Today’s Writer’s Digest prompt asked for a poem about “faith.” The NaPoWriMo site suggested writing an ekphrasis poem about a very specific kind of art – the marginalia of medieval manuscripts. Included was a link to a variety of weird, wonderful and interesting images to draw from. Since many of the texts, and some of the references in the drawings, would’ve been religious in nature, and many of the doodles done by students of religion, the two prompts seem like a natural fit. Using the image below, and thinking about “faith” I wrote this short ekphrastic poem:

Trust Exercise

If I let my mind wander

into unknown margins

will I find that

which holds me up

will not let me down?

Thinking about poetic interpretations of faith reminded me of one of my favourite Edmonton poets, Stephen T. Berg. Stephen posts thoughtful poems and meditations on faith and the world on his site Grow Mercy. By most definitions I suppose I would personally be classified as an atheist, yet I do see so much of the numinous in nature, and often find myself thinking of — and sometimes writing about — the big spiritual questions. To me these can simultaneously stand inside and outside of any particular religion. Stephen’s poems often lead me to think deeper about the world, and also inspire a sense of hope. I encourage you to browse his blog, but one of my favourite recent poems is this one, “We need a different kind of flesh“.