Spiritual Exercises
Page 4
“Divine Comedies” is inspired by Ignatius’s Daily Examen, a prayer of reflection to be made at noon and at the end of the day. The idea is to become more aware of God’s presence, to show gratitude, and to look forward to tomorrow. If the poem is overly prolix, one might simply recite aloud Saint Paul’s dictum I die daily until the tongue numbs.
“My Faith” borrows two phrases from soccer color commentator Ray Hudson.
“Elegy for the Engineer” is for James Yakich.
“Dayenu” is a song of gratitude, part of Jewish Passover Seder, meaning “it would have been enough,” as in “one of these gifts from God would have been enough, had there not been so many.” I am indebted to Rabbi Matthew Reimer.
“Christ of the Ozarks” refers to the sixty-five-foot-tall statue of Jesus (Christ of the Ozarks) located just outside Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where The Great Passion Play is staged with more than 150 actors and dozens of live animals from May through October each year. The play has been performed for more than seven million viewers since beginning in 1968.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to the following publications in which some of these poems previously appeared, if in different versions: Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Adbusters, The American Journal of Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Barnstorm, Bayou Magazine, BODY, Bumf, Cellpoems, Cream City Review, Fogged Clarity, Guernica, The Offending Adam, Okey-Panky, OmniVerse, Paperbag, Ploughshares, Quick Fiction, Quiddity, Riddle Fence, and Saltgrass. “For My Daughter” and “Meditation” appeared in Liberation: New Works on Freedom from Internationally Renowned Poets (Beacon Press, 2015), and “Troubadour” appeared in Poem-a-Day: 365 Poems for Every Occasion (Abrams, 2016).
Thank you to Paul Slovak, my editor at Penguin, for his continued faith in my work. Thank you to my wife, Annie, for her patience and love, especially when I least deserve it. Thank you to our children, Owen, Samara, and Jonah, without whom there would be less spirit and little exercise.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MARK YAKICH is the Gregory F. Curtin, S.J., Distinguished Professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans.
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