As of Fire

As of Fire is a contemporary poetry anthology gathered around the feast of Pentecost. Poets working across formal and free verse and across devotional and secular traditions contribute one poem each to a four-movement sequence that traces the ancient narrative into present-day questions of voice, fire, body, and witness.The contributors include recipients of the Guggenheim Fellowship, the O. B. Hardison Prize, the Pushcart Prize, and the Richard Wilbur Award, as well as former poets laureate and editors of New Verse Review, Literary Matters, and Versecraft. Names familiar to readers of formal verse, classical translation, ecological lyric, and contemporary devotional poetry appear in deliberate dialogue throughout.The book argues that Pentecost is not merely a subject for poetry but a theory of it. What happened in that upper room was not theological consensus but the recognition that different languages can be adequate to the same truth. As of Fire takes that recognition seriously and gathers a chorus of contemporary poets whose work shares fire without sharing creed.