Description
Book SynopsisAn unmissable anthology of touching, humorous, quirky, disconcerting, affirming, erotic and intriguing poems, sensitively interpreted by Janet Morley - renowned poet, critic, theologian and teacher
Trade Review[Morley’s] comments are gentle, meditative, and perceptive. She avoids the overly devotional and sentimental, and has a gift for picking out the killer line or the telling stanza. * Church Times *
[On OUR LAST AWAKENING] Morley writes with clarity and without simplification. Her theology is humane, experiential, and fed by the same poetry of scripture which Donne held so close. Morley’s God is not some object of our knowledge but the deepest cause for our wonder, through death as much as through life. She doesn’t unweave the poems by over-commenting on them, but allows enough unsaid for them to continue their work. I think Donne would be more than happy to have this book named after one of his own reflections on "our last awakening". -- Mark Oakley, Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral * Church Times *
As always [Morley] is both alert to the literary nature of the poems she discusses and also profound, drawing the reader into meditating on what is being said without seeking to be at all "preachy" or to push a particular religious message. -- Michael Cayley * Julian Meetings Magazine *
[On HAPHAZARD BY STARLIGHT] Janet Morley has the great gift of being able to write simply and succinctly about a poem in a way that invites the reader into the heart of the poem. A fine poet herself, and one of the best liturgical crafters of prayer in our time (her first book, All Desires Known is, to my mind, one of the best collections of prayers in the modern era), Morley brings to her writing the poet’s sensitivity to language, the critic’s capacity to analyse and interpret, the theologian’s discernment of the sacred with the teacher’s ability to communicate insight in fresh and memorable ways. -- Nicola Slee
[On THE HEART'S TIME] Varied, beautiful, provocative and nurturing. * The Times *
Morley takes a poem, interprets it and applies it, marking a pilgrimage of the heart . . . each interpretation making me feel as if I was gently taken apart and remade anew. * Church Times *
There’s a freedom and rashness in these poems sometimes lacking in religious writing. A wonderful idea, and nicely done. * The Tablet *
[On ALL DESIRES KNOWN] A beautiful book, made newly useful. * thegoodbookstall *
