The Invisible God: Poems for Devotions

By John J. Brugaletta

In addition to being entertaining, these poems pose questions for Christians, whether new converts or seasoned believers. In many cases they can function as a checklist for the depth of one's faith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: May 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781498244077

John J. Brugaletta

John Brugaletta enjoys reading the poetry of poets like Billy Collins, Richard Wilbur and Robert Frost and he writes his own poetry with a similar elan. After teaching at a state university for three decades, he moved to the far northern end of coastal California where life is edenic. This is his eighth book of poems.

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The Invisible God

Poems for Devotions

John J. Brugaletta

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The Invisible God

Poems for Devotions

Copyright © 2017 John J. Brugaletta. 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.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

Eugene, OR

97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-1848-2

hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-4408-4

ebook isbn: 978-1-4982-4407-7

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Acknowledgments

1. Quests

THE BLIND ONES

A CIVIL REPLY TO SCREWTAPE

LITTLE FLAME

QUEST OF THE MAGI

MATURING

BIRTHPLACES OF IMMORTALITY

THE CAMEL AND THE NEEDLE'S EYE

THE EDGE OF LIGHT

OUR WAIT FOR THE MESSIAH

2. Assurances

ASSURANCES

THE SPEED OF LIGHT

THE HAND

THE BUNCH OF GRAPES AND THE SON

HOPE

THE LEPERS

THE GREATEST FRIEND

CONSUMMATIONS

TO SEEK IS TO HAVE FOUND

3. Praying

IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE LOUVRE

THE LANGUAGE OF PARADISE

WITH THE SAVIOR

SPEAKING WITH THE FATHER

CHEATER'S PRAYER

LOSING IS FINDING

THANKS I

THANKS II

FROM THE WHIRLWIND

NO BREAKING BRANCH

BREAKAGES

CARITAS

FABRICATIONS

THE INVISIBLE GOD

BEFORE BEING NOTIFIED

HERETICS

PRAYER ON GOING TO BED

MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD

4. Desires and Deceptions

DESIRES

THE HEADWAITER AT CANA

ACCOUNT BALANCING

JACOB VS. DAVID

PRODIGAL FRIEND

WILFULNESS

AGAPE CHAMPION

THE INCARNATE ONE HIMSELF

MAKING PREDATORS

SUN

5. Church

CHURCH

AFTER THE SERMON

CHURCHGOING

THE AFFECTIONATE VILLAGE

RESET GEM

TEMPLE

SUNDAY MORNING

CHURCH PEWS

GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

REAL PRESENCE IN THE EUCHARIST

DOWN THE LINE

A CRUSH ON LIFE

THE WEDDING FEAST AT CANA

HEARING GOD

6. Messages through Our World

A LITTLE BESTIARY

HERODOTUS TELLS IT

CHRISTMAS TREE

CLOSE SHAVE: A WESTERN

THE NURSERY ARRANGED

ELEPHANT AT OUR ELBOW

GOOD DREAM

ESSAY ON DISORDER

LIKING IS DESIGN

LOVE VS. SALVATION

MIRACLES

TAP ROOTS

7. Translations

SONNET XXII BY MICHELANGELO

THREE EPIC SIMILES FROM DANTE'S COMMEDIA

BALLADE OF THE HANGED MEN

AN ANCIENT COLLECT PARAPHRASED

For the Reverend Canon Mark Shier

He is the image of the invisible God, Colossians

1:15

Acknowledgments

The poems listed below were previously published in the

journals indicated, sometimes in a slightly different form.

A Civil Reply to Screwtape The Lamp-Post

Ballade of the Hanged Men TRINACRIA

Church Time of Singing

Consummations Blue Unicorn

Hope Blue Unicorn

No Breaking Branch The Lyric

Sun Blue Unicorn

The Speed of Light Chronicles

Three Translations from Dante South Coast Poetry Journal

1. Quests

Seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.

Luke 11:9

Without the quest, there can be no epiphany.

Constantine E. Scaros

THE BLIND ONES

If the bard in the Odyssey is a clue,

Homer himself was blind

but saw so clearly the Achaean ships,

the spears apparently slow in gutting a man,

the effete Trojans at their tower,

that we see them through his absent eyes.

Tiresias too, perhaps more than a fiction,

saw more than the sighted,

the running sore hidden at the heart

of Thebes, the parricide, the incest

to which others were blind until

the blindest of them all tore out his eyes

so he would