by John F Deane. Published by Columba Books, 2020. Reviewed by Elizabeth Snedden

In his foreword Deane writes: “My study has been Christ; my living has been love and poetry.” I can recommend this book to poetry lovers, and those whose developing understanding of Jesus, the Risen Lord of the Cosmos, is open to seeing him as the one through whom, for whom and in whom all created reality is still coming to be. Jesus may be the “outlaw” rejected by the establishment of his own day and ours, but he is close to little ones.

This book is based on a series of talks and lectures the author gave at Loyola University, Chicago. He explores, in clear and accessible language, the faith journey of selected poets and their religious poetry. I chose to spend a day or two with each poet, savouring lines that sang for me, and there were many of these. I met at new depth some old favourites like Robert Southwell, John Donne, Robert Herrick, George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Patrick Kavanagh, but some new ones too, notably John Skelton, Emily Dickinson, Pádraig J Daly and James Harpur. Their poetry is in touch with reality, human and divine, and a joy to read aloud.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 252 September 2020: 27