Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Poets and Poems: Tania Runyan and “What Will Soon Take Place”


Religious faith has inspired poets for likely as long as faith and poetry have existed. About a third of the Old Testament is written in poetic form. The Greek and Roman poets were inspired by their pantheon of gods. In Christian times, a considerable amount of poetry made its way into church liturgy and popular culture as well; the Christmas carol “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is only one of many songs and poems that come from what are called the “O Antiphons,” songs of appeal sung at the vespers service in the last week of Advent. And faith continues to inspire contemporary poets like Scott Cairns, Luci Shaw, Wendell Berry, Dana Gioia, Mark Jarman, Julia Kasdorf, and many more.

Tania Runyan is another contemporary poet inspired by faith, but her most recent collection demonstrates just how unusual and surprising that source of inspiration can be.

The 54 poems of Runyan’s What Will Soon Take Place spring from an unexpected source – the Book of Revelation in the New Testament, or what some faith traditions call “The Apocalypse of St. John.”


To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

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