Poems for Joy owes both its name and its concept to Audrey Elledge and Elizabeth Moore, two writers from nyc who drafted and released a collection of prayers in “an act of defiance against fear” during the early years of COVID-19.
Inspired by their work — because to defy fear with truth and despair with hope is work — Poems for Joy is a local project committed to defying the ever-present, provisional siege of darkness in our contemporary moment here in van, bc. In the reading and writing of them, poems require patience, a slowing down “long enough for the hard shell of the ordinary to break open.” Poems can therefore act as faithful witnesses, not only to the dark and difficult days of the soul, but to the weight of good that persists in and despite our often prosaic and too often pain-filled realities. Where typically we consider a “witness” in the context of criminality and catastrophe, these poems offer space to step in as witnesses to beauty, fellowship, redemption, and joy, not apart from, but alongside our worldly weariness, fear, grief, and insipidity.
In addition to poems, this space takes advantage of the frustrating yet conveniently broad term “poetry” to include a series of essays on a miscellany of topics, from birds and trees (two of the author’s favourite subjects) to friendship, theology, and literature.
The resounding prayer in the making of this space is Romans 15:13: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
until all that was meant to be, and more,
camille
Notes:
- An earlier, on-line version of Elledge and Moore’s Liturgies of Hope can be found here.
- Molly McCully Brown, “Poetry, Patience, and Prayer.”