What is it about poetry that allows it to hold both beauty and disruption, and even inspire change? 

In this episode, Brian McLaren explores the power of poetry to help us understand and grieve for the natural world while also appreciating its beauty. He talks with poets Pádraig Ó Tuama and Drew Jackson about the importance of seeing nature holistically, and how poetry can help us grapple with the tension between destruction and renewal. The episode explores how poems can inspire action and change and encourages you, the listener, to write your own poems, especially haiku, to practice seeing nature differently.

About the guests:

Drew Jackson is a poet, speaker, and public theologian. He is author of God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God’s Unexpected Coming and Touch the Earth: Poems on The Way. His work has appeared in Oneing from the Center for Action and Contemplation, The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad, Made for Pax, The Journal from the Centre for Public Christianity, Fathom Magazine, and other publications. Drew received his B.A. in Political Science from the Univ. of Chicago and his M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He currently works as the Director of Mission Integration for the Center for Action and Contemplation, and lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and daughters.

Pádraig Ó Tuama is a poet and a theologian from Ireland whose poetry and prose centre around themes of language, power, conflict and religion. His work has won acclaim in circles of poetry, politics, psychotherapy and conflict analysis. His formal qualifications (PhD, MTh and BA) cover creative writing, literary criticism and theology. Alongside this, he pursued vocational training in conflict analysis, specialising in groupwork. His published work is in the fields of poetry, anthology, essay, memoir, theology and conflict. A new volume of poetry — Kitchen Hymns — is forthcoming from CHEERIO in mid 2024. 

Resources:

• The transcript for this episode can be found here.
• Brian referenced two of his books, Life After Doom and The Galapagos Islands.
• Pádraig referenced A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, you can find that here.
• Pádraig referenced Thinking With Trees by Jason Allen-Paisant, you can find that here.
• Drew referenced How Can Black People Write About Flowers at a Time Like This by Hanif Abdurraqib, you can find that here.
• To learn more about Pádraig, visit his website here.
• To learn more about Drew, visit his website here.
• Find out more about musician April Stace here.
• For instructions on how to compose Haiku, visit here.

Connect with us:

• Have a response to Brian's call to action at the end of this episode, or a question in general?
• Email us: podcasts@cac.org
• Send us a voicemail: cac.org/voicemail

We'll be accepting questions for our Listener Questions episode until November 20th, 2024.