The Hatching of the Heart

by Margo Swiss

Overview

Poems of nature and childhood initiate this poetic journey of the heart. The loss of family and friends prompts the search for divine relation. Pastoral lyrics, elegies, and colloquies culminate in the "necessary" breaking of the heart as it mystically "hatches" and the Incarnate life shines through.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498205191
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	01/26/2015
Series:	Poiema Poetry Series , #14
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	86
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Margo Swiss teaches English and Creative Writing at York University, Toronto. In addition to academic publications on Milton and Donne, her poems have appeared in magazines and five anthologies. She has previously published Crossword: A Woman's Narrative (1996) and edited Poetry and Liturgy: An Anthology of Canadian Poets (2007), both in The St. Thomas Poetry Series.

Table of Contents

1 A Thin Place 1

Photosynthesis 3

God's Kinesis 4

Seeds 5

Living Water 6

Spring Buds 7

Audience 8

Dilatation 10

A Thin Place 11

Sunflowers 13

Manitoba Trees 14

On the First Anniversary of My Fathers Death 15

2 The Taking of a Grief 17

The Taking of a Grief 19

Budgie 20

Her Body 21

On the Death of My Mother 23

Elegy for Aunt Anne 24

Message From Carol 26

Wisdom's Work 27

Valentine Presence 28

Women Tell 29

How Could They Know? 30

Sacrifice 31

3 Ascent 33

Lovers Instructions 35

Here Now 36

No More Music? 37

Prairie Flower 39

Temptation 40

Meditation On A Franciscan Crucifix 41

Cross Examination 43

Ascent 44

The Glance 45

Divine Economy 46

Fisher 47

Wrestling with God 48

Easter Conversations 49

4 The Hatching of the Heart 51

St. Thomas's, Huron Street 53

Do You Love Me? 54

Little Girl 56

Milk of Saints 57

Mother God 58

Mary's Hands 60

The Hatching of the Heart 61

Incarnation II 62

Light Delivery 63

Gods Pleasure At St. Thomas's Out of the Cold/Heat Programme 64

Jonathan's Liturgy 66

Vigil Blessing 67

Maternal Eros 68

Good Friday Sleep 69

Love's Looking 70

Rapture 71

Apology 72

Evening Walk 73

Acknowledgements

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Margo Swiss goes into the country of George Herbert and shapes a poetry out of grief and grace. She searches for the exact center of what we are, the place of loss and rebirth, and her words return as messengers of glory."
—Richard Greene, author of Crossing the Straits

"These are brave, compassionate poems. When I began publishing many years ago with Margo Swiss, I looked forward to her byline in every magazine, as I admired then what I admire now—the maturity, the no-nonsense stare in the face of beauty and making of it, no more and no less than the mirror of creation. But now the poems are breathtakingly stark, inviting, wide-ranging in their compassion and locations. . . . I congratulate the readership of spiritual verse in the best sense, since Margo Swiss has opened her store of significant contribution to the canon."
—Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, author of The Dark Time of Angels

"The egg metaphor, the image of the broken shell that frees the life within, unifies the four intimately interwoven sections of Margo Swiss's The Hatching of the Heart. . . . The poems dwell at the place of boundaries, the Celtic 'thin places' between heaven and earth, time and eternity. Yet they are always tied to our human particularities, community, our losses and laments, the tender love of family and friends. By entering these poems, we can experience a world where lyrical utterance still sings."
—Susan McCaslin, author of The Disarmed Heart

"Margo Swiss's new book of poems is devout, intense, often heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting. These are poems for the wounded and grief-smitten: those who know and believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but who also know from experience that the light starts out dim and small. With her at times jagged, stepping-stone syntax and unexpected surprising bursts of rhyme, Swiss disarms us with her clarity and honesty. And she brings a touch of the mystic to this collection of spiritually frank poems."
—John Terpstra, author of The Boys

Editorial Reviews

"Margo Swiss goes into the country of George Herbert and shapes a poetry out of grief and grace. She searches for the exact center of what we are, the place of loss and rebirth, and her words return as messengers of glory."
—Richard Greene, author of Crossing the Straits

"These are brave, compassionate poems. When I began publishing many years ago with Margo Swiss, I looked forward to her byline in every magazine, as I admired then what I admire now—the maturity, the no-nonsense stare in the face of beauty and making of it, no more and no less than the mirror of creation. But now the poems are breathtakingly stark, inviting, wide-ranging in their compassion and locations. . . . I congratulate the readership of spiritual verse in the best sense, since Margo Swiss has opened her store of significant contribution to the canon."
—Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, author of The Dark Time of Angels

"The egg metaphor, the image of the broken shell that frees the life within, unifies the four intimately interwoven sections of Margo Swiss's The Hatching of the Heart. . . . The poems dwell at the place of boundaries, the Celtic 'thin places' between heaven and earth, time and eternity. Yet they are always tied to our human particularities, community, our losses and laments, the tender love of family and friends. By entering these poems, we can experience a world where lyrical utterance still sings."
—Susan McCaslin, author of The Disarmed Heart

"Margo Swiss's new book of poems is devout, intense, often heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting. These are poems for the wounded and grief-smitten: those who know and believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but who also know from experience that the light starts out dim and small. With her at times jagged, stepping-stone syntax and unexpected surprising bursts of rhyme, Swiss disarms us with her clarity and honesty. And she brings a touch of the mystic to this collection of spiritually frank poems."
—John Terpstra, author of The Boys

From the Publisher