Prose poems, chants, litanies, simple songs, cadenced prayers, brief bursts of rhythmic observation, elegies to little moments that are not little at all in the least whatsoeverwelcome to the melodic world of Brian Doyle's proems, swirling with voices unreeling tales, souls telling stories, moments photographed with ink. Accessible, easy to read, blunt, brief, and sometimes unforgettable, these are not poems, says the author, but life set to the music of poetry. In A Shimmer of Something, Brian Doyle's characteristic humor and sincerity combine to make this collection a delight to read. From his conviction that miracles breed ripples that do not cease, to his lack of faith about the life of an elderberry bush, to the amusing story of a friends experience of driving the Dalai Lama to Seattle, to the humorous experience of his second Confession, to an intimate story of love and loss, Doyle's lean stories of spiritual substance inspire, entertain, and captivate.
Product Preview
| Format: | Paperback book |
|---|---|
| Product code: | IC637142 |
| Dimensions: | 7.93" x 7.19" |
| Length: | 192 pages |
| Publisher: |
Liturgical Press
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| ISBN: | 9780814637142 |
| 1-2 copies | $17.55 each |
|---|---|
| 3-9 copies | $16.75 each |
| 10-49 copies | $15.96 each |
| 50-99 copies | $15.56 each |
| 100+ copies | $14.96 each |
Praise
Here we have essays that have passed through a shrinking machine, stories thick as bread, poems clean as mirrors; here we have Holy Mother facing off against All Saints; here kestrels and shrews and a hawk giving a ground squirrel a make-over; here we have diapers and dictators; here a missive from Lazarus; here elegies and jeremiads; here St. Francis meets Mel Brooks; here we have the Dalai Lama playing Name that Tune; here a concatenation of questions about the soul; here we have what I would do if I were pope; here free throws as worship, holding hands as prayer; here we have Brother Brian Doyling up the world for us yet again, awe and aha, as no one else can.
Is this a book of poems, according to any definition of a poem? The definition is debatable. But I know, after reading this book, the sound of Doyle's voice--energetic, colloquial, questing, wittily quirky, casually very serious--is still with me. And I know that this book is full of what Auden in the foreword says poems should be full of: 'birth, death, the Beatific Vision . . .the awards and miseries of desire, the unjust walking the earth and the just scratching miserably for food like hens...the gratifications and terrors of childhood, the impact of nature . . . '. Well, read all of Auden's quote at the beginning of this book and read the book. The cadence of Doyle's voice and his language linger, and that must mean that this book, A Shimmer of Something, is an impressive, impossible to ignore or forget, memorable treasure of a book. Poetry.
A Shimmer of Something has been such a gift to me. Thank you for this book and for all the ways that your ministry of Word shimmers, echoes, and sings in the world.
This collection of poems, chants, songs, prayers, and litanies is sure to entertain and inspire. Doyle's "proems" are filled with humorous and sincere observations from everyday life and unexpected surprises and stories along the way.
Doyle explores the crazy quagmire of parenting, probes the sensitive areas in friendship which we never speak aloud, roars at basketball, chortles at fun, remembers key detail, and weaves fascinating stories. He wonders why "the very best thing is the one thing that hurts the worst." How Catholic of him, in the best sense of the word, to see the world saturated by grace, with the divine always lurking around the next bend. Recognizing that mysterious presence, he praises it, not with the mind-deadening prose of encyclicals, but with the verve and arc and joy of the fast ball.
Author
Brian Doyle was a hirsute shambling shuffling mumbling grumbling muttering muddled maundering meandering male being who edited Portland Magazine at the University of Portland, in Oregon — the best university magazine in America, according to Newsweek, and "the best spiritual magazine in the country," according to author Annie Dillard, clearly a woman of surpassing taste and discernment.
Doyle's books have four times been finalists for the Oregon Book Award, and his essays have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Orion, The American Scholar, and in newspapers and magazines around the world. His essays have also been reprinted in the annual Best American Essays, Best American Science & Nature Writing, and Best American Spiritual Writing anthologies. Among various honors for his work is a Catholic Book Award, two Pushcart Prizes, and, mysteriously, a 2008 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
His greatest accomplishments are that a riveting woman said yup when he mumbled a marriage proposal, that the Coherent Mercy then sent them three lanky snotty sneery testy sweet brilliant nutty muttering children in skin boats from the sea of the stars, and that he made the all-star team in a Boston men's basketball league that was a really tough league, guys drove the lane in that league they lost fingers, man, one time a guy drove to the basket and got hit so hard his right arm fell off but he was lefty and hit both free throws, so there you go.
