Sign-In
Cart
If a Clod Be Washed
Paperback
ISBN13: 9781639805631
Publisher: Kelsay Books
Published: Jun 15 2024
Pages: 82
Weight: 0.29
Height: 0.20 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Hauntingly intimate and ruggedly local, Bill Gillard's verse-novel, If a Clod Be Washed, rings the changes on a variety of themes in the life of Bell, teacher-protagonist at a Benedictine Abbey high school, his daughters, his wife, and various colleagues and students. Out of touch with the world of iPhones and FaceTime, he ... likes his letters stamped and sealed by hands and / tongues and penmanship. One poem, The Biologist and His Daughter, imagines an encounter with a beloved child. Ora et Labora mimes the Last Judgment, and Indifference is a biologist's invective against extinction. With images and allusions sufficient for the industrious reader, If a Clod Be Washed may arrest or annoy, but will certainly make one pause to consider this spiritual adventurer's world.
-Ed Block, author of Banners of Longing: New and Selected Religious Poems and Emeritus Professor of English at Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
If a Clod Be Washed is a verse novel that draws you into the world of Bell, a middle-aged biology teacher at a Benedictine boys' prep school. Like Joyce's Ulysses, the story consists of Bell's thoughts over a single day as he searches for purpose. Bell looks to his students, colleagues, baseball, and even the local swamp he uses as an outdoor classroom to lift him from fecklessness and failed family relationships. He searches for guidance in his dreams. Bell's personal struggle and ultimate salvation are universal and relatable, and Gillard's perfect word choice and vivid imagery make this poetic journey a joy to read.
-Fredric Hildebrand, author of Under the Dust of Stars
If a Clod Be Washed delights readers with a winsome wariness-Bill Gillard's narrative in masterful poetry offers a break-away format. John Donne's title-inducing Meditation 17 holds the capstone bearing vibes of Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Rather from a student, Bell companions with its readers a poetic narrative, confessional, open-hearted, therapeutic with its mea culpas. Bill Gillard, as does Bell, counsels and prods readers and writers to bare who they are in the main.
-Michael E. Belongie, author of Embracing the Moment
Also in
General Poetry
Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay
Pitavy, Francois
Alighieri, Dante
Paperback
Sounding the Seasons Enlarged Edition: One Hundred and Ten Sonnets for the Christian Year
Guite, Malcolm
Paperback
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Lao Tzu
Paperback
They Bloom Because of You: Poems on the Infinite Love, Growth, and Magic of Motherhood
Urlichs, Jessica
Paperback
This Is the Main Event: Discovering the Life You Long for in the Life You Have
Smith, Joshua Luke
Hardcover