I turn to the Greek agape (spiritual love), as I consider how these pieces fit together. Inside, I find conversations about the nature of faith, the wide embrace of community, and belief in the face of conflicting power.
In “Remember the Father,” Le’Var Howard considers Saint Valentine, a clergy man in the Roman Empire who ministered to persecuted Christians and was martyred. The writing electrifies moments of belief as they come into direct conflict with “man’s laws.” In this poem, the ethereal nature of ideals manifests into visceral physicality. “His nerves, shivering with a fever of the harsh regretful reality. So monumental, the words can barely escape thoughts.” Even exalted principals live inside vulnerable, human flesh and can be struck down by reputation or by death. Le’Var asks us: “Think of how you feel/when you come to know his name.” How do we carry forward meaning?
I made valentines to pass around the activities floor on February 14. On each card, I wrote a different word, and then asked folks from our writing workshop to take one. Connection and knowing can happen with the simplest card tricks. In this case, the right word randomly found each person. It was a pleasure to watch them read a word on their cards and light up. An act of magic. Albert Wright writes about the word he selected in “Faith.” Studying the text of The Newer Testament provides a grounding for him, but often the physical evidence of faith can be lost in in the day-to-day trials of prison life. The armature of hope holds faith in place: “... because of my hope, I pick myself up and I start walking again.” What constitutes that scaffolding? What is the physical manifestation of hope?
Tina Fonseca’s “The Believers” locates hope, or faith on her front porch. Our OSP editor Scott Bitter writes: “This sounds like gospel music! Were you singing when you wrote it? It has a rhyme and style that is uniquely you. I appreciate the welcoming imagery of an open door and home full of anticipating believers.” Hope lives in places where we make music with our friends: “Cousin, pull up a chair/you and your friends, you are always welcome here. I’m mixing this up with dubstep and gospel./I’m going to call it dubstep from the apostle.” Welcoming the faithful is one tradition for making community. What other ways do communities transmit hope?
Tucked into Treasure Valley, the prison yard at Warner Creek is a space so remote from light pollution that the human eye can look deeply into the universe — this is a landscape open to spirit. In “April 2, 2023,” Greggory Stockert points to the migratory majesty of snow geese, marking the cycle that promises delivery from the long dark, winter skies. Individual beating hearts and wings join to form a white cyclone — a striking contrast to the formation of black storm clouds. The concentrated energy from the geese unifies the men, as they circle together, kicking a hacky sack. We see a kind of prison yard communion and snowfall closes the scene. I think of those geese travelling across the sky that we share, how they eventually beat their wings over Portland skies. | TDS