this can be a e-book to be dipped into, instead of learn throughout. it may offer fertile soil for the perform of day-by-day prayer and meditation. Shepherd selects the following a sequence of poems that search to painting or even remove darkness from the lifetime of the spirit. they start through tracing the growth of a customary yr – January via December – but additionally through gazing the excessive issues of “The Christian Year”: Lent-Easter, Pentecost, Advent-Christmas. different, extra in most cases themed poems stick with, together with poems that consider the tragedy of September eleven, 2001, within which a number of of the author’s parishioners and buddies misplaced their lives.

“Barrie Shepherd’s available poems invite trust and assent, as ‘with vibrant and beckoning uncertainty’ he explores ‘the activity of noticing / no matter what has been there from the start’ . . . whereas admitting that ‘we had now not identified that darkish will be so deep,’ he's ever to be had to ‘all the holiness that hides in day-by-day things.’ those poems expand and go beyond Barrie Shepherd’s revelations of fact. of their honesty, diversity, and readability, they give pleasures in addition to truths.”
—Daniel Hoffman, writer of cohesion, Pulitzer Prize winner, and up to date Poet Laureate of the United States

“If ‘the Christian religion wishes a clean vocabulary and new pictures to recapture that preliminary astonishment, to specific its radical, world-shattering impact,’ then among Mirage and Miracle is an efficient start line to fill that want from the likely unending tricks of holy connections, views, or even revelations . . . This one you will discover to be a very good buddy with whom you'll want to have common, enriching conversations.”
—James Forbes, Union Theological Semin

“Barrie Shepherd counsels us to not learn those poems from starting to finish. i couldn't honor his recommendation. they're just like the darkish, shiny blackberries that develop close to his Maine island cottage—sweet, tart, and deliciously ripe. For 40 years, this poet has been accumulating clusters of ask yourself within the brambly terrain of way of life. His practiced eye is helping us see within the illusion-filled and miracle-starved panorama of normal situations, amazing issues hid in undeniable sight.”
—John S. Mogabgab, founding editor of Weavings Journal

“You’ll chortle and you’ll cry. Ours isn't a poetry journal, but if Barrie Shepherd submits his poems they typically locate their approach into print. Theology with verve. photographs painted in phrases. Pithy sayings and prolonged dramas. these types of and extra look ahead to you as you give some thought to web page after web page of this choice of poems.”
—Jack Haberer, editor of The Presbyterian Outlook

J. Barrie Shepherd, Minister Emeritus of the 1st Presbyterian Church in big apple urban, has preached and lectured greatly around the usa and Canada, the uk, Europe, and Africa. He used to be named William Belden Noble lecturer at Harvard in 1995 and Lyman Beecher Lecturer at Yale in 2002. writer of fourteen books, together with Faces by means of the Wayside (Cascade Books, 2012), Shepherd's poetry appears to be like usually in such magazines as Weavings, The Christian Century, and the hot Republic.