Turnings: Poems of Transformation

by William Johnson Everett

Overview

Like works in wood upon a lathe, these poems are word-turnings that reveal the inner grain of our human experience. They are bowls to catch our turnings of memory, conversion, falling in love, and passing through our seasons and the wrenching turns that mark our lives. Above all these turnings are a shout of praise, a murmur of wonder, a turning away from life as usual, a merciful re-turning to the songs, images, and stories that move our lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620327357
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	03/12/2013
Pages:	80
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.20(d)

About the Author

William Johnson Everett taught Christian social ethics for over thirty years in theological schools in the US, Germany, India, and South Africa, before turning to fiction, poetry, and other forms of creative writing. His many books and articles in ethics have been followed by an eco-centric work of historical fiction, Red Clay, Blood River (2008) and Turnings: Poems of Transformation, which appeared from Wipf and Stock in 2013. With the publication of Sawdust and Soul: A Conversation on Woodworking and Spirituality (Wipf and Stock, 2014) written with John De Gruchy, he is now working on a memoir about his grandfather's work at a copper mine on Cyprus in the 1920s. When not writing, he constructs furniture for worship settings. His online journal is at www.WilliamEverett.com and his gallery, shared with his wife Sylvia is at www.WisdomsTable.net.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Memories 1

Elephants 3

Rusted Roofs 4

Old Photographs 5

Glossy Expectations 6

If, My Dear 7

Offering 8

Where Are Those Friends? 9

Raisin' 10

Lefkaritiko 11

Here and Gone 13

A Single Thread 14

No Books 15

Mentalphysics 16

I Saw Death 17

Pietà 18

Sweet Lady 19

Seasons 21

Spring's Cathedral 23

Ants Diligent 24

Pubertal Sacrifice 25

She Is Ready 26

Little Ladies in Red 27

Cups Clattering 28

Divorcèd Death 29

Waiting 30

Love Again 31

The Fall 32

Earth Gasping 33

Body from Body 34

Dances 35

Anniversary 37

Street Dance 38

If My Love 39

Sparks 40

Lovespring 41

Two Coins 42

Southern Discomfort 43

Steps 44

Russian Doll 45

A Dancing Power 46

Turnings 47

Crossings 49

Doctor Einstein 50

Glass Melting 51

The Pearl 52

Inheritance 53

Gift of Ninety 54

Why Do They Leave Us? 55

Gods Mercy 56

Meta-physical Comforts 57

Kin(g) 58

Unconjugation 59

A People Passing Over 60

After 9/11 61

O 62

Nativity 63

Mary's Cry 64

Between 65

Writer's Way 66

About the Author 68

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Good poets, like Bill Everett, perform a kind of chicanery of the spirit, distracting our attention just long enough to allow revelation to slip past the guards of preoccupied minds. As in: 'Earth gasping . . . sends lilies up in mourning / the rainbow as a pledge / the cockroach as a warning / the raven as a hedge.'"
—Ken Sehested, author of In the Land of the Living: Prayers Personal and Public

"William Everett's beautifully structured Turnings gathers together limpid poems of memory that shine like pebbles underneath the clearest flow of water, as well as poems of personal faith and theological wisdom. Rising up from the pages like long-forgotten messages, they glow in the light of Everett's language: lyrical, crystal clear, as if on the brink of turning into nothing less than song itself."
—Kathryn Stripling Byer, author of Descent and Wildwood Flower

"Everett is a master of words, fitting the right words together the way a master mason fits stones to shape beautiful structures. Poems he constructs reflect solid integrity. Readers can depend on his writing to convey thoughtful expressions, ethical conclusions, and invigorating structural styles selected to match the themes of each piece. His poetry reassures us that all good poetry does not belong to the past."
—J. C. Walkup, Penny Morse, and Buffy Queen, editors of Fresh Magazine

"Everett is a daring poet who leads us deeper into the language of experience. His poems are full of wonder and insight, celebrating the beauty in nature while discovering grace in the mundane. At times meditative, at other turns inventively irreverent, Turnings leads us to reexamine the past and ponder the present, whether it's a biblical story or a personal memory. Turn these pages and find poems of transformation."
—Michael Beadle, poet and author

Editorial Reviews

"Good poets, like Bill Everett, perform a kind of chicanery of the spirit, distracting our attention just long enough to allow revelation to slip past the guards of preoccupied minds. As in: 'Earth gasping . . . sends lilies up in mourning / the rainbow as a pledge / the cockroach as a warning / the raven as a hedge.'"
—Ken Sehested, author of In the Land of the Living: Prayers Personal and Public

"William Everett's beautifully structured Turnings gathers together limpid poems of memory that shine like pebbles underneath the clearest flow of water, as well as poems of personal faith and theological wisdom. Rising up from the pages like long-forgotten messages, they glow in the light of Everett's language: lyrical, crystal clear, as if on the brink of turning into nothing less than song itself."
—Kathryn Stripling Byer, author of Descent and Wildwood Flower

"Everett is a master of words, fitting the right words together the way a master mason fits stones to shape beautiful structures. Poems he constructs reflect solid integrity. Readers can depend on his writing to convey thoughtful expressions, ethical conclusions, and invigorating structural styles selected to match the themes of each piece. His poetry reassures us that all good poetry does not belong to the past."
—J. C. Walkup, Penny Morse, and Buffy Queen, editors of Fresh Magazine

"Everett is a daring poet who leads us deeper into the language of experience. His poems are full of wonder and insight, celebrating the beauty in nature while discovering grace in the mundane. At times meditative, at other turns inventively irreverent, Turnings leads us to reexamine the past and ponder the present, whether it's a biblical story or a personal memory. Turn these pages and find poems of transformation."
—Michael Beadle, poet and author

From the Publisher