A Sudden Certainty - Priest Poems
Poetry is hard work with little promise of reward or recognition. I keep composing poetry for several reasons. Firstly it is a satisfying past time to struggle with words and meanings, rhythm and rhyme. Also, I remain intrigued by the mysterious mechanics of writing poetry. I am delighted when my search for a rhyme takes my mind in a new direction and through the rhyme I am able to make fresh connections between otherwise disconnected ideas.
You will not find in this book poetry that is explicitly Catholic or explicitly devotional. Instead I have tried to find God locked in the ordinary experiences of life. Some of the poems come out of pastoral ministry, som from liturgy, some from times of contemplation and prayer. The poems are often subtle and understated. They contain linguistic signposts. I want to create moments of insight, helping the reader to look more deeply into something which was, at first glance, unremarkable. In this sense, I want my poems to be 'sacramental'.
Dwight Longenecker is a priest poet in the noble tradition of other priest poets. He sits comfortably in the presence of his forebears, Robert Southwell, George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins and R.S.Thomas.
-Joseph Pearce, biographer and writer in residence at Ave Maria University
The almost prose like simplicity of Longenecker's poems is one of their real strengths. Every one bespeaks a mind that is acutely aware of 'fear in a handful of dust'. In his poems the tiny, seemingly insignificant thing opens out into the Whole Show.
-Thomas Howard, author and retired professor of English literature, Gordon College
Fr Longenecker writes poetry to 'refresh the language'...he employs language to disclose the deeper meaning of the ordinary world.
-Deal Hudson, president Morley Publishing Group
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