Anaphora: New Poems

Anaphora, the repetition of a word or phrase, draws our attention in new ways to the repeated term, and can lead us to moments of epiphany. In Eucharistic settings, anaphora also indicates the specific liturgical moment when the bread and wine are consecrated, becoming what the Eastern Church calls “the Holy Mysteries.” Cairns’ use of anaphora invites us to see words as doing more than naming, more than serving as arrows pointing to prior substance, but acquiring substance of their own.