Bryce Christensen is professor of English at Southern Utah University, where he teaches literature--including non-Western literature in translation. He is currently teaching American literature at National Taiwan University in Taipei as a visiting Fulbright professor. He has published poetry in The Formalist, First Things, Modern Age, Chronicles, and elsewhere. His poetry has been anthologized in Sonnets (University of Evansville) and Grace Notes (Institute on Religion and Public Life). He is the author of the novel Winning (Whiskey Creek Press) and of ‘The Portals of Sheol’ and Other Poems (White Violet Press). He and his wife, Mary, are the parents of three children and the grandparents of seven grandchildren.
“I am so happy! I am so happy!” –dying words of Gerard Manley Hopkins Youth brought him joy in seeing moles and stains On mottled creatures, splotched with shades of dun. He thrilled at freckled beasts, all made by One Above earth’s shadowed flesh–a Light who reigns And spreads a streaked abundance far from lanes…
The women’s gifts to Him would not last long: Just as His corpse itself must soon decay, Embalming myrrh’s soft sweetness drifts away. A tomb that’s carved in stone’s forever strong, But nothing can sweet aloes’ life prolong. What Joseph gave would stand beyond today: This granite burial site was sure to stay– Regardless of…
Paris, 19 April 1980 Immense, the crowds that line the cortege route Pay homage now to him that set them free, Emancipated from Church piety. Delivered from the bonds of creed, they doubt, Just as he taught them, urging them to flout God’s pleasure-killing laws of chastity. Hands stretch to touch the hearse; eyes strain…
