Announcement: Heart of Flesh Literary Journal

I'm really pleased to announce that two of my poems have been published in Issue 2 of the Heart of Flesh Literary Journal. 
Absolution was written while I was working for the Watford Homeless charity New Hope.   It is inspired by working with a homeless teenager with a particularly harrowing past, and explores the theme of redemption. To find more about the extremely important work of New Hope, please click here. 

Your Stare is inspired by my baby son, and how observing the beauty of an infant can reveal so much about humanity, communication and consciousness.
Click here for Issue 2 
Here to read issue 2 as a .PDF
And here to go straight to my poems.

Heart of Flesh is a very exciting and unique new journal that seeks to publish poetry, fiction and art 'with a Christian element' though not necessarily explicitly Christian or by Christians, believing that 'God’s truth as written in the Bible can be found in both the secular and the non-secular, in nearly every work of literature and every part of the human condition.'(from their 'about us' page).

For me, the discovery of this journal is particularly exciting, both as a poet and as a Christian, as the intention behind the journal ignites both my theological and artistic passions, and allows those passions to meet. As a Christian I believe our imagination is part of what it is to be created in God's image. I believe that we have been endowed with the imagination so we can apprehend and express truth that is beyond the comprehension of reason and logic. A theology of imagination has been expressed and explored by the likes of William Blake (See Chapter 1 of his long poem Jerusalem), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (most notably in his Biographia Literaria), J.R.R Tolkien (perhaps best expressed in his essay On Fairy Stories), Owen Barfield (most notably in his books Poetic Diction and Saving the Appearances, but for an overveiw of the man and his thinking watch this documentary), and Malcolm Guite (specifically explored in his book Faith, Hope and Poetry, but you should also subscribe to his blog).


A great resource to explore these ideas are this years Laing Lectures at Regent College, Vancouver. Malcolm Guite gave an inspiring defense of the imagination as a truth bearing facult, in three lectures entitled 'Imagining the Kingdom'.


At a time when Christian art is often twee, cheesy and wholly contained within a Christian sub-culture, and wider poetry is often deliberately inaccessible and pretentious, it so important to have places where true art, responding to bible, or God's creation or actions, can find a home. A home that is not content to remain within the sterilising safe-space of a religious sub-culture. A home that doesn't require artists to confirm to the creative prescriptions of the artistic status quo, no matter how revolutionary that status quo is convinced that it is. Heart of Flesh seems to be such a home. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 8 or 9

Image
Confinement, A melting pot reaching boiling point. Neighbour's needs clash,  Irritations become sparks. Tiny kingdoms close in on their kings, Yet tiny kindnesses shatter walls. Cold weather confines further And our neighbours rattle inside their shells As our boy bounces off the walls Of our little world, Where the music is constant And his breathing always  Sets the tempo of our hearts And the rhythm of our sleep. This little poem was written the 24th and 25th of March, 8 and 9 nine days into the lock-down here in France.  We're doing well, trying to keep creative as keeping our little boy entertained takes up most of our time. Things can get a little tense between neighbours in all this. We've had to encourage our nocturnal neighbours into a healthier rhythm as they kept waking Gabriel. Please be considerate and patient with each other, especially if you live in a flat.  And while your locked in, get to know the poetry of Micheal
Read more

Reviving the blog: Catching up on publications...

Image
It has been a while since I last posted on my blog. But I have decided to revive it in anticipation for the release of my first poetry collection "An Array of Vapour"  with  TSL books .  I'm really excited to share this collection with you! But first, I want to catch on the wonderful journals that have published my poetry since the summer of 2022. You can click on the titles to navigate to the poems or the publications 😊. 'Soil', in Furrows by Green Ink Poetry In August 2022, I was ecstatic to have my poem ‘Soil’ published in ‘Furrows’, a print collection   by Green Ink Poetry.  This poem was written in honour of Wendell Berry , whose own writing and work are an endless source of inspiration for my poetry and life.  This was my first time being published by Green Ink, and it was especially exciting because this is such an outstanding edition. It was such a privilege to be published alongside such amazing authors and inspiring pieces.  ‘Corfu’ Published by Macrina
Read more

An Array of Vapour - Matthew Heasman's endorsement and New Hope

Image
My debut Poetry collection "An Array of Vapour", published by TSL Publications, is now available for purchase here:  https://tslbooks.uk/product/an-array-of-vapour-peter-lilly/ This blog post is about Matthew Heasman's endorsement of the book, and the work of New Hope . It was an honour to work under Matthew's leadership at New Hope, and I am very humbled by his kind words about me and this book.  For those who don't know, New Hope is a local charity to Watford, just north-west of London, providing support, advice, food and shelter for people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. They have a variety of different housing services ranging from emergency beds in the night-shelter, to medium term move-on accommodation, as well as drop-in services, a soup kitchen, and a support for those who have previously been homeless, to help them sustain their recovery.  In my five years working for the charity I had four positions in three different projects, but all
Read more