Twisted Shapes of Light

By William Jolliff

Whether recalling long days on a tractor, late nights at prayer meeting, or the joyful heartbreak of raising a family, the poems in Twisted Shapes of Light take truth where they find it. William Jolliff wraps both arms around the phenomenon old Quakers called "that of God in everyone," welcoming into his work a unique cast of characters seldom portrayed in contemporary poetry. The result is an honest struggle with faith and failure--and even an occasional revelation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Release date: May 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781498208413

William Jolliff

William Jolliff, professor of English at George Fox University, is a poet, critic, songwriter, and occasional banjo player. His previous books include "The Poetry of John Greenleaf Whittier: A Readers' Edition" (2000), "Heeding the Call: A Study of Denise Giardina's Fiction" (2020), and the poetry collection "Twisted Shapes of Light" (2015). He grew up on a farm just outside Magnetic Springs, Ohio, and now lives with his wife, Brenda, in Newberg, Oregon.

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The Poiema Poetry Series

Poems are windows into worlds; windows into beauty, goodness, and truth; windows into understandings that won’t twist themselves into tidy dogmatic statements; windows into experiences. We can do more than merely peer into such windows; with a little effort we can fling open the casements, and leap over the sills into the heart of these worlds. We are also led into familiar places of hurt, confusion, and disappointment, but we arrive in the poet’s company. Poetry is a partnership between poet and reader, seeking together to gain something of value—to get at something important.

Ephesians 2:10 says, We are God’s workmanship . . . poiema in Greek—the thing that has been made, the masterpiece, the poem. The Poiema Poetry Series presents the work of gifted poets who take Christian faith seriously, and demonstrate in whose image we have been made through their creativity and craftsmanship.

These poets are recent participants in the ancient tradition of David, Asaph, Isaiah, and John the Revelator. The thread can be followed through the centuries—through the diverse poetic visions of Dante, Bernard of Clairvaux, Donne, Herbert, Milton, Hopkins, Eliot, R. S. Thomas, and Denise Levertov—down to the poet whose work is in your hand. With the selection of this volume you are entering this enduring tradition, and as a reader contributing to it.

—D. S. Martin

Series Editor

Twisted Shapes of Light

William Jolliff

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TWISTED SHAPES OF LIGHT

Copyright © 2015 William Jolliff. 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, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Cascade Books

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

ISBN 13: 978-1-4982-0840-6

EISBN 13: 978-1-4982-0841-3

Cataloging-in-Publication data:

William Jolliff.

Twisted shapes of light / William Jolliff.

p.; 23 cm—Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 13: 978-1-4982-0840-6

1. 2. 3. 4. I. II.

call number 2015

Manufactured in the USA.

For Jacob Henry, Rebecca Peace, and Anna Fulton

That was the true Light, which lighteth every man and woman that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

Part One

Age and Belief

Age and Belief

Once age begins to draw its tether, every wisp

of faith is like a breath beneath the surface of the sea.

God exists? Maybe. God knows? Possibly.

God’s concerned? Debatable. So the snare pulls

tight around the tan slim bodies we used

to count on. At first we seriously think

about chewing off a leg, but opt today

for pleated pants and shoes that don’t make

our feet feel like strung hams, and we pay

extra for lenses just thinner than ice cubes,

forgetting the time when lips formed easy ahs

and spoke to God as if he were a drugstore clerk

somewhere in the center of Kansas, who asks

Can I help you find anything? You just holler

if you need me, anything at all, and sometimes

we did call, and believed that he, and we, heard.

Forgiveness released us with the ease of a whisper,

peace rained each morning like flakes of yeasty manna,

and I believe was as easy to say as yes yes yes.

Ways to Die

When you think of all the ways to kill a man,