The wisdom of wild grace

Abstract

The publisher says: ‘These illustrated poems are a doorway to our inner wilderness, to be present to what we discover beyond our neatly controlled worlds.’ Indeed it is so. There are sixty-five poems distributed across sections entitled ‘Writing wild’, ‘Saints and animals’, ‘Myths and fairy tales, ‘Solace of wild places’, ‘The wild self’, and ‘Closing’. The illustrations are beautiful in their own right and they offer a creative complement to the poetry. As a suggestion for the reader, one should seek an advance knowledge of the stories about the saints, and the myths and fairy tales to appreciate the imaginative ways in which the author improvises with her themes. The opening poem ‘You are here’ (after R. M. Rilke’s ‘Book of hours’) is a moving and celebratory reminder of our physical, emotional, and spiritual existence, as also, for example, the poem ‘St Columba and his horse’ (pp. 40-41). The author has such a sustained deep and sensitive awareness of life and prayer. This gathering of creative writing serves well in enabling a fresh appreciation of the Celtic world, its relevance for today, and how faith is reinvigorated by the ever more necessary appreciation of the natural world around us. The title of the book comes from the poem ‘St Ciaran and his first monks’. It repays a meditative pause in the trilogy of wisdom, wild, and grace, not least as ‘wild’ itself occurs three times in the section headings, and binds wisdom and grace together. The poet invites us to step with her into the otherness of being that we might better find ourselves. There are numerous pilgrimages to be had here in the playfulness of the themes and the evocative quality of the illustrations. In a world and at a time when humanity is seeking a better and renewed relationship with nature and the environment, a narrative approach i.e. telling stories in the Celtic tradition offers an important way of realising not simply our responsibility for the created order but ourselves as within it. We can no longer affirm love of neighbour as ourselves without including creation. These lovely poems and illustrations encourage us to do that.