You can read the full intro here<\/a>.] I read it as one of the most deeply moving \u2014 and despite my impersonal voice in it \u2014 personal pieces that I have written in the last several years.\u00a0 Bailey\u2019s poetry has played a vital role in helping me to come to know and love the Englewood neighborhood, an urban place that by most social and aesthetic standards doesn\u2019t have a lot going for it.\u00a0 Over the coming weeks, I would like to share occasional Slow Church-related reflections on Bailey\u2019s poetry here.<\/p>\nToday, I\u2019ll begin with a few snippets from the introduction that I wrote:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For our church communities today, however, perhaps the most striking part of Bailey\u2019s understanding of poetry is his notion that \u201cpoetry is prophecy\u201d (OTN 32).\u00a0 There are, of course, many ways in which the term \u201cprophecy\u201d is used.\u00a0 Bailey describes the function of prophecy as helping humanity in the effort of \u201cacquiring a stronger hold on aspirations that are simple and elemental and universal\u201d (OTN 32-33).\u00a0 Such a return to the simple, elemental and universal, parallels Bailey\u2019s description of the prophetic, in his book The Holy Earth<\/em>: there he notes that prophecy is rooted in a vision of the eschatological reconciliation of all things, especially the reconciliation of humankind with nature.\u00a0 Thus, Bailey\u2019s poetry is prophetic, first and foremost, because it points to a vision of an inter-connected creation that is reminiscent of the scriptural eschatology of shalom, \u201cthe reconciliation of all things.\u201d This vision of harmony in creation flows throughout the poems of Wind and Weather<\/em>, but is most poignantly expressed in poems like \u201cHere\u201d:<\/p>\nWhere I shall fall there let me lie,<\/em>
\nFrom end to end the earth is mine<\/em>
\nFor kin with me are the land and sky<\/em>
\nand ev\u2019ry spot is home benign.<\/em><\/p>\nor \u201cBrotherhood\u201d:<\/p>\n
I am the bird in its nest of straw<\/em>
\nAnd I abide by my time and law,<\/em>
\nI am the tree standing night and day,<\/em>
\nAnd I am the plant that fades away;<\/em>
\nAnd men grow green and the men grow brown,<\/em>
\nAnd life rises up and death drops down;<\/em>
\nAnd men, and life, and the things that be<\/em>
\nThey flow on and on unceasingly.<\/em><\/p>\nI am the wind that blows to the sky,<\/em>
\nAnd ageless cloud that goes floating by;<\/em>
\nI am the rain and the river flow,<\/em>
\nI am the seasons that come and go;<\/em>
\nI am the dusk and the morning light,<\/em>
\nThe call of day and the voice of night;<\/em>
\nAnd I pass out to the silent sea,<\/em>
\nFlowing and flowing eternally.<\/em><\/p>\nBailey\u2019s poems herein stand as firm reminders that art (written, visual or otherwise) plays a key, prophetic role in the life of the Church, by helping us imagine and keep before our minds the end of creation, the reconciliation toward which all history is flowing.\u00a0 Bailey emphasizes this point in The Holy Earth<\/em>: \u201c[The biblical prophet] Isaiah proclaimed the redemption of the wilderness and the solitary place with the redemption of man, when they shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, and when the glowing sand shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water\u201d (THE 11-12).\u00a0 Thus, for Bailey, the nature poet today functions in a similar way, reminding his listeners that their salvation is bound up with that of all nature.<\/p>\n\u2026<\/p>\n
the heart of Bailey\u2019s ethical vision \u2013 the intertwining of prayer and work \u2013 is embodied in \u201cCountry Church\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u2026<\/p>\n
And out of it all<\/em>
\nAs the seasons fall<\/em>
\nI build my great temple alway;<\/em>
\nI point to the skies,<\/em>
\nBut my footstone lies<\/em>
\nIn commonplace work of the day;<\/em>
\nFor I preach the worth<\/em>
\nOf the native earth, \u2013<\/em>
\nTo love and to work is to pray.
\n<\/em><\/strong>(emphasis added)<\/em><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nI recently had the opportunity to share a few words at the funeral of my grandfather, a lifelong farmer.\u00a0 I read this poem to his rural church congregation there and encouraged them that Bailey\u2019s vision as expressed here captures the essence of our gathered obedience to the way of Christ.\u00a0 A church community \u2013 rural, urban or otherwise \u2013 can, in my estimation, do no better than to set their sights on embodying such a prayerful, diligent and connected life, as is depicted in Bailey\u2019s \u201cCountry Church.\u201d\u00a0 \u2026<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the tone of Bailey\u2019s prophetic vision is one of hope. We see this hope set forth best in \u201cThe Signs of Life\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u2026<\/p>\n
The gaps fill in; the earth is rife<\/em>
\nWith energy that mastereth \u2013<\/em>
\nThe upwards signs of birth and life<\/em>
\nAre greater than the signs of death.<\/em><\/p>\nHere we are reminded of the scriptural theme that though the resurrection of Jesus, death will be swallowed up in life.\u00a0 This theme echoes throughout the poems of Wind and Weather<\/em> and indeed is another reason why we, the Church, should immerse ourselves in Bailey\u2019s poetry.<\/p>\nBailey\u2019s Works Mentioned:<\/strong>
\nWNW \u2013 Wind and Weather<\/em>. Indianapolis: Doulos Christou Books, 2008. Reprint edition.
\nTHE \u2013 The Holy Earth<\/em>.\u00a0 Indianapolis: Doulos Christou Books, 2008. Reprint edition.
\nOTN \u2013 Outlook to Nature<\/em>. New York: Macmillan, 1905. [ Available as a FREE ebook<\/a> ]<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the great gifts of my writing retreat at the Convent in Cincinnati last week (here\u2019s a glimpse inside the Convent\u2019s own story of stability, written by one of my fellow retreatants) was the realization of how important Liberty Hyde Bailey\u2018s work, and especially his poetry, has been in framing the concept of Slow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,23],"tags":[200,25959,201],"class_list":["post-559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-place","category-poetry","tag-liberty-hyde-bailey","tag-poetry","tag-prophecy"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/68\/2012\/02\/Bailey-WNW.jpg\" "\\"Bailey-WNW\\"")
<\/a>One of the great gifts of my writing retreat at the Convent <\/a>in Cincinnati last week (here\u2019s a glimpse inside the Convent\u2019s own story of stability<\/a>, written by one of my fellow retreatants) was the realization of how important Liberty Hyde Bailey<\/strong>\u2018s work, and especially his poetry, has been in framing the concept of Slow Church in my head and in the life I share in community with others at Englewood Christian Church.<\/p>\n