Two posts in a row after a month off?! Well, don't get used to it. It's a fluke, that's all. Just so happens I had time to write last night.
A friend of mine who knows infinitely more about poetry than I do, recommended 3 modern poets for my consideration. I checked them out online and discovered a strong affinity for Jane Kenyon, whose work resonated with me instantly in a way the others' did not.
So, I purchased a collection of her poems as well as The Best Day, The Worst Day, her poet-husband's account of their life together...a life simultaneously full of sadness and hope.
Jane endured a lifelong struggle with depression which, at times, was tempered with medication, but from which she was never completely free. She came to know Christ as an adult and experienced doubts as she struggled with the hard questions of life and Christianity, but she remained faithful throughout.
As I read both her biography and her poetry, I was struck by her intense "awareness" - she seemed to have a heightened experience of sense and emotion - which I suspect fueled both her poetry and her depression. The same source appears to have both inspired and impaired her.
Ms. Kenyon produced a copious catalog of poems for a woman who was my age when she began a grueling battle with luekemia...a fight she lost about 18 months later at age 47.
Obviously I am commending her work to you...if you're the poetic type. If you're not, then check out her husband's gut-wrenchingly honest narrative. Theirs is a sweet story.
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