This Good Word, Episode 83: Poetry with John Blase (ShowNotes)

John Blase is a gentle, wise old soul, and he just published a book of poetry, titled: The Jubilee: Poems. His words help me want to love better, stay grounded in what matters, and use my words to heal and restore, instead of divide and conquer.He's also the author of Know When to Hold 'Em: The High Stakes Game of Fatherhood, Touching Wonder: Recapturing the Awe of Christmas, and he co-wrote of All is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir, with Brennan Manning. We talked poetry, of course, but we also talked about writing in general, about the importance of civil discourse, Brennan Manning, and what it means that our words form us.You can purchase The Jubliee: Poems here, and you can connect with John on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and on his website.The music on this episode comes with permission from one of my favorite singer/songwriters, the brilliant Sara Groves. The song is called Floodplain.This is how John describes himself on his website:

Most credos I’ve read start with the words I/we believe. I won’t do that, or maybe better put, I can’t do that.My credo, if it can even be called such a thing, rides piggyback on the slithering black curved back of the lovely question mark.I don’t have many answers, but I do have questions…Why is it that my father raised me on a diet of the King James Bible and western movies that, as it turned out, was magically delicious?Why is it that I live out West and love out West but I’ll always be from the South?Why am I most at ease in those in-between moments of dusk?Why am I a storyteller who, unlike a historian, must follow the trail of compassion wherever it leadeth?Why do I not equate talking with thinking?Why do I try to not run yellow lights, ever?Why do I prefer the words melancholy to organized and ache to closure?Why do I put all my eggs in the basket of grace, a grace that if its grace at all will one day drive me to my glass-clearly-knees as I whisper simply amazing?Why do I cry every time, every blessed time, when Linus says lights, please and gives his that’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown speech?Why do I feel in the very marrow of my bones that contrary to wildly successful first lines, it actually is about you…and me?

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My work:

I host a weekly podcast. I wrote a book. I have a website. I am the pastor at a great little church. I am sometimes available to travel to hang with your tribe to help you all become more you. And yes, I do Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Oh, and if you’d like to stay up to date with my writing and events and such, you can subscribe to my email list. There. We’re all caught up.