Harvesting Fog

By Luci Shaw

2010

First Published

4.13

Average Rating

104

Number of Pages

3H10M

Audio Length

In arid coastal areas of South America, locals hang rags outside until they're saturated with fog. They wring out this water, all year long, as a means of survival. They call it "harvesting fog." And that, writes LUCI SHAW, is a lot like writing poems. In her poems, Shaw observes and contemplates nature and "I'm merely a floater in the eye of God." "Behold the fleck of ant... If by observation, we become part of an insect's life, is he aware of us?" Shaw's poems invite us to awaken the spirit of loving and "The tide that outward ebbs, turns then and inward flows, And what I offer you, you'll multiply to me." Shaw's 10th volume of poetry satisfies a thirsty imagination. Shaw turns the details of our lives, the droplets, into the music of possibility.PRAISE for HARVESTING Shaw sees in the natural world a dynamic incarnation of God's love. Luminous poems, of faith richly woven into the fabric of daily life and change, full of surprises and moments of delicious holy mischief.—Betsy ShollIntensely personal, her poems also draw deeply on the legacy she has embraced as an heir to Herbert, Hopkins, Dickinson, and others whose shadows fall gently across her lines, giving them texture and adding to their quiet contemporary beauty.—Marilyn McEntyreEnvision a long life through imaginative changes of lens. Light becomes a bookish beetle, the Infant Jesus is "a small sack of God," and idea is "a glitter of ash" to be flung over the ocean.—Jeanine HathawayOne might argue with Heidegger that only in poetry can Being achieve adequate articulation, find a "local habitation and a name," become known. For Shaw, whose poems so brilliantly and movingly locate authentic Being in the forms and processes of nature, the lyric impulse often approaches the incarnational.—B.H.FairchildSacramental poems offer nourishment for the starving soul with a topping of delightful whimsy, a "bowlful of cool" in the face.—Paul Willis

Avg Rating

4.13

Number of Ratings

5 STARS

38%

4 STARS

40%

3 STARS

21%

2 STARS

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

Luci Shaw

Author · 22 books

Luci Shaw is a poet, essayist, teacher and retreat leader. Born in England in 1928, she has lived in Australia and Canada and (since 1950) in the United States. She is the author of a number of nonfiction books, including God in the Dark and Water My Soul. Her first book of poetry, Listen to the Green, was published in 1971. It was followed by several others, including Polishing the Petosky Stone, Writing the River, The Angles of Light and, most recently, Accompanied by Angels and What the Light Was Like. Her poems have appeared in publications such as Books & Culture, The Christian Century, Crux, Image, Radix, Rock & Sling, Nimble Spirit and Weavings. Musical settings for several of her poems have been composed by Knut Nystedt, Alice Parker, Frederick Frahm and Allen Cline. Many of her poems have also been anthologized. Currently, Shaw serves as Writer in Residence at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, while based in Bellingham, Washington, with her husband, John Hoyte. She also travels widely to speak and teach on topics such as poetry, journaling and the Christian imagination. Her website reflects some of her many other interests—wilderness camping, sailing, gardening and nature photography. [From Amazon's Luci Shaw page]