TACTICS

OF

NEVERTHELESS:

Selected Poems

Published independently, 2002

187pp., 6 pp. prints, title index

Paperback, ISBN 0-9664059-3-5

The title and sailboat image on the cover imply a voyage steering through the central delights and ordeals of life — a spiritual odyssey kept afloat more by faith-despite than faith-because.

The author is a Jesuit and professor at the University of San Francisco, where he has taught world religions, psychology of religion, comparative ethics, and humanities in the honors program. This collection of poems spanning the last three decades is rooted in his Jesuit-trained habit of spiritual meditation — quality time-out, mulling over some crisis in world affairs, an arresting night dream or metaphor, a vital encounter in his work as priest, teacher, or counselor. A key motif is the search for hints of the Sacred in every corner of his life, and thus the sustained effort to integrate this life.

The question recurs, why write poetry? In one poem he responds:

I write for you, of course, but more
for myself, to work things through,
etch the fragile meteor flash
before it flickers without trace,
chart neglected voices in the
heart's polyphony, and resume
a rambling tete-a-tete with God.

Why sing while Rome burns, and
not pray, preach, touch, do?
Who am I to write a poem?
I am I to write a poem.

To order: Make out check or money order for $16 ($13 + $3 S&H) to "Jesuit Community at USF." Mail to Loyola House, Attn: Ruland, 2600 Turk Boulevard, San Francisco, CA 94118-4347

Home Next Page