Chapter 4
Space Cadet to Liberty
The blue rinse of contemplation. “Take a leap of faith,” as Kierkegaard would say. Note the circularity, the notions of inwardness and outwardness that shift with one’s lifelong spiritual formation.
How do the speakers within some of these poems wrestle with their own state of being, in relation to God and religion?
Through Ho Kin Yunn and Linda L. Kruschke, we witness the fearlessness of testimony that valiantly interrogates the self and its relation to personal story. Beautifully, Neil Shepard ruminates on spending Easter at Whedons, while Simon Peter Eggertsen ponders the “healing church” and “tree chapel” at Santa Fe.
The texts gain experimentation with Cara Chiang’s rich piece of nine sections, then Ju-Lyn Tan who dedicates her prose poem to her two daughters, Margaret Louise and Catherine Joan, both with work also featured within this anthology. Indeed, poetry has become a family affair for the Devadasons.
In Rommel Chrisden Rollan Samarita’s “Oratio Imperata”, the reader discovers a lovely immersion. Of oneself in the atmosphere, within “the scene in front of a holy water font”—here, “water will wash away the dread”.
And the reader hopes, in all good faith, to “offer a prayer for the world”.
Chua, Richelle Aubrey Ang // Lisabelle Tan
Desmond F. X. Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé // Rommel Chrisden Rollan Samarita
Ho Kin Yunn // Linda L. Kruschke
