tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post6810285747103113241..comments2024-03-25T13:40:30.747-04:00Comments on Faith and Theology: Headwaters: poems by Rowan WilliamsBen Myershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03800127501735910966noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-35351449793415514212008-09-25T05:21:00.000-04:002008-09-25T05:21:00.000-04:00"The blood that bought us so we need not die."But ..."The blood that bought us so we need not die."<BR/><BR/>But surely, in every sense, we need to die.goodfornowthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18212019212659570626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-25188149338055188852008-09-23T11:26:00.000-04:002008-09-23T11:26:00.000-04:00This reference to Rowan's poetic life reminds me t...This reference to Rowan's poetic life reminds me that he is off to Lourdes tomorrow, where he will preach... recently recommended on a similar note is his title "Ponder these Things: Praying with Icons of the Virgin" (Canterbury Press)MMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14169520137196027425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-56300615300018604282008-09-23T08:41:00.000-04:002008-09-23T08:41:00.000-04:00Here are links (TinyUrl) to several more poems fro...Here are links (TinyUrl) to several more poems from "HeadWaters".<BR/>They are from the Church Times.<BR/><BR/>http://tinyurl.com/6ah3ja<BR/><BR/>http://tinyurl.com/6g7s7y<BR/><BR/>J. A. Frazer Crocker, Jr.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-46864752351471309882008-09-22T22:23:00.000-04:002008-09-22T22:23:00.000-04:00stunning poem, I need to read more. thanks Ben... ...stunning poem, I need to read more. thanks Ben... and Kim for commentary. By the way do you folk think the last line is a reference to the kind of sacrificial violence Girard analyses, or is an oblique link to the self-sacrifice of Christ?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-118758527951472152008-09-22T12:38:00.000-04:002008-09-22T12:38:00.000-04:00For those who don't know the poetry of D. Gwenallt...For those who don't know the poetry of D. Gwenallt Jones, overshadowed as he was by R. S. Thomas (whose poem "A Lecturer" is a eulogy to Gwenallt), here is an excerpt from the foreward of a small collection, preceded by a couple of essays, entitled <I>Sensuous Glory: The Poetic Vision of D. Gwenallt Jones</I> (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2000), written by - Rowan Williams!<BR/><BR/>"Some figures - T. S. Eliot, Thomas Merton - become voices for far more than their own individual experience; they encapsulate the struggles of a whole era, a whole class of people, and create a distinctive imaginative world. For anyone who grew up in twentieth century Wales, Gwenallt has something of this character. His personal voice is matured in the context of an industrialism careless of life and welfare, first finding itself in the language of Marxist critique and then falling into the rhythm and cadence of a bleak but honest and impassioned Christianity, with its vision of humanity, reduced almost to animality (echoes of <I>King Lear</I>), scenting the redeeming blood from far off and howling with longing - one of Gwenallt's most outrageous and unforgettable images."<BR/><BR/>Williams' translation of "Sin" is markedly different from the one in the collection by Patrick Thomas: it's very much earthier - ruddier, ruder - and proposes assonances and rhymes absent in Thomas' rendering (but there in the Welsh?).<BR/><BR/>By the way, need we be reminded that the <I>particular</I> social and cultural location of Rowan Williams - his roots, where he's coming from, i.e. from the Swansea valley in south Wales - might be a significant factor in tracing the <I>universal</I> sweep of his theology?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com