Canticle

“Francis wanted more than anything else to leave behind in everyone an attitude of celebration.” — Murray Bodo, Francis: The Journey and the Dream

This whole book is, one way or another, a celebration: a pilgrim poet’s praise, from beginning to end, of celibacy and of Mary, whom Saint Francis called “Virgin made Church,” of nature, light and art, of memories of childhood, and even of Silence as it “stands at the window / looking out on urban trees.”

“Canticle reads like one big songbook, each poem pointing to something to be lifted up, examined and sung in celebration.” — Barbara Wuest