{"id":8877,"date":"2024-02-08T16:41:44","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T16:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=8877"},"modified":"2024-02-12T18:41:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T18:41:27","slug":"soon-done-with-the-crosses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/08\/soon-done-with-the-crosses\/","title":{"rendered":"Soon Done with the Crosses"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Touches of Glory<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Claude Wilkinson\u2019s latest collection seamlessly weaves together nature, art, myth, and personal history into reflections on this life and the one to come.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Review by Tessa Carman
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Claude Wilkinson\u2019s fifth poetry collection takes its title from the spiritual \u201cOne of These Days,\u201d sung by the Georgia Sea Island Singers: “We shall be soon done with the crosses \/ We shall soon be done with the troubles of the world.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>

And indeed, Soon Done with the Crosses<\/em> is especially concerned with looking back upon a life, and keeping vigil(ant) while looking ahead toward the next. These poems reckon with the griefs, sorrows, and strangeness of this life while attending to the touches of glory that shine through the checkered legacy of one\u2019s country, one\u2019s parents, and oneself. As the collection\u2019s second epigraph, from the spiritual \u201cDo Lord,\u201d says, \u201cI\u2019ve got a home in Glory Land that outshines the sun \/ Way beyond the Blue.\u201d<\/p>

The touches of glory we meet in this life are always mixed with touches of corruption, physical and otherwise. But even\u2014or especially\u2014in such poems as \u201cRib Cage of a Deer,\u201d \u201cCarcass of a Vole,\u201d \u201cTorso of Pan,\u201d and \u201cShell of a Terrapin,\u201d Wilkinson treats of each scene of death and decay with a respect and perception that enables the scene to become an occasion for revelation: A deer\u2019s rib cage, plucked so clean that it\u2019s bright-bleached, becomes entwined in \u201crife green \/ circuits of vine,\u201d its \u201cdry bones\u201d finding new life in a surrealist adaptation of Ezekiel\u2019s vision; belated pity is shown to the meddlesome terrapin, \u201cthe enemy, the enmity \/ back then, Lucifers let loose among \/\/ forbidden fruit, our Eden of tomatoes\u201d (I\u2019ll leave the last line for the reader to discover).<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Wilkinson\u2019s voice is wry and wise, humorous and tender, ruminative but never ponderous.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Garden\u201d transposes the curse of being removed from Eden to the speaker\u2019s father and grandfather, toiling in sweat over the thorny ground. \u201cSea Horses\u201d features the eponymous creatures and the speaker\u2019s mother\u2019s delight in them, but also the son\u2019s keen regret:<\/p>

My remembering
is to do with
not being a better son
while in quiet times between us,
as when I was trying
to equal her meticulousness
thinning the scarlet of cannas
and violet of hydrangeas\u2026<\/p>

\u201cFeet Striking Zion\u201d remembers a now-past grandmother awakening out of memory loss briefly while listening to Mahalia Jackson singing, \u201cMove on Up a Little Higher,\u201d wherein the great gospel singer sings, \u201cSoon one morning \/ I\u2019m gonna lay down my cross\u2026 \/ Soon as my feet strike Zion, \/ Lay down my heavy burden, \/ Put on my robe in glory.\u201d A pair of poems directly concern a \u201cBluesman\u201d and \u201cBlueswoman.\u201d Several poems concern small scenes of great tragedy, such as \u201cAnathema\u201d (it will likely break your heart).<\/p>

There is another kind of cross here as well: the meeting, and tension, of earthly and heavenly reality, and of crossing from one to another. This world is gravid with thoughts of the next world, and, albeit often riddled with guilt and doubt, they cast their shadow upon our doings on this earth. The final poem, \u201cVigil,\u201d evokes Hopper\u2019s painting Nighthawks<\/em>, sketching a scene of staying awake while sick loved ones lie sleeping, a vigil awaiting the coming, or rather leaving, of friends for the next world.<\/p>

Wilkinson explores this vertical\/horizontal tension also through a series of bird poems. The opening poem, \u201cBirds That Alight on Faith,\u201d offers a prayer that also introduces the collection\u2019s motifs. It begins:<\/p>

Help me also to believe in
the leanest saplings and twigs,
in something as flimsy
as a honeysuckle bloom,
as Theseus did, in my imagining, when
he tackled the Minotaur, or Icarus
when he flew momentarily
into the face of the sun.<\/p>

Here the speaker asks for the faith of birds, who can discern and trust without seeing to the end, just as Theseus could enter the labyrinth despite not seeing the way out\u2014and, perhaps surprisingly, like the ill-fated Icarus. But in Wilkinson\u2019s refiguring, the last two lines of this stanza emphasize, first, that Icarus indeed \u201cflew momentarily\u201d\u2014he did<\/em> fly, he did<\/em> trust in his father\u2019s invention\u2014and instead of the next lines noting his death in the water, we end with that moment of illumination: \u201che flew\u2026 \/ into the face of the sun.\u201d Is it a tragedy after all, if he was able to meet face-to-face that greatest of this-worldly lights?<\/p>

\u201cBirds That Serve as Still Lifes\u201d describes a scene of death: but the horizontal scene of dead birds also points to the vertical:<\/p>

Was it some avian part of the angel
which Jacob wrestled for,
something divine in birds that\u2019s
always been our deepest desire?<\/p>

Wilkinson\u2019s voice is wry and wise, humorous and tender, ruminative but never ponderous. \u201cYou\u2019d think artists would be more attuned \/ to suffering,\u201d says the speaker in \u201cPostcard from Patmos.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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His is a voice the reader trusts, for he respects the reader\u2019s ability to receive the poem.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Wilkinson is a master of the finely observed scene, euphoniously crafted. His poems\u2014where Greco-Roman myth and biblical allusions are considered alongside the music of Jimi Hendrix and Nina Simone, paintings from Pedro Am\u00e9rico and Frans Snyders and William Holman Hunt, photographs by Miguel Gandert, a 15th-century French manuscript, and the account of the martyrdom of St. Perpetua\u2014combine a tender yet unsentimental compassion with a tough, perceptive honesty\u2014qualities rooted in the poet\u2019s essential reverence for his art, his subjects, and for their Creator. His is a voice the reader trusts, for he respects the reader\u2019s ability to receive the poem.<\/p>

In his book The Art of Living<\/em>, German philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand establishes reverence as the primal virtue. I thought of Claude Wilkinson\u2019s work as I read Hildebrand\u2019s description of the reverent man, which, I believe, serves well also as a description of the great artist:<\/p>

The man possessing reverence\u2026 does not fill the world with his own ego, but leaves to being the space that it needs in order to unfold itself. He understands the dignity and nobility of being as such, the value which it already possesses in its opposition to mere nothingness. Thus there is a value inherent in every stone, in a drop of water, in a blade of grass, precisely as being, as an entity that possesses its own being, which is such and not otherwise\u2026.<\/em><\/p>

Because of this autonomy, being is never a mere means for the reverent man and his accidental egoistic aims. It is never merely something that he can use, but he takes it seriously in itself; he leaves it the necessary space for its proper unfolding. Confronted with being, the reverent man remains silent in order to give it an opportunity to speak.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Tessa Carman<\/strong> writes from Mount Rainier, Maryland. She also interviewed Claude Wilkinson for Fare Forward<\/em> in August 2021, and the transcript of that interview can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Soon Done with the Crosses<\/strong> was published by Cascade Books on July 12, 2023; it is a part of the Poiema Poetry Series. Fare Forward<\/em> appreciates their provision of a copy for our reviewer, and you can purchase your own copy here<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claude Wilkinson\u2019s latest collection seamlessly weaves together nature, art, myth, and personal history into reflections on this life and the one to come. Review by Tessa Carman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-newsletter","entry","has-media"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farefwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Soon-Done-with-the-Crosses-3D.jpg?fit=1500%2C1383&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8877"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8887,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8877\/revisions\/8887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\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