Thanks to those of you who responded to my post about my new poetry project – a year of studying and learning from 12 of the best Christian poets, one a month, four poems from each. I’ve received some great suggestions and have also come across some wonderful poets myself as I’ve been searching for the right people to look at. One of the joys of the project already has been seeing that there’s simply too many great Christian poets out there. Sorry to those of you who’ve made suggestions which I won’t be able to include – picking just twelve has been quite a challenge!
Of course, the list might change, so I’m going to reveal each poet as we move through the list rather than announcing the full list now. It’s a great list, though, and I’m really excited to be looking at all of them. It’s also interesting to note some trends which have developed, quite unknowingly, in the list. Most are Catholic or Anglican. A lot of them are Welsh! And, unsurprisingly perhaps, very few of them are my countrymen or women – Australian. I’ll look at the poets in chronological order, so that means that this month we’re going to be starting way back in the seventeenth century, with Welsh-born Anglican minister and poet George Herbert. I can’t wait!
The Consolations of Writing 