September 12, 2007
Poetry
OoN began a bit over four years ago as a sort of unintended companion piece to The Covenant Journal, an occasional paper with dreams of one day becoming a quarterly. TCJ got started some eight years ago with the Baptismal Covenant as its imagined editorial policy, hence, its name. Since then, it has been called one of the best kept secrets in the Episcopal Church, a “samizdat,” by one learned churchman of our acquaintance.
Of late, TCJ has taken on an associate editor, a wider audience, and perhaps an even more inclusive range of opinions, but always with an eye to remaining Anglican to the core (whatever that means). The current issue, TCJ26, in what may seem a move astray, is devoted entirely to poetry and will feature nine poems all reflecting on the Baptismal Covenant. Hard copy goes into the mail next week. The website at
Poetry “When power leads us to arrogance, poetry reminds us of our limitations. When power narrows the area of our concern, poetry reminds us of the richness and diversity of our existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”
Some years ago when we first quoted these words of John F Kennedy in this journal, we had little notion that one day we’d devote an entire issue to poetry. He had in mind then the state, but the notion sounded altogether as appropriate for the church. The Baptismal Covenant has been and continues to be this journal’s basic editorial policy. And now that we think about it, it is a kind of poetry in itself, a metaphorical shaping and way of imagining the Christian life, not unlike the parables, the poetry of Jesus, were for him.
It should be no surprise that the fundamentalist/literalist mindset now insinuating itself into the Anglican Communion’s churches would want to change our traditional biblical theology-of-analogy into one ponderous confession qua covenant all the better to manipulate. This move is, indeed, as Kennedy wrote, a maneuver for power which leads to arrogance, narrows our vision, and corrupts our polities and mission.
Poet Rob Cogswell’s deeply spiritual reflections recall for us how poetry, especially the poetry of our Baptismal Covenant, can remind us of our limitations together with the richness and diversity of our existence all the while cleansing us as perhaps no fuller on earth can do.
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