Weeknights
at the Cathedral, Poems by Marjorie Maddox
"Doubt
wisely,” says the epigram from Donne that begins Marjorie Maddox's Weeknights
at the Cathedral, a reverently irreverent evocation of the poet’s
spiritual voyage. Maddox’s poems do not shy away from doubt, but neither
do they shy away from wisdom, belief—or, ultimately, grace.
Sample Poems by Marjorie Maddox
“I cannot think of another contemporary American poet who writes
as joyfully, fluently and unapologetically about religion. These are not
poems of vague spirituality or coded personal belief, but playful engagements
with Christian dogma—sacraments and saints—and frank expressions
of faith. Raised in a denomination of the radical Free Church tradition,
seeker in the Episcopal and Orthodox forms, Maddox is qualified to comment,
and her insights are essential in our time so vexed by public and private
abuses of religion. This book—graceful, funny and bold—offers
new and useful views of devotion, new ways to be saved.”—Julia
Kasdorf
“Let’s face it. It’s devilishly difficult to write about
religious experience without lapsing into flat, didactic language. Although
these poems are grounded in theology and tutored by religious practice,
they swing beyond either into realms of the imagination. Antic, smart,
incandescent with love of children, physical objects of worship, and the
body, these poems live in the outskirts of mystery. As a group, they provide
such insight that they add to our fund of religious knowledge.”—Jeanne
Murray Walker
Director of Creative Writing and Professor of English at Lock Haven University, Marjorie Maddox has published Transplant, Transport, Transubstantiation (2004 Yellowglen Prize, WordTech Editions), Perpendicular As I (1994 Sandstone Book Award), When the Wood Clacks Out Your Name: Baseball Poems (2001 Redgreene Press Chapbook Winner), Body Parts (Anamnesis Press, 1999), Ecclesia (Franciscan University Press, 1997), How to Fit God into a Poem (1993 Painted Bride Chapbook Winner), and Nightrider to Edinburgh (1986 Amelia Chapbook Winner), as well as over 270 poems, stories, and essays in journals and anthologies. Her numerous honors include Cornell University’s Chasen Award and Sage Graduate Fellowship in Poetry, the 2000 Paumanok Poetry Award, an Academy of American Poets Prize, the Seattle Review’s Bentley Prize for Poetry, a Breadloaf Scholarship, four Pushcart Prize nominations, and a 2003 runner-up for the Brittingham and Pollak Prizes. She is the co-editor with Jerry Wemple of Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania (Penn State Press, 2005). She lives with her husband and two children in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
ISBN: 1933456140, 108 pages, $17.00
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