The Desert Shall Blossom - Poems for the Journey from Ash Wednesday to Easter Monday, by Janet Killeen

'A beautiful collection of poems for Lent and Eastertide that will actually far outlast the season'

The Desert Shall Blossom - Poems for the Journey from Ash Wednesday to Easter Monday
By Janet Killeen
Wild Goose Publications
ISBN: 978-1804323694
Reviewed by: Paul Goodliff

 
This is a beautiful collection of poems for Lent and Eastertide, well-crafted, and easy to understand (unlike some poetry that seems more like a puzzle to be unlocked than something with which to be edified— Killeen's requires just time and an open heart to enjoy.)
 
We are now very close to Ash Wednesday, but if you hurry you'll be able to buy a copy and start reading without losing too much of the Lenten season, and anyway, this is not a series of readings with one set for each day, but rather a collection that can be read throughout the season as time allows. You'll soon catch up.

There are five poems for the wilderness temptation, another five for Holy Week, and nine for the equivalent of the stations of the cross. There follow three for Holy Saturday, and four for Easter. You'll see that these poems invite a flexible approach to when to read them (although you'll need some self-restraint not to read them all at one sitting, which is a failing that this reviewer thankfully turned into a blessing in order to review the collection!)
 
There is an echo of The Christ Hymn in Philippians in the opening lines of 'Heights': There may have been laughter, /The faint, gentle mirth of angels/ Who'd seen a greater fall than this./ Of splendour, down, down through planes of light/Invisibly to earth, to form and substance, to this frail coat of flesh/We call humanity, and wear so brief a time/Until mortality claims us." (16).

For Holy Saturday, "Remembered, that first of all confinements, /And the forced narrowing of birth. /Love, joy, anguish, sorrow apprehended/Within the strangely heavy garb of flesh. .... Awaiting now the huge hilarity of resurrection, / Rising light and light to laughter/ Within unfettered elements of space and time."('Fathoms', 62)

And for Easter, Mary "saw how Resurrection bathes the world in light, / Healing its age-embittered wounds and shames." ('Daybreak' 77)
 
I think these poems will far outlast the season, and find their way into my heart all year round. Quite simply, grab a copy as soon as you can, and all for the price of three cups of coffee.
 

The Revd Dr Paul Goodliff, The Order for Baptist Ministry