When All Else Fails: Poetic Wisdom

By Charles R. Ringma

When All Else Fails is a book of poetic reflections that taps into the hopes and anxieties of a humanity that is no longer as self-assured as it once was. Marked by a pandemic and loss of faith in our political systems, the workplace, and the faith community, we are all struggling for a surer pathway for our feet. While When All Else Fails is no cheap recipe for recovery, it does provide a deep probe for finding a way forward through new heart attitudes that will shape a gentler world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Oct 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781666714746

Charles R. Ringma

Charles Ringma is Emeritus Professor of Regent College, Vancouver; Research Professor at Asian Theological Seminary, Manila; and PhD Supervisor at The University of Queensland, Brisbane.

Book preview

Preface

There is much in life that does not work out as we expected. There are headwinds, difficulties, and failures.

It is easy, therefore, to be disappointed. And for some, disappointment coalesces into bitterness or despair.

But there are other possibilities. Headwinds may strengthen our resolve. Failures may cause us to re-evaluate. Despair may lead to conversion and transformation.

When all else fails, there is poetry. Beauty remains. One only needs to look. But one may need new eyes.

And new eyes don’t come easily. Certainly not when fair winds blow and all seems well. Instead, new eyes are often the product of pain or loss. But they may also emerge in times of contemplation and reflection. In these, and possibly other circumstances, a new way of seeing things is hardly the fruit of our own prowess. More likely, they are a gift sourced by the enlightening spirit. And that dynamic remains largely in the realm of mystery.

Much more, of course, could and should be said. But let poetry do the talking. It is a language all by itself. It has its own clarity masked in opaqueness. It may well let beauty shine.

When all else fails—and much does—there is poetry.

Charles Ringma

Brisbane, Australia

2021

achieve

it never begins with achievement.

the pressure to think and function like this, is misplaced.

achievement has a different genesis.

there is first