Quaker reflections on poetry and faith
'Themes touched on included the power of language and metaphor to convey religious motifs...'
A Quaker university chaplain was invited to take part in an online event exploring the relationship of poetry and faith. Barbara Davey, from the chaplaincy team at the University of St Andrews, took part in ‘A Bigger Picture’ on 21 November. Other participants included John Burnside, Mark Oakley, Sharon Black, Michael Symmons Roberts and Kenneth Steven, with more than fifty people attending.
Barbara Davey, from St Andrews Meeting, told the Friend: ‘My sense was that the event went very well [with] lots of positive feedback… Each member of the diverse panel offered a short reading followed by reflections, and these built up to an impressive accumulation of insights. The evening concluded with questions for discussion, and a final set of poems.
‘Themes touched on included the power of language and metaphor to convey religious motifs, the differences between prose and poetry, the role of the imagination and the question of divine inspiration, and a final enquiry about salvation, which I think threw us all!’
The event can now be viewed on YouTube on https://bit.ly/3lOYVcd.
