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Isaac Returns to the Mountain
and Other Poems Inspired by the Bible
by James Green
20 poems ~ 36 pages
Price: $15.00
Publisher: Cyberwit.net
ISBN #: 978-81-19654-02-4
To Order: Amazon.com
ABOUT THE BOOK:
James Green’s latest collection explores the question: What would a conversation with Biblical figures such as Isaac, Jacob, Eve, Lot’s wife, Job, Jonah (yes, the same lucky fellow who spent three days in the belly of a whale and lived to tell the tale), and others … if one could talk to them, listen to their point of view … what would come of that? Isaac Returns to the Mountain, is a fresh, captivating work that brings ancient literature onto the stage of twenty-first century life.
ADVANCE PRAISE:
Isaac Returns to the Mountain is a poignant reminder that, like Isaac, we also have our mountains to return to … A tour de force of enlightened thought and well-crafted poetry.
–Steven Owen Shields, Professor of Communications, University of North Georgia, and author of Random Acts of Childhood
From the earliest days of my youth, I remember Sunday School classes in which gracious, (always) elderly ladies told stories from the Bible. These stories were exciting. They told of great men and women who gave everything because of faith in God. Some stories, I still struggle to understand. These include Abraham being told to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering to God. What! Abraham only had one son. Hard for me to believe. And Eve, who ate forbidden fruit. Where was Adam when all this went down? Why was Eve saddled with all the blame? Enter James Green with his latest collection. Isaac Returns from the Mountain. Now in my seventh decade, I return to these same stories … and to my surprise, with Green’s penetrating insights … they resonate with renewed vigor.
–Michael Escoubas, author of Ripples Into the Light: PhotoPoetry with Photographer Van-dana Bajikar
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
James Green has worked as a naval officer, deputy sheriff, high school English teacher, professor of education, and administrator in both public schools and universities. His academic publications include three books, as well as numerous monographs and articles in professional journals. Recipient of two Fulbright grants, he served as a visiting scholar at the University of Limerick in Ireland and the National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan. He has published five chapbooks of poetry in addition to this collection, and individual poems have appeared in literary magazines in England, Ireland, and the USA. James has received numerous awards for his poetry, among them the Charles Dickson Chapbook Prize sponsored by the Georgia Poetry Society for Long Journey Home. In addition, he has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, the Best of the Net, and the Modern Language Association Conference on Christianity and Literature Book of the Year. James holds B.A. and M.S. degrees in English and Education from Missouri State University, a Ph.D. in Education from Saint Louis University, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles.
Learn more about James Green from his website at jamesgreenpoetry.net
FROM THE BOOK:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 (KJV)
In the Beginning
by James Green
We are told
by those who claim
such knowledge that the universe
is still expanding: Matter since creation
lunges further, further into the abyss we fathom
only as theory, redefining space, fragments charged
by echoes of first cause altering time in swelling symmetry,
invading void with power and glory, bejeweling the nightscape
until (some say) nebulae turn inward again and retreat to home,
colliding, collapsing into the dark vortex of their firey origin
tightening focus, drawn into negative space, the tiny
mass vanishing at the sound of a faint crunch
when, again, a spark strikes the urge
of a fresh heartbeat.
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