No, I’m Not Hildegarde

I’m merely a floater in the eye of God, a flake of his winnowed chaff. A twig from the tree at whose root his ax is laid, if you believe Luke, and I do. I am a wisp of the fog that blinds my world this morning. A drop from a leaking tap. An odd button. A blot.

I’m less than the smallest bone of St. Catherine’s withered fore-finger; in Sienna it’s preserved behind glass and I’m not. I’m a loose tooth. A hesitation of wind. The lost coin never found. A river wrinkle come and gone. An eyelash found by an ant in the dust. A blink.

—Luci Shaw’s new collection of poems, Harvesting Fog, her 30th book, came out in January from Pinyon Publishing.

Copyright © 2010 by the author or Christianity Today/Books & Culture magazine.Click here for reprint information on Books & Culture.

- More from Luci Shaw

Also in this issue

Books & Culture was a bimonthly review that engaged the contemporary world from a Christian perspective. Every issue of Books & Culture contained in-depth reviews of books that merit critical attention, as well as shorter notices of significant new titles. It was published six times a year by Christianity Today from 1995 to 2016.

Books & Culture May/June 2010 Issue

All We Like Sheep

Roger Olsen

Recommended Reading

Letters

Agents of Influence

Stranger in a Strange Land: John Wilson

A Note to Our Readers

Susan Wise Bauer

The Real Ray Carver

Sara Miller

How Poetry Began with Grief

Laurance Wieder

The Enlightenments

Daniel Ritchie

Augustinian Politics

Charles Mathewes

The Story of a Marriage

Naomi Schaefer Riley

Synoptic Sisters

Timothy Larsen

Mixed Message

Doug Howard

Love and Death

Crystal Downing

Happy in the State of Denmark

C. John Sommerville

Going Incognito

Lauren F. Winner

How Not to Change the World

Are You Experienced?

Christian Smith

The Meaning of (Gestating) Life

Elrena Evans

The Accidental Activists

Jon A. Shields

Ecumenical Saint

Sarah Hinlicky Wilson

The KJV Effect

Mark Noll

Past Present

Alan Jacobs

Smaller Families, Bigger Dreams

Elesha Coffman

Our Latest

A Petri dish under a microscope.

So What If the Bible Doesn’t Mention Embryo Screening?

Silence from Scripture on new technologies and the ethical questions they raise is no excuse for silence from the church.

Saint Sophia Cathedral in Harbin City, China.

The Chinese Evangelicals Turning to Orthodoxy

Yinxuan Huang

More believers from China and Taiwan are finding Eastern Christianity appealing. I sought to uncover why.

Givati Parking Lot excavations in the City of David in Jerusalem.

Archaeology in the City of David Yields New Treasures

Gordon Govier

Controversial excavation in Jerusalem reveals new links to the biblical record.

Pastor Alex Zaytsev, on the end of the couch in a red shirt, hosting his teen ministry.

News

Displaced Ukrainian Pastor Ministers to the War’s Lost Teens

“Almost everybody has lost somebody, and quite a few people have lost very much.”

A photo of families and children walking along a US border.

Public Theology Project

Why Christians Ignore What the Bible Says About Immigrants

Believers can disagree on migration policies—but the Word of God should shape how we minister to vulnerable people.

The book cover.

Review

Apologetics Can Be a Balm—or Bludgeon

Daryn Henry

A new history of American apologetics from Daniel K. Williams offers careful detail, worthwhile lessons, and an ambitious, sprawling, rollicking narrative.

A person standing in front of several giant phones.

Hold the Phone?

Anna Mares

Faced with encouragement to lessen technology use, younger Christians with far-flung families wonder how to stay connected.

A collage of Norman Podhoretz and several of his books.

Norman Podhoretz Leaves a Legacy of Political Principle

Michael Cosper

The Jewish intellectual upheld the Judeo-Christian tradition.