, it makes tender reading. The hymns’ lyrics are produced in their entirety which gives us the key to each essayist’s experience, and makes the book a dialogue between the speaker and his/her hymn.
-Grace Cavalieri
Washington Independent Review of Books

“I like to sing,’ begins Alicia Ostriker in her essay that joins so many necessary voices of contemporary poetry. Each piece collected in this book allows for memoir, prayer, and rebellion in its examination of what hymns have and can mean to the culture, to the heart. In these pages, the writers you’d think of as most interested in skepticism lay bare their politics and their personal history in order to better know their relationship to faith.”
—Jericho Brown, author of The New Testament

“From Zeina Hashem Beck’s memories of hearing prayers from Tripoli’s mosques to Linda Gregerson’s most beloved Christmas hymn, these essays reveal contemporary poets’ connections to spiritual songs: the lyric impulse, the importance of breath, the pull of anaphora and rhyme. Stars Shall Bend Their Voices is an illuminating—and luminous—collection.”
—Maggie Smith, author of Good Bones

Poets craft words to affect us; hymns sing words into our bodies. How wonderful, then, to read skilled poets speaking personally about hymns and spiritual songs they know. I love this wonderful compendium of poets who have taken hymns to heart—insightful, moving, and revelatory. -Donald Saliers, author of Music and Theology. 

Contact the editor

Jeffrey L. Johnson
johnson_jeffrey_l@hotmail.com
www.harborsofheaven.wordpress.com

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