MomsBook_asof9.18.17

Introduction
The title of this volume is taken from a phrase in a poem by
Francis Thompson – “The Hound of Heaven.” It somehow and
for some reason has become for me an image of my journey
through life. If nothing else by way of understanding its
meaning, the title reveals that I dwell most of the time in the
land of Imagination.
The poetry and ruminations have been gathered from
notebooks, correspondence and, literally, from bits and pieces
of paper that I continue to come across. I confess to a life-long
habit of “deleting” after finding the language that expresses
my inner landscape at the time; the need to share the words
I’ve written has rarely been felt or filled down through the
years.
In this collection one archetypal figure is featured at some
length; indeed, I have dared to give voice to her thoughts and
emotions. She has more metaphorical titles than any other
person in Christian culture; the most commonly used is Virgin
Mother: I call her Mary. I have picked up her story at the
moment of Annunciation and closed it some weeks after the
Crucifixion; we celebrate that day as Pentecost.
All of that Marian poetry, as it might be called, was composed
well over twenty years ago. I have resisted the temptation to
bring the language I have used in them and in some of the
other writings up-to date to match my own developing
theology and feminist hermeneutics. In this text the language
appears as originally written.