Things Not Seen

By Eric Potter

The poems in Things Not Seen are by turns playful, witty, and serious. Ranging widely from rock concert to communion, from the stray dog of faith to the results of a mammogram, sewing to shooting stars, Schrodinger's cat to Lazarus, they address issues of doubt and longing, the desire for certainty, the presence of mystery, and the struggle in, of, and for faith. After examining sources of false confidence along with failures to see, the poems explore conflicting ways of knowing and being, gradually turning toward an increased willingness to accept limitation, and finally reaching toward tentative affirmations. The final section, a series of poems written in response to icons, charts a struggle toward vision and understanding, an effort to see with the eyes of faith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Sep 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781498229258

Eric Potter

Eric Potter is Professor of English at Grove City College (PA) where he teaches courses in creative writing, American literature, and modern poetry. He is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Heart Murmur (2010) and Still Life (2010).

Book preview

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Things Not Seen

～

Eric Potter

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Things Not Seen

Copyright ©

2015

Eric Potter. 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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.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

Eugene, OR

97401

www.wipfandstock.com

ISBN

13

:

978-1-4982-2924-1

EISBN

13

:

978-1-4982-2925-8

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Acknowledgements

I.

Lament

The Odds

Certainty

Matter of Fact

History of Ideas

Meandering

Conversation Piece

Sleeping Dogs Lie

Arrowheads

If this page

September Sunday Afternoon

Dandelions

II.

California Dreaming

Actually Speaking

Unable

Seamstress

One True Sentence

Daffodils

A Shooting Star

Squirrels

Breathing Room

III.

Fight Fire with Fire

The Worst Thing

September

Another Language

Faith

Entanglements

Personal Economy

IV.

Wide Awake

Rendering

For Example

Extravagance

New Communion

Tattoos

Vegetables from my Neighbors’ Gardens

Blessed

V. Icon Writing

Icon Writing

Doors of Perception

At the Burning Bush

Christmas Card Icon

Mothers and Sons

Crying in the Wilderness

The Business of Icons

Favorite Saint

Man of Sorrows

At the Cross

Breath

Still Life

Notes

To Sarah

Acknowledgements

Saint Katherine Review: Faith

Stone Work: Still Life

Still Life. By Eric Potter. Steubenville, Ohio: Franciscan University, 2010: Still Life

I

～

Lament

I do not have the poet’s ability

to find God

in a blade of grass,

the silver

trail of a slug or a dove’s

plaintive song,

to hear a prayer

in the breath of flowers,

or see in the sunlight slipping

through sycamores

a sacrifice

of praise.

The squirrels circuiting the neighborhood

preach me no sermons,

the rabbits nibble

in non-liturgical silence,

and