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Testament
Testament is an imaginative improvisation on the Bible that engages with the intensities, the ups and downs, of existence in our complex and fragmented world.
Psalter, the first part, comprises 150 psalm-like poems that sound the depths and heights of life lived in the presence of God. Here, shaped into powerful, accessible poetry, is the wisdom of a mature and practical faith that knows love, grief, doubt, fear, disappointment, and overwhelming delight and joy. Micheal O’Siadhail stretches heart, mind, and imagination to open up profound questions of God, suffering and aging, truth and trust, freedom and surprise, desire and love. There are passionate exchanges with God and daring leaps of insight. Through them all runs a gripping conversational relationship expressed in praise, thanks, lament, and distilled wisdom, embracing a dazzling variety of forms and rhythms.
Gospel, the second part, retells in poetry stories from the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The emphasis is on the plain sense of the stories, newly imagined. We are invited to reread them, to discover insights and nuances, angles and depths, and above all to encounter afresh the familiar yet endlessly mysterious central character―Jesus. The world’s bestselling book shows yet again its capacity to excite and inspire.
O’Siadhail’s acclaimed The Five Quintets engaged with the ways in which the arts, economics, politics, the sciences, philosophy, and theology have shaped our twenty-first-century world. Here in Testament is an imaginative faith and wise spirituality that can inspire day-to-day living in that world, revealed through the inner life and penetrating discernment of a great poet.
Psalter, the first part, comprises 150 psalm-like poems that sound the depths and heights of life lived in the presence of God. Here, shaped into powerful, accessible poetry, is the wisdom of a mature and practical faith that knows love, grief, doubt, fear, disappointment, and overwhelming delight and joy. Micheal O’Siadhail stretches heart, mind, and imagination to open up profound questions of God, suffering and aging, truth and trust, freedom and surprise, desire and love. There are passionate exchanges with God and daring leaps of insight. Through them all runs a gripping conversational relationship expressed in praise, thanks, lament, and distilled wisdom, embracing a dazzling variety of forms and rhythms.
Gospel, the second part, retells in poetry stories from the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The emphasis is on the plain sense of the stories, newly imagined. We are invited to reread them, to discover insights and nuances, angles and depths, and above all to encounter afresh the familiar yet endlessly mysterious central character―Jesus. The world’s bestselling book shows yet again its capacity to excite and inspire.
O’Siadhail’s acclaimed The Five Quintets engaged with the ways in which the arts, economics, politics, the sciences, philosophy, and theology have shaped our twenty-first-century world. Here in Testament is an imaginative faith and wise spirituality that can inspire day-to-day living in that world, revealed through the inner life and penetrating discernment of a great poet.
218 pages, Hardcover
Published August 15, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 26, 2023
I'm late to the O'Siadhail party. After listening to a recent interview with the author on the "For the Life of the World" podcast, I immediately picked up a copy of his latest poetry collection Testament. For those familiar with O'Siadhail's work, I imagine this collection will come both as surprise in O'Siadhail's more unashamedly theologically-oriented work and also overwhelmed with yet another feast of brilliant, evocative artistry. The poems in this collection - both 'psalms' inspired by the Psalms and 'gospel' inspired by the narrative of the four gospel accounts - takes the reader into the raw struggle of humanity, the highs and lows, the suffering and trials, the questions and laments - but always with a note of humble adoration. I highly recommend this collection of poems for anyone who may be looking for a fresh experience of the Logos and also open to the time-worn craft of a wise poetic guide and fellow sojourner.
December 16, 2024
Testament is another brilliant volume of poetry from Micheal O’Siadhail, the former professor at Trinity, Dublin and, for my money, one of the greatest living poets in the world today.
Testament consists of 150 psalm-like explorations of the spiritual and 50 poetic examinations of various narratives/themes in the four gospels. He juxtaposes trust and faith with God’s mysterious ways and hiddenness, evoking enough honest doubt to require cautious surrender:
“The only trust is trusting through and through,
In love to trust halfway won’t do I know,
And while nonplussed by gloom I’m true and fast.” (Number 20, p. 22)
He explores the dance between God’s power and purpose within the context of human free will:
“Every option shapes my storyline,
You, by design, involve me in—” (Number 36, p. 29).
The psalm-like 150 poems are more philosophical. The 50 based on the gospels feature a variety of rhyme-schemes, sometimes with rhythmic apocopation in various lines to emphasize the theme. I very much enjoyed the variety in this section of the book and the reconsideration of familiar themes. For example, I have preached on the parable of the talents, featuring the third steward who is so afraid to invest that he hides his silver in a cloth in the ground. Here’s part of the retelling:
“ So comes a third much too scared to dare
Try to gain more is content to hold
Tight and enfold in a cloth his gift,
‘I’m afraid, Lord, as you’re so severe,
Reaping what others have sown.’ In fear
He has just chosen a riskless thrift.” (“Talents,” p. 195).
What can I say? I will be sharing these poems in sermons and devotionals. I will be re-reading the collection to stimulate my reflection on my own spiritual condition. I am amazed at the confident, experimental nature of some of the verse mixed with the provocative ideas. I know it won’t be long before I will be purchasing another volume of O’Sidhail’s work.
Testament consists of 150 psalm-like explorations of the spiritual and 50 poetic examinations of various narratives/themes in the four gospels. He juxtaposes trust and faith with God’s mysterious ways and hiddenness, evoking enough honest doubt to require cautious surrender:
“The only trust is trusting through and through,
In love to trust halfway won’t do I know,
And while nonplussed by gloom I’m true and fast.” (Number 20, p. 22)
He explores the dance between God’s power and purpose within the context of human free will:
“Every option shapes my storyline,
You, by design, involve me in—” (Number 36, p. 29).
The psalm-like 150 poems are more philosophical. The 50 based on the gospels feature a variety of rhyme-schemes, sometimes with rhythmic apocopation in various lines to emphasize the theme. I very much enjoyed the variety in this section of the book and the reconsideration of familiar themes. For example, I have preached on the parable of the talents, featuring the third steward who is so afraid to invest that he hides his silver in a cloth in the ground. Here’s part of the retelling:
“ So comes a third much too scared to dare
Try to gain more is content to hold
Tight and enfold in a cloth his gift,
‘I’m afraid, Lord, as you’re so severe,
Reaping what others have sown.’ In fear
He has just chosen a riskless thrift.” (“Talents,” p. 195).
What can I say? I will be sharing these poems in sermons and devotionals. I will be re-reading the collection to stimulate my reflection on my own spiritual condition. I am amazed at the confident, experimental nature of some of the verse mixed with the provocative ideas. I know it won’t be long before I will be purchasing another volume of O’Sidhail’s work.
December 26, 2024
Going to be reading again.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews