| My manuscript, a book of poems titled Ruminant: [psalms], is concerned first and foremost with the way that any individual approaches the divine. On the one hand, the individual is a sheep: a ruminating, dumb animal in constant need of a shepherd. On the other hand, the individual is a mystic thinker: the Davidic figure that ruminates, muses, challenges and interrogates the God she or he serves.;Keeping with this dichotomy of the modest barn animal and glorified speaker/thinker, Ruminant tackles the mediums by which one negotiates and creates the object of worship. Using traditional Christian contemplative forms such as the psalm, the parable, the prayer, the theological treatise, myth and even the journal, Ruminant negotiate the space between debased beast and divine image-bearer through each form's generic expectations. More, the manuscript seeks to call into question these very forms by acknowledging their inherent limits. Largely, I see the psalm or the "sacred song" as the primary locus by which a speaker addresses, argues, praises, and attempts to make sense of God. This is not to say that all of the poems in this collection are formally psalms, though some are. Rather, like the psalm, each poem attempts to bridge the liminal space between the sign "God" and God the "supra-existent being," while also acknowledging that any attempt to fully approach the divine is already a failed attempt.;While this inquiry has long been investigated within the Christian tradition, Ruminant tackles faith and doubt in a fresh manner. Though one might profess that navigating the mystery of faith is exactly what the Christian experience is, the intent behind Ruminant is to further trouble and question how a fallible worshipper might rightly worship and praise, especially through the tenuous medium of language. As a result, Ruminant stands as a scratching into mystery, an attempt to actively plumb the depths of one's own religious experience. Yet, because the Christian experience is also a collective experience, the self is interrogated through collective forms. In this way, the self is always seen through the lens of collectivity. |
