| The Amateur Linguist
Even though the would-be poet was encouraged “to look to the heart and write,” still the medium of poetry is one of words, and without some command of language all the misty feelings of the heart find a soggy articulation at best.
By Doug Talley
“Walking
Into the Mystery” — Javen Tanner Speaks
Poet-actor-director Javen Tanner believes that
training and preparation are not enough for an artist. He must also
be able to give himself over to an inspiration that is larger than
he is.
An interview conducted
by Doug Talley
Revelation
in Poetry: An Interview with Javen Tanner
A revelation that means one thing
to you in one context means so much more in another context. We
love things to work out clearly: this means this; that means that.
But God, the creator, manages to teach us line upon line, with the
same line.
Interviewed by Doug
Talley
A Meridian
Wish for the New Year
Although Meridian does not often publish
poetry, this submission by Sharon Price Anderson was so appropriate
that it serves as our wish to the readers for the year 2007.
By Sharon Price Anderson
Miniature
Drama
Poetry doesn't have to be pastoral. Poetry
can have drama and even passion, as one LDS poet demonstrates.
By Doug
Talley
Love
at First and Last Sight
Dante's beautiful tribute to unrequited
love seems shallow when examined in the light of LDS doctrine.
By Doug Talley
Psalmist
of the New Testament
Everyone knows that David was the psalmist
of the Old Testament, but few Christians know that the New Testament
had its own psalmist. Here are some of the psalms of Christ.
By Doug Talley
The
Signature of a Voice
Every
writer already has a voice just as plain, or perhaps as indecipherable,
as his handwriting. Perhaps we might do better if we shed the idea
of "finding a voice" and instead talk about the idea of
"developing a voice" the way a singer or an actor might
do.
By Doug Talley
The
Art of Personality
What we frequently refer to as innocence
in children is simply a pure and uninhibited imagination at play.
And if adults have lost their innocence, does it mean that one of
the casualties of this loss is a loss also of imagination?
By Doug Talley
The
Flight of Dream and Poem
John Keats enchants us every time
we enter his hauntingly beautiful world of healing imagination and
convinces us again that we may find there another one of the ways
of flying and of dreaming and of coping, if only we believe.
By Doug Talley
The
Center of the Mystery
Dante brings us to the center of the
mystery itself, which is Love, where all points of circumference
are equidistant, where the two are made one, and where the course
of God is one eternal round.
By Doug Talley
Learning
from the Masters
"We are the first generation
of poets not to study Latin; not to read Dante in Italian."
What have we lost in the process?
By Doug Talley
The
Adequate Symbol
If any genius were already native
to the poetic sensibility of the Latter-day Saints, it would be
found in the history of their visions.
By Doug Talley
The
Perplexities of Language: An Interview with Kimberly Johnson
Poetry ought to give us a little
humility. Reading poetry allows us insight into the thought processes
of other persons, which ought to breed compassion.
By
Doug Talley
Articulating Sublimity
"A central question for the working
poet is how to capture the sublime experience in language with the
least amount of corruption to the original experience. Such is the
task Kimberly Johnson undertakes in her first book of poems, Leviathan
with a Hook."
By
Doug Talley
Developing
a Sense of the Poetic
When is it safe to look for a double
meaning in a literary passage or a verse of scripture? How is one
to read?
By Doug Talley
Reading
the Three Books of God
The more widely one reads, and the
more deeply, the more the Spirit of truth is able to assist understanding.
The art of reading can be practiced, and skill in reading, with
practice, can be magnified.
By Doug Talley
The
Beatitudes: Poem of Hope and Irony
(Part
2 –The Personality of Jesus)
The only words Jesus Christ ever wrote for
mankind to read were some scribbles in the dust, which he calmly
and quietly erased, and therefore, we must rely only on what others
wrote about him for any clues.
By
Doug Talley
The
Beatitudes: Poem of Hope and Irony
(Part
2 – Substance)
The experiences of this life that grant wisdom
are a mixture of bitter and sweet. The Beatitudes assume this dichotomy
implicitly and teach how the bitter is balanced with the sweet and
ultimately overcome.
By
Doug Talley
The
Beatitudes: Poem of Hope and Irony
(Part
1 – Form)
Accepting
the premise that Jesus delivered two different poems in Matthew
and Luke is a fascinating prospect, suggesting that Jesus, as a
poet, had ingenious powers of improvisation.
By Doug Talley
Permission
for Poetry and Other Scandals
Poems,
in my experience, do not really connect us one to another socially.
Poetry does not normally induce social intimacy, but instead tends
to be a solitary exercise.
By Doug Talley
The
Poetic Genius of Alma the Younger (Part
4 – Universality)
Alma
made Christ the heart of this brief song, just as he had in life
made Christ the song of his heart.
By Doug Talley
The
Poetic Genius of Alma the Younger
(Part 3 – Symbolism)
Some
passages are so lyrical they break into song. In fact .. the virtuosity
of Alma's writing, like a lovely string of pearls, is simply dazzling.
By Doug Talley
The
Poetic Genius of Alma the Younger
(Part 2 – Virtuosity)
We commonly consider a virtuoso
in the arts as one with outstanding or brilliant technical skill.
We might think of Mozart in the Piano Concertos or Shakespeare in
the Sonnets--and we can also add Alma in his use of poetry.
By Doug Talley
The
Poetic Genius of Alma the Younger (Part 1 - Lyricism)
Alma might be identified as the great lyric
poet of the Book of Mormon, whose words abound in song-like repetitions
and parallels.
By
Doug Talley
Matter
Equals Energy
Perhaps the greatest challenge in writing any poem is to have something
worthwhile to say. All other elements – metaphor, allusion, form,
meter, rhyme, if any – become secondary to this crucial primary
element.
By Doug Talley
The
Price of Freedom
Meditating on the awful price of war
By Doug Talley
Words
That Make Us Friends
The process of writing and communicating usually
rubs us up to people, to ourselves and others and perhaps even to
God, and ideally puts us into proper relationship one with another
as friends.
By Doug Talley
Songs
to Thaw the Winter Heart
Springtime has long inspired the poet
and romantic alike to pen inspiring words of love and zest for life.
By
Doug Talley
Early
Easter Lyrics
To our
great misfortune, devotional poetry is quite out of favor these
days in most academic and literary circles.We can make the Easter
season richer with poetry about Jesus Christ.
By Doug Talley
Celestial
Love Poetry
With the stunning revelation of the Restoration,
that marriage is, in fact, designed to be eternal, a new world of
poetic possibility has opened to the poet. It remains to be seen
whether anyone will venture to explore it.
By Doug Talley
Love
Poetry With an Edge
As Valentine's Day approaches,
Doug introduces us to some of the great 'love poetry' of the ages.
By Doug Talley
The
Poetic Genius of Jesus
Jesus was a master and perhaps the
greatest of all poets and fabulists, not only because he spoke the
dozen greatest metaphors and parables of all time, but because he
lived those metaphors and parables.
By
Doug Talley
Metaphor
for the Holiday
The Savior was a master of metaphor
and it seems appropriate as we again celebrate His birth this Christmas
season to offer the gift of metaphor to those we love most.
By
Doug Talley
Recovering
Lost Literature
Timeless poetry is worth carving in
stone, yet it may be the best poetry being written today will never
be known.
By Doug Talley
An
Interview With Susan Elizabeth Howe
Susan Elizabeth Howe's poems have appeared
in prestigious journals such as
The New Yorker. Doug Talley interviews this talented poet to get
her personal
views on the art of poetry.
By Douglas Talley
Striving
For Perfection
Are mortal man and woman, in their
fallen condition, even capable of perfect art, if only
for a moment? Can we even conceive perfection, let alone attain
it? Read what Doug Talley considers a "perfect" poem.
by Doug Talley
Seeking
the Best Books
In one of the happiest
commandments ever offered humanity God said: [Y]ea,
seek ye out
of the best books words
of wisdom. . . (D & C 88:118). What lover of books
does not relish this invitation? Join Doug Talley with
some of the best lines from the best books.
By Douglas Talley
Of
War and Poets, Part IV - An Eternal Perspective
This
month?s column, the final of the series, will consider an eternal
perspective of conflict by examining a few passages from an ancient
poem, the Bhagavad Gita, a Sanskrit text sacred to the Hindu
religion.
by Doug Talley
Of
War and Poets, Part III - The Contemporary Battle
This
month’s column considers the response of poets to the recent
Iraqi conflict. That conflict fostered its own smaller skirmish
among contemporary poets in America’s continuing culture wars.
by Doug Talley
Of
War and Poets, Part II - The Modern Temper
Last
month?s poetry column examined an ancient perspective of war, in
which the horrors of war were blamed on deity, and the poet reconciled
those horrors by honoring the soldier?s valor in the face of crass
and brutal fate.? This month?s column addresses a modern view articulated
by American and British poets.
by Doug Talley
Of
War and Poets, Part I -- An Ancient View
Arma virumque
cano, wrote the
Latin poet Virgil centuries ago in opening one of the great epic
poems of all time, the Aeneid ? Of weapons and man, I
sing.? The history of ancient poetry is a history of the human
response to war.?
by Doug Talley
The
Poet Responds: Meridian Interview of Lance Larsen
The following Meridian Magazine interview, to which Mr. Larsen graciously
consented, examines a number of the poems in the book and covers
a variety of others topics of general interest to reader and writer
alike. The interview will continue periodically in subsequent issues.
As
questioned by Doug Talley
Exalting
"Small Disturbances"
How fortunate we are then, when
an intelligent, talented poet determines to showcase uncomfortable
moments and sear them into our consciousness with just enough gentleness
and sympathy that we profit by the experience. Such a poet is Lance
Larsen, professor of creative writing at Brigham Young University,
as evidenced in his first published book of poems, Erasable
Walls.
by Doug Talley
A
Question of Authority
I
have always considered any broad declaration suspect. The statements
of a politician, even when citing statistics, may be no more trustworthy,
nor any more grounded in reality, than the fabrications of a child.
The
Companionship of Words
To find comfort in the company
of dead writers, how lonely is that? And yet there is a fraternity
of idea and expression in such company that defends the effort.
by Doug Talley
The
Song of the Heart
Along the west bank of the Cuyahoga
River, the slow summer sun, the gentle, placid wind, with their
mild refreshments, were ready made for paradise.
by Doug Talley
The
Yoke of Discipleship
In
one of the great moments in the history of poetry the Master said,
“Take my yoke upon you.”What
did the Master mean? What is His yoke and how do we take it upon
us?
by Doug Talley
Poetry
That Will Survive into the Millennium
The
question for writers is not whether they will be read after fifty
years, but rather after five thousand.
by Doug Talley
Metaphor
For
a poet the search for metaphor is a pilgrimage.
by Doug Talley
Poetry
and Genealogy
The
poetry selected for Meridian Magazine this month celebrates loved
ones who have gone away.
Compiled by
Jim Richards, Poetry Editor
Poetry:
Dive In
Through
traditional meter and rhyme, Bob Ferguson launches us into wonderful
territory.
Compiled
by Jim Richards, Meridian Poetry Editor
Poetry:
Invisible Pleasures
Karen
Awalt Mogenhan's poem, "The Old Mulberry Tree," reminds us to appreciate
the "invisible pleasures" in life.
Compiled by Jim Richards, Poetry Editor
Poetry:
Helaman?s Heart and a Jaredite Barge
Nicki
Lynn Fortney takes us into the heart of Helaman as he contemplates
his stripling warriors, and into a Jaredite barge as they venture
across the sea. I hope you enjoy the journey.
Compiled by Jim Richards
A
Lost Child and the Sacrament
This
pair of poems by Linda Adams engages both the mortal and eternal
moments, and makes us think about the relationship between the two.
Gathered
by Jim Richards
Meridian Poetry Editor
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