{"id":9935,"date":"2016-05-20T01:00:51","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T08:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/?p=9935"},"modified":"2016-05-17T11:24:40","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T18:24:40","slug":"poetry-friday-in-the-beginning-was-the-word-by-jeanne-murray-walker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/05\/poetry-friday-in-the-beginning-was-the-word-by-jeanne-murray-walker\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Friday: “In the Beginning Was the Word” by Jeanne Murray Walker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"SunlightI can\u2019t begin to count the number of poems which offer their language to re-imagining the Genesis creation story\u2014maybe because poetry itself is an act of creation. \u00a0Jeanne Murray Walker\u2019s creation narrative \u201cIn the Beginning Was the Word\u201d (Image issue 85) plays exuberantly with language, as if in imitation of God\u2019s exuberance in creating our world. Walker imagines a teasingly \u201ctough\u201d neighborhood that our planet settles into: all the elements enlivened by cosmic (and comic) emotions\u2014 \u201cirate Mars,\u201d \u201cthe kerfluff \/ of a moody moon.\u201d Then Walker shifts her creative gaze to earth itself, as life sprouts in a wild disorder. Finally, human language itself \u201cbursts\u201d forth as \u201cCreation thinking about itself\u201d; and, yes, the creative force of our words is likened to God\u2019s. One dark note clouds the poem\u2019s closing line: all these words have the potential to be \u201cdangerous.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Peggy Rosenthal
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

In the Beginning Was the Word by Jeanne Murray Walker<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

It was your hunch, this world. On the heyday
\nof creation, you called, Okay, go!<\/em> and a ball
\nof white hot gasses spun its lonely way
\nfor a million years, all spill and dangerous fall
\nuntil it settled into orbit. And a tough
\nneighborhood, it was, too. Irate Mars,
\nand sexually explicit Venus, the kerfluff
\nof a moody moon, and self-important stars.<\/p>\n

And trees. Think of their endless rummaging
\nfor light, their reckless greening, how flowering
\nis barely regulated damage. Then birds,
\nmice, sheep. Soon people, bursting into language.
\nCreation thinking about itself: our words soaring
\nlike yours through time, dangerous, ordinary words.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image above is by\u00a0Miles Wolstenholme, licensed by Creative Commons.<\/p>\n

Jeanne Murray Walker<\/strong>\u2019s most recent books are Helping the Morning: New and Selected Poetry<\/em> (Word\u00a0Farm) and The Geography of Memory: A Pilgrimage through Alzheimer\u2019s<\/em> (Hachette). She is a professor\u00a0of English at the University of Delaware and teaches in the Seattle Pacific University MFA Program.\u00a0Her website iswww.JeanneMurrayWalker.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"GL<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can\u2019t begin to count the number of poems which offer their language to re-imagining the Genesis creation story\u2014maybe because poetry itself is an act of creation. \u00a0Jeanne Murray Walker\u2019s creation narrative \u201cIn the Beginning Was the Word\u201d (Image issue 85) plays exuberantly with language, as if in imitation of God\u2019s exuberance in creating our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1050,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[894,3677,52,746,899,3572,122,1945],"class_list":["post-9935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-peggy-rosenthal","tag-creation","tag-creation-narrative","tag-god","tag-jeanne-murray-walker","tag-nature","tag-peggy-rosenthal","tag-poetry","tag-poetry-friday"],"yoast_head":"\nPoetry Friday: "In the Beginning Was the Word" by Jeanne Murray Walker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I can't begin to count the number of poems which offer their language to re-imagining the Genesis creation story\u2014maybe because poetry itself is an act of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/05\/poetry-friday-in-the-beginning-was-the-word-by-jeanne-murray-walker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poetry Friday: "In the Beginning Was the Word" by Jeanne Murray Walker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I can't begin to count the number of poems which offer their language to re-imagining the Genesis creation story\u2014maybe because poetry itself is an act of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/05\/poetry-friday-in-the-beginning-was-the-word-by-jeanne-murray-walker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-20T08:00:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-05-17T18:24:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/files\/2016\/05\/Sunlight-Leaves-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peggy Rosenthal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peggy Rosenthal\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/05\/poetry-friday-in-the-beginning-was-the-word-by-jeanne-murray-walker\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/05\/poetry-friday-in-the-beginning-was-the-word-by-jeanne-murray-walker\/\",\"name\":\"Poetry Friday: \\\"In the Beginning Was the Word\\\" by Jeanne Murray Walker\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-20T08:00:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-05-17T18:24:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#\/schema\/person\/7c6ca1f7acf2aa5284139bbbab35446e\"},\"description\":\"I can't begin to count the number of poems which offer their language to re-imagining the Genesis creation story\u2014maybe because poetry itself is an act of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/05\/poetry-friday-in-the-beginning-was-the-word-by-jeanne-murray-walker\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/05\/poetry-friday-in-the-beginning-was-the-word-by-jeanne-murray-walker\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2016\/05\/poetry-friday-in-the-beginning-was-the-word-by-jeanne-murray-walker\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Poetry Friday: “In the Beginning Was the Word” by Jeanne Murray Walker\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/\",\"name\":\"Good Letters\",\"description\":\"Words. 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