Songs from an Empty Cage: Poetry, Mystery, Anabaptism, and Peace by C. Henry Smith - Inspirational Book for Spiritual Growth & Peace Studies

In this collection of essays, we have a poet’s mix of some of his favorite poets (Blake, Whitman, Dickinson, Stevens, Stafford), current theological trends (theopoetics, John D. Caputo), and his own religious tradition (Mennonite Anabaptism; Martyrs Mirror, peace poetry and pedagogy; poets Jean Janzen, Keith Ratzlaff, Julia Spicher Kasdorf; theologian-philosophers John Howard Yoder, Gordon Kaufman, Grace M. Jantzen).I say “poet’s mix,” because this collection is unapologetically unsystematic, delighting in the kinds of surprising leaps and associations one would expect of a writer who has published six books of poetry.It is also refreshingly readable. Gundy is an experienced university teacher who knows how to communicate abstract and subtle concepts in a way that is accessible to readers who may be confronting them for the first time. A master of language in a variety of registers, he is often entertainingly colloquial, as illustrated by some of his chapter titles: “The Marriage of the Martyr’s Mirror and the Open Road, or, Why I Love Poetry Despite the Suspicion That It Won’t Save Anybody”; “Notes Toward the Heretical Sublime”; “Sound and the Sixties: Sex, God, Rock and Roll, and Flourishing”; “The Rule of God and the Ruby: The Theopoet Talks back”; “The Farm Boy’s Thoughts Turn Toward Beauty.”This book has a wide audience bandwidth not only because of the variety of conversations it engages but also because it has much to offer to the general as well as more academic reader.For me, this has been a gateway book. My copy is filled with marginal notes referencing ideas I want to think more about and poems, poets, other kinds of books and authors I want to check out.Although I am neither a poet nor, truth to tell, an avid reader of poetry, I do share Gundy’s religious background and many of his interests. Nevertheless, I believe that many other kinds of readers will find his book enlightening, entertaining, and door-opening, as I did. Very happy with the book and the speed with which it was delivered.