Questions for Ecclesiastes / Poems

by Mark Jarman

Winner--1998 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize Finalist--1997 National Book Critics Circle Award "In Questions for Ecclesiastes, Mark Jarman takes on the idea of holiness in an unholy world, of spiritual realities in secular America... His poems made me think of altars, the kind we sometimes make unconsciously on a side-table or dresser where we deposit sea shells, pebbles, lost buttons, and other interesting finds, arranging them just so, as if to make an offering to an unknown god."-Charles Simic, Judge, The Academy of American Poets "A devout and learned exploration of the absence and silence of God."-The Philadelphia Inquirer "In this deeply impressive collection, Jarman is concerned with God, His grace, and humans' relations with Him... In 20 'Unholy Sonnets,' he takes up matters of theology directly and so appositely for these times that some of them may become pulpit as well as anthology staples."-Ray Olson, Booklist "[An] A+ level candidate for glory, so peculiar in the excellence and pleasure it offers as to baffle anyone in the business of awarding laurels."-The Hudson Review "Inverting Donne's 'Holy Sonnets' in his ironic 20-poem 'Unholy Sonnets' sequence, Jarman's tone is discursive instead of devotional, comic instead of firm. The sonnets...explore faith with a sense of inevitability. Yet they are less about God than about our relationship to God and our inability to understand God's judgement."-The Boston Book Review "Memorable for its section 'Unholy Sonnets'...Questions for Ecclesiastes ultimately captures a poet's challenge to Are you there, or aren't you?"-Seattle Weekly

Genres: Poetry, American

Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Jaron Wallace · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading Questions for Ecclesiastes has me asking GR: does anyone have some good recommendations for poetry? Maybe I am just not cut out for understanding this book

For my review
Picture this: You want to make yourself a more well rounded person that reads all sorts of literature so you do some research to find some good poetry. While reading pages of recommendations on Reddit, you see someone recommend really good Christian poetry. Perfect! I bought it that day, waiting for it to come in the mail so I could be brought into the mystical world of poetry…

I tried my best to read it slowly and with cadence so that I wouldn’t miss the flow. I scoured the meaning of every word so that I could be blown away by his use of double meanings and choice of word. Knowing this was Christian poetry, I sought to find the meaning between the words that celebrated Christ and His grace in our lives.

None of it was to be found!

I vividly remember searching through the first poem for its interesting meaning, hoping it would go deeper than him giving bland stanzas about how he was trash at surfing. After reading it three times, all I could see is that he indeed was trash at surfing. I thought to myself “maybe the God part will come in later” so I did not let the surf slow my roll.

Poem after poem it just seemed to get worse, especially when talking about God. I have read non-christian literature that is far more favorable to God than he was. It seemed to be rather than wrestling with God, he was blaming every single thing on God, angrily rejecting him as a far away being that only sought to make our lives hell. I specifically felt that there was absolutely no praise given to God at any point in the book, which I think should cause this book to not be labeled Christian. There are vast swathes of books that talk poorly on God that are correctly not labeled Christian.

Don’t get me wrong either, as Christians, we are more than free to wrestle with God through our problems as many characters in the Bible did. I think my main issue is that even the author of Ecclesiastes knew who was in control and still rendered that the best possible way to live our lives was seeking God. Even when David was in the midst of the worst days, it was obvious he was still looking to praise and trust God. This poetry felt absent of that and honestly it felt that some of these poems were used to tear down God and his Church.

About halfway through the book, I honestly lost all hope and just sought to see if the poems on their own were any good. It got slightly better at times but still was a lot less than what I was anticipating.

I am not sure if I was missing some really helpful footnotes or extra information but when I read Dante’s Inferno, I thought the poetry was exciting and awesome and most of the time I wanted to keep reading. On top of this, when I listen to music, say Kendrick Lamar (bc he won the pulitzer prize so he is definitely good), it seems to be no problem for me to hear him use one word that can be taken two ways and go “Wow! that’s so cool” and then look to dissect all the lyrics. Reading Questions for Ecclesiastes, I was left questioning if I had missed this, but I just don’t think it was ever there.

This doesn’t mean the journey of poetry is over, it’s just that it has only begun🤝

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

liked the "unholy sonnets" best!

[Diann Blakely]

Those familiar with Jarman’s work know about his tangle with not only God, but also John Donne and Gerard Manley Hopkins, in his “Unholy Sonnets,” poems collected both in a book by that title and in Questions for Ecclesiastes. His tangle with other aspects of his art, the essays and reviews in his just-published *The Secret of Poetry*, gives us a poet/reader’s mind at work. Jarman’s newest tangle with some of life’s largest questions, not to mention St. Paul, is richly evident in *Epistles*. This manuscript of prose poems, whose subjects range from parenthood to social compassion to the 1998 tornado that struck Nashville, the poet's adopted hometown, at times seem spookily prescient of Sept. 11. Indeed, the endless drone of TV commentators might have been well-broken with poems like these, giving all of us better words for our experiences of grief, love, terror, comfort, and hopes for peace.













(originally published in the *Nashville Scene* / Village Voice Media)

[Eric Marcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Jarman's work meditates deeply on the relationship between the beauty and tragedy of life and how it relates to God. How does our spirituality influence our lives? Does it lend meaning, or does it actually make life all the more perplexing? These are the questions Jarman's collection prompts. The title work leaves the greatest impression, telling the story of a pastor attempting to comfort the family whose daughter committed suicide with the bleak words of Ecclesiastes. "The Unholy Sonnets" also have some magnificent gems, disconcerting at times, uplifting at others. Another personal favorite is "Last Suppers", a long reflection on Da Vinci's masterful painting and the relationships Jarman draws between it and life. Of course, there a few dead spots in the collection, but this collection, while occasionally too dense for its own good, is a provocative meditation.

[Jasonlylescampbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished my first reading of this book of poetry and really enjoyed it. (Thanks Cameron for the recommendation). It is very aware of the great difficulties in life and in belief and allows no piety to block facing into these. It is a very tough book. The writing is great and he is able to make the images come alive with each word. There is also a domestic leaning that I can appreciate in my present state ... poems about his daughters or about family dinner. I will write more as a read again.

[Jamie Dougherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, though I found a lot of the Unholy Sonnets underwhelming. Also very surprised that so many of these take place on some northern Pacific coast. Way more surfing than I expected.

Favorites:
Transfiguration
Drought Rain
After Disappointment
Questions for Ecclesiastes
Unholy Sonnets 4, 13, 14, & 16

[brian]

A sequence of poems poems based on John Donne's "Holy Sonnets" probing a speaker/poet's spiritual/existential crises? SIGN ME UP!

[Russ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great--it has a feel for spirtuality without the overbearing fist of the religious right

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is always on my reading list. I find it profoundly comforting to know that other people in the world live searching to understand the connected layers...both seen and unseen surrounding us.

[Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding, rich book. I'll be coming back to this again and again.

[Forester McClatchey · Rating 5 out of 5]

so good.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can safely say no collection of poetry has ever made me sob as much as this one did. Note that this review will only be for the Unholy Sonnets section, uni=time constraints but we take what we can get.

This is an exceedingly vulnerable collection, one that reaches deeply into the murky pools of doubt and hopelessness that reside alongside the soul’s pursuit of faith and transcendence. Resting comfortably in the realms of guilt, shame, confusion and abandonment, every sonnet is a piece of Jarman’s soul on paper, dissected and laid bare with profound frankness. I resonated deeply with the messy, tormented form of faith that Jarman so unrestrainedly expresses through the language of paradox, contradiction and interrogation, all of which are perfectly suited to the sonnet. His use of the form is skilful and reflective of a deep understanding of its purpose, and I particularly enjoyed his balancing of opposition and harmony — the faith that embraces presence in absence, hope in despair, and worship in doubt.
Caveat that my emotional resonance might have blurred some aspects of the writing which were rougher. This is not a perfect work, and 1 or 2 sonnets fell flat for me. The ones that hit really hit though so no complaints.
Definitely an ideal read if you love sonnets, innovative language and spiritual angst.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this book for *years* and finally had a chance to read it. Jarman caught my attention years ago with his sonnet "After the Praying, after the hymn singing," which was in a poetry anthology I read in college. I had high expectations for the series of Unholy Sonnets but found only about half of them compelling; granted, though, I thoroughly enjoyed the half that *did* stand out to me. The series of seven poems titled "The Past from the Air" is something I'd like to study and think about more. I look forward to rereading them, as well as many of the other poems in this collection.

Favorite poems:
· Ground Swell
· Dressing My Daughters
· After Disappointment
· Questions for Ecclesiastes
· 2 - Hands folded...
· 6 - Look into the darkness...
· 9 - Almighty God...
· 11 - Half asleep in prayer...
· 14 - After the praying...
· The Past from the Air (series of seven poems)
· Last Suppers

[Peter Spaulding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just gorgeous

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

After awhile I felt impatient with this book, like a kid sitting in a dusky church, ready to go out and throw chestnut burrs at the other kids and play Mother May I. My reaction puzzles me since I'm usually up for theologically attuned poems, but these didn't lift for me like I'd hoped -- I was happy for earthy narrative moments when they came, like in the scene of a woman washing dishes and praying with eyes open: "The suds mount breeding like a hive of foam." (82)
The twenty "Unholy Sonnets" were my main attraction to the book initially, but it's here that I felt the most restless, with the odd feeling that the sonnets were both too flippant and not flippant enough, too grave and not grave enough. Of those 20, #9 and #17 were my favorites, 17 opening, "God like a kiss," and closing, "...God the touch body and soul believe,/ and God the secret neither one is keeping." The playful and moving litanies of both of these sonnets brought to mind Manning's BUCOLICS, though I prefer Manning, mostly because of the naked soul of the narrator throughout the book (nakeder, maybe, than Jarman's speaker's).
The book's very first poem is one of my favorites though -- 5 stars for "Ground Swell," capturing a full-bodied moment of being sixteen:
"You write about the life that's vividest./ And if that is your own, that is your subject."

[Ross Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This kind of poetry is only going to appeal to a certain kind of reader, but luckily, I'm definitely the target demographic here. Jarman walks a tightrope between blasphemy and orthodoxy while trying to work out his faith in a bunch of neo-traditionalist forms (primarily sonnets, pseudo-sonnets, and tons and tons of blank verse). He also walks a tightrope between academic and personal, and in my opinion achieves a really perfect blend.

[Joe Haack · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few poems stand apart: "Questions for Ecclesiastes" & a few of the Unholy Sonnets (1, 7,8, 10, 14).

[Daniel Seifert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have appreciated and enjoyed Jarman's poetic knack to interrogate and affirm his sense of God and profound notions such as the the concepts of salvation and miracles, and the pitfalls of faith. He is unashamed and unafraid to set in context religious faith and doubt at the center of his work and to portray faith and doubt akin to one another while sagaciously aware of that the need for certainty (e.g., dogma) may well be the opposite and tragic outcome of human faith.