Glory in the Margins. Nikki Grimes. 2021. [September] 176 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: When was the last time you heard the words poem and pulpit in the same sentence?
Nikki Grimes newest poetry book is a collection of one hundred poems inspired by the Word. She writes, "As a person of faith with a reverence for the Holy Word of God, I also understand that God welcomes, and even invites, the honest questions of his children, and so I come to the Word with an open heart, bringing my questions with me. As I climb into the skins of the men and women I encounter in Scripture, I try to look at the world through their eyes, asking the hard questions of God that they must have asked, seeking the same solace, wisdom, inspiration, and guidance they must have sought..."
The poems are arranged by month--thirteen months in all. January through another January. There are a handful of poems per month. Enough to cover all the Sundays within a given month for sure.
I would say most poems are tied directly to a Scripture. (Not all poems do. That doesn't mean the ones without are less biblical, less inspired by the Word of God, they are just more general.)
The poems often encourage readers to slow down and process--perhaps meditate is the better word for the religious context. Scriptures can be rushed through--passing in and right back out again. But reading these poems can help you slow down, unpack, really tune in. It isn't so much that the poems are absolutely necessary for this practice of reading the Bible. But it's a practice, a discipline, that perhaps many don't make time for in their busy lives.
The poems point readers straight to Scripture. The poems aren't trying to take the place of Scripture.
I read through the book in one sitting. I would probably advise readers to savor the book more slowly. Definitely make time to look up the Scriptures. The book definitely has a devotional vibe.
I have a handful of favorites from this collection. I will not share any poem in its entirety. Just a brief stanza or possibly two from each that I called FAVORITE.
From The Bright Side of Repentance:
Webster has got it wrong this time,
Repentance is not
feeling regret
although we may.
Repentance is action. It's that dirty
little six letter word
we have all heard
and wish we hadn't:
Change.
From One Cookie Leads To Another
Intense hunger
is a scream in the belly
piercing you from the inside out
demanding attention
the sorry state
forty days of fasting
will leave you in.
It is good to remember that hunger
carries no shame
but how we fill ourselves
may well be up for review.
If we knew
God was watching
how often would our hands
disappear inside those
cookie jars labeled
Do Not Touch?
From Safe Deposit
Stress is a word
life teaches us to spell.
We are all well-acquainted
with worry
that wicked worm
that eats us
from the inside out.
From Worth
We owe him skin and bone
heart and breath
for deleting eternal death
from our stories.
Our talents, our tithes
our bodies
as living sacrifices--
is anything too much
to surrender?
Ask Judas
whose cold coins failed to satisfy
his soul.
From Petition
To intercede is to plead with God
on behalf of another
slipping on another's skin
standing beneath the canopy
of another's sin
and asking the inventor of mercy
to forgive us both.
....
To go before him
we must first agree.
Then it is on us to recall
the very nature of this Holy Father,
his splendor, his might,
his glorious grace
proven through the ages.
Only then are we prepared
to pray for another
groaning with as much passion
as we would summon for ourselves.
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