Trouble in the Diocese

By David Craig

Trouble in the Diocese is a petulant, funny book of poetry. Its contrary protagonist/antagonist, the Apprentice, embraces life in both the large and the absurdly small. At the same time, he emphatically rejects the easy rigidity of doily-headed orthodox Catholics as well as the impulse in the Catholic literary Pixar world that seeks to serve two masters.
Jesus and his Church are lifted up here, but so is the cross. Discipleship necessarily involves dis-ease, purgation, and if we as readers have any sense, we will--more quietly perhaps--do well to listen (with patience) to his rants.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Aug 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781498201322

David Craig

David Craig was born in Aberdeen and educated there and in Cambridge. He has taught literature and social history in schools and universities in England, Scotland and Sri Lanka. He has published several books on Natural History and Social History, including The Glens of Silence which was published by Birlinn in 2004. He lives in Cumbria.

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Trouble in the Diocese

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Trouble in the Diocese

Copyright ©

2014

David Craig. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions. Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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8

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, Eugene, OR

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.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

Eugene, OR

97401

www.wipfandstock.com

ISBN

13

:

978-1-4982-0131-5

E

ISBN

13

:

978-1-4982-0132-2

Manufactured in the U.S.A

Table of Contents

Title Page

Phase One

Inuit Introit

Come, Negagfok

Christmas with Ed and the Remote Control

The Apprentice, Amazed

The Apprentice Rejoices

The Apprentice and Monsieur L’Amour

The Apprentice Finds His Place

On the Corner of Hollywood and Time

The Apprentice Sees Himself in the Sunset

Lobster Exit

The Apprentice Considers Fleas

The Apprentice Sings A Cappella

The Apprentice Prophesies

The Apprentice Considers His Addiction

The Apprentice at the Chancery

The Apprentice and the Egg

The Apprentice on Vacation

The Apprentice Bilocates

The Apprentice Counsels a Not-so-Young Rilke

The Apprentice Scours the Diocese

Phase Two

Misplaced Years

The Kind of (Apprentice) September

Somewhere Else

The Apprentice as Bobblehead

Poem for Apprentice Jude (Down’s)

The Apprentice Takes a Soak

The Apprentice Skuds

Apprenticed in Purgatory

The Oak Street Polka

The Call

The Apprentice Paints his Face

The Apprentice Washes His Hands

The Apprentice’s Assigned Penance

Apprentice Fail

The Apprentice Considers the Past

The Apprentice Wins The Teaching Award

The Apprentice, Trolled

Humility meets Stupid

The Apprentice as Dismus

The Guerillas of Love

The Apprentice Prays with d. a. levy

Miss Dickinson Answers Higginson and THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY

Phase Three

The Apprentice and the Christ

Jesus on the Street

Locution Poem

Notes

I want to tell you something. What is it that I expect? I want a mess. I want trouble in the dioceses! I want to get rid of the mundane. 

­—pope francis i

the apprentice

Phase One

Inuit Introit

Like hawks, outside of time,

perched on the limbs of the seasons,

the Apprentice passes tucked

Victorian houses; a little boy,

shovels away from his dad, can’t lift

what he has gathered, falls to his knees.

His father doesn’t notice.

Perhaps he, too, feels it, the night:

rows of sprigs, pin feathers,

sprouting neatly up his