Reflections on Revelation in the Time of Covid: Finding Hope When Life Is Hard, by Susan E. Erikson. Eugene, OR: Resource, 2021, xii+ 177 pages, $20.00, paper.

This book of poetry is composed in free verse. Free verse is free of both meter and rhyme. Blank verse, as in Milton’s Paradise Lost, has meter but not rhyme. Erikson employs free verse, which has dominated the twentieth century, but in Erickson’s case with excellent poetic rhythm, which mimics ordinary language and is artfully done.

The New Formalism, to which I as a poet subscribe, has surprised the modern world with a return to poetic structure of all kinds, from the quatrain to the sonnet and the pantoum. My quarrel with the modern dominance of free verse should not mean the elimination of free verse but rather the happy inclusion of historic forms, and perhaps the invention of some new ones.

The essence of free verse hearkens back to oral culture, which is what poetry is all about—memorable, sounding in the ear in unforgettable ways! As T. S. Eliot concludes in his essay “Reflections on Vers Libre,” “we conclude that the division between Conservative Verse and vers libre does not exist, for there is only good verse, bad verse, and chaos.”[1] Alas, the mnemonic power of poetry is the great resource of the preacher. Its lack in the contemporary scene is directly related to the failure of poetry to capture the popular imagination.

Erikson divides the book into four parts: “I Need You Lord” (5 poems), “The Church in Christ” (19 poems), “We Battle in Christ” (20 poems), and “Our Victory in Christ” (11 poems). The shape of the book is consistent with the theme revealed in the subtitle, “Finding Hope When Life Is Hard.” As with the book of Revelation there is an eschatological movement represented in the move from the opening poem, “The Spirit of the Age” (2–4) to the concluding poem, “The Age of Eternity” (175–77). Identical tercets begins each poem, connecting the two.

I feel as if the world is falling down a rabbit hole,
And I am Alice,
Tumbling right behind.

The two couplets following these tercets are:

Are you there, LORD?
My soul is full of troubles.

I AM coming soon,
He says.

The next long stanza is repeated in both places, followed by a significant variation:

I need you, LORD.

I am the Alpha and Omega,
First and Last,
Beginning and the end.
David’s son and David’s Lord,
I bring God’s glory and His grace,
I wield the sword.

The opening poem ends with a simple couplet query:

Is this the end?
Is this the time You will appear?

The concluding poem answers the query with an apocopated summary of the judgment and the eschatological Paradise state, ending, as the book of Revelation does, with the confident prayer, Come Lord Jesus! Come!

I say all of this to demonstrate that well-crafted free verse is not chaotic. Erickson displays considerable care and subtlety in her poetic structure.

Typographically there are inconsistencies in the two poems. The norm is to capitalize the first word in each line. Another way of doing this is to lowercase the first word of lines not preceded by punctuation in the last line. This might be better done when all but periods precede. In other words, only complete sentences begin with Capitals. However, that second way of capitalizing, mentioned above, seems to be consistently done throughout most of the book.

The range of content makes for an interesting variety, displaying the Old Testament roots of Revelation in, for example, “And Moses Said” (14). Each poem has biblical references footnoted. Entire Scripture passages are interspersed throughout the collection (1, 18, 68, 146). Some poems are explicitly related to a text in Revelation. For example, the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3 are each the subject of separate poems (19–40).

Erikson often refers to our contemporary situation, demonstrating the power of John’s apocalypse to apply to every age between the two comings of Christ. Yet, such references will apply in any time before the coming of our Savior.

I am an exile in a wilderness of strife,
An anxious neighbor to an angry crowd,
And I am bowed
by my own sin as well as theirs. (100, “Holy War”)

The biblical humility of the poet is beautifully expressed. This should also be a creative aid to preachers as they contemplate how to relate the text of Scripture to their congregations. For those unfamiliar with poetry, this may be a good place to start, since it digs into subject matter familiar to the pastor. Erikson is rarely specific about our contemporary situation. In “Jars of Clay” she begins,

COVID digs by harrowing,
Its fiercest teeth are plowing through
our covenants with death,
Our covenants that honor kings above all else,
That rest in shelters
we have fashioned out of us,
Constructed out of narratives that put our egos first.
We are a constant chattering,
A gathering of birds,
A murmuration mumbling the ancient lies
as if our chittering could muzzle sacred words. (135)

I would like to see more enjambment in these poems. Enjambment is seen when a poetic line stops before its natural linguistic pause.

I love to open Your Word.
It feels like
Opening the back door on a summer day. (11)

Smell the ruthless wind that blows in from the viper’s nest,
And from such arrogance,
How delightfully depraved,
They brag,
How decadent to drink down to the dregs
the blood of saints,
The blood of those who would not bend a knee
before the kings and priests of our rapacious immorality,
Before the worshipping of sex and stuff. (113–14, “Bending”)

Enjambment seems especially suitable to free verse. But Erikson’s staccato rhythms make up for this to a large degree, since when read aloud, the meaning strikes home, echoing the power of the text of Revelation. Such oral structure should also be of help to the preacher, especially one who may be overly tied to a manuscript.

On a topic circumscribed by a topic like Covid and the book of Revelation, I would have been inclined to produce a briefer chapter book.

Poetry based on the Bible is not easy to write. Erikson has done a wonderful job. In these poems we find a deep sense of human need, a realistic view of our fallen world, and the power, holiness, and grace of God exalted. Anyone who needs encouragement while living in this fallen world will surely find it here, since her poems are rooted in the infallible Word of God.

Endnote

[1] T. S. Eliot, “Reflections on Vers Libre,” in To Criticize the Critic and Other Writings (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1965), 189.

Gregory E. Reynolds is pastor emeritus of Amoskeag Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Manchester, New Hampshire, and is the editor of Ordained Servant. Ordained Servant Online, February 2022.