What do you think?
Rate this book
The Vanishing Song
This second collection from trans Christian poet Jay Hulme offers questioning, exploratory poems that look for God’s presence in strange, wilderness places – ancient holy sites like Holy Island, in forests, in old churches with their marble tombs, and - perhaps strangest of all - in the extraordinary lives of the people we call saints. With a leaning into Celtic spirituality, The Vanishing Song will enable readers to sense the holy in the quirky places and people in their lives.
96 pages, Paperback
Published October 31, 2023
8 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
Jay Hulme
8 books56 followersJay Hulme is an award winning transgender performance poet, speaker and educator.
He teaches, consults, speaks, and works on the importance of diversity in the media, especially transgender inclusion and rights. Jay performs his poetry at engagements in the UK, and has been published in a number of magazines and journals.
He teaches, consults, speaks, and works on the importance of diversity in the media, especially transgender inclusion and rights. Jay performs his poetry at engagements in the UK, and has been published in a number of magazines and journals.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 16, 2024
Absolutely incredible. I'm still processing and looking forward to going back through with a highlighter. This was my first foray into reading poetry and I just *felt* everything so deeply. I laughed, I cried, I can't wait to read it again.
October 18, 2023
There is no way to describe this book that isn't "this collection is absolutely unhinged and shot through with Holy Madness" and also "frankly one of the best books of poetry to have ever existed.
There are no "filler" poems in The Vanishing Song. Every poem is there for a reason and sits easily within the collection. There's no poems where you go "hmm not sure about that one". They all belong, they all fit a theme of Saints and madness and death and what we're willing to do for God and for each other. Reading through The Vanishing Song you will experience a full journey through the emotions of humanity including but not limited to: weeping, laughing, wryly raising an eyebrow in recognition, wincing as you recognise a shared experience of trauma, absolutely cackling and being struck mute at the sheer impossible majesty of the universe.
Not all of the poems are solemn and/or profound, "Hildegard von Bingen mapping the universe" is absolutely hilarious, and "St Guinefort" is exactly the sort of chaotic insanity you get whenever Kim Deyn (herself, an absolutely excellent poet!) is involved.
There are two poems I intend to add sections of to my tattoos (Cuthbert and Julian of Norwich) and I shall be repeatedly reading, weeping over, laughing with and adoring these poems for the rest of my life.
There are no "filler" poems in The Vanishing Song. Every poem is there for a reason and sits easily within the collection. There's no poems where you go "hmm not sure about that one". They all belong, they all fit a theme of Saints and madness and death and what we're willing to do for God and for each other. Reading through The Vanishing Song you will experience a full journey through the emotions of humanity including but not limited to: weeping, laughing, wryly raising an eyebrow in recognition, wincing as you recognise a shared experience of trauma, absolutely cackling and being struck mute at the sheer impossible majesty of the universe.
Not all of the poems are solemn and/or profound, "Hildegard von Bingen mapping the universe" is absolutely hilarious, and "St Guinefort" is exactly the sort of chaotic insanity you get whenever Kim Deyn (herself, an absolutely excellent poet!) is involved.
There are two poems I intend to add sections of to my tattoos (Cuthbert and Julian of Norwich) and I shall be repeatedly reading, weeping over, laughing with and adoring these poems for the rest of my life.
August 26, 2025
I didn’t like this one as much as The Backwater Sermons BUT I have a whole new list of people to read books about so. look out
December 4, 2024
The spiritual life often takes on a poetic form. Many religious texts are written in poetic form. Our hymns and songs of faith also take on poetic form. They remind us of the creative dimension of religious life, that to use Abrahamic terms, our creative efforts mirror those of the Creator. I will confess that I'm more comfortable with prose than poetry, though I love the Psalms and the hymns of the church. Nevertheless, as a reviewer, I always find poetry the most difficult to speak to. The poetry that is contained in a collection like Jay Hulme's "The Vanishing Song" might not hit me in the same way as it would someone more attuned to the rhythms and forms of poetry. Nevertheless, having been sent this book of poems for review, I shall offer my thoughts.
I will note that this collection hits me differently than perhaps another might in that Hulme features in "The Vanishing Song," poetry that draws on the lives of saints, among other inspirations. Hulme is a transgender poet, performer, and speaker. Prior to this book, he authored several other collections, including The Backwater Sermons.
In the introduction to this collection, Hulme writes: "I think faith could be like a forest, vast and interconnected, full of wonder, and of danger - because without danger there cannot be all this beauty. But we have become so scared of the things we cannot control, of the wolves and the snakes and the strange scuttling things in the undergrowth, that we spend our lives pruning our own bonsai trees of prayer. Beautiful, but controllable, truncated and contained" (p. xiii). In this collection, Hulme seeks to bring out dimensions of faith that are beyond our control, pointing us to people and concepts that call forth a sense of spiritual adventure. As he writes of the saints he sought out in writing these poems, "They did not seek to contain or control the wildness, but lived it out in its entirety" (p. xiii). That is what we find in this collection.
By my count, there are sixty-four poems in this collection. Some are shorter or longer than others, but each one expresses that sense of spiritual wildness that he speaks of in the introduction. Besides the poems, Hulme has provided us with a set of biographies of the saints whose lives he draws upon, including St. Guinefort, a dog who was killed by its master who thought it might have killed his child, only to find that Guinefort had killed a snake that tried to attack the baby. In his grief, created a shrine for Guinefort, which became the focus of a local cult, that continues to this day, centuries later. Several poems focus on the life and legacy of St. Robert of Knaresborough (1160-1218), who lived as a hermit in a cave outside the English town of Knaresborough. Though never consecrated as a saint, he is venerated as one and was known for his wisdom.
To give a sense of Hulme's poetry, I will offer his poem: "The Madness of St Robert of Knaresborough."
Robert went mad in the way of saints;
beautiful and holy and wild as anything.
He grew into the cave, hands scratching
at the earth; for weeks he watched the river.
When knights and kings came with riches
he told them things they never wanted to hear.
Centuries later he still speaks to strangers,
pilgrims to a past they cannot comprehend.
If they list, Robert offers them madness
in whichever form they choose. One man chose
murder. Buried the body in the cave. A sacrifice,
perhaps. An atrocity instead of a prayer.
More choose to go made like him. A consecrated
insanity. A heart crawling among the trees,
fingers splayed across the stone, grafting
themselves into the rock. They call out to
God in rushing words --- they sound like the
echoing water, as it carves away at the cliff. (p. 3).
I invite you to consider this book and its invitation to enter the wilderness of faith, to not be afraid of things we cannot control. It takes faith, like that of the saints, whose lives Jay Hulme embraces in "The Vanishing Song."
I will note that this collection hits me differently than perhaps another might in that Hulme features in "The Vanishing Song," poetry that draws on the lives of saints, among other inspirations. Hulme is a transgender poet, performer, and speaker. Prior to this book, he authored several other collections, including The Backwater Sermons.
In the introduction to this collection, Hulme writes: "I think faith could be like a forest, vast and interconnected, full of wonder, and of danger - because without danger there cannot be all this beauty. But we have become so scared of the things we cannot control, of the wolves and the snakes and the strange scuttling things in the undergrowth, that we spend our lives pruning our own bonsai trees of prayer. Beautiful, but controllable, truncated and contained" (p. xiii). In this collection, Hulme seeks to bring out dimensions of faith that are beyond our control, pointing us to people and concepts that call forth a sense of spiritual adventure. As he writes of the saints he sought out in writing these poems, "They did not seek to contain or control the wildness, but lived it out in its entirety" (p. xiii). That is what we find in this collection.
By my count, there are sixty-four poems in this collection. Some are shorter or longer than others, but each one expresses that sense of spiritual wildness that he speaks of in the introduction. Besides the poems, Hulme has provided us with a set of biographies of the saints whose lives he draws upon, including St. Guinefort, a dog who was killed by its master who thought it might have killed his child, only to find that Guinefort had killed a snake that tried to attack the baby. In his grief, created a shrine for Guinefort, which became the focus of a local cult, that continues to this day, centuries later. Several poems focus on the life and legacy of St. Robert of Knaresborough (1160-1218), who lived as a hermit in a cave outside the English town of Knaresborough. Though never consecrated as a saint, he is venerated as one and was known for his wisdom.
To give a sense of Hulme's poetry, I will offer his poem: "The Madness of St Robert of Knaresborough."
Robert went mad in the way of saints;
beautiful and holy and wild as anything.
He grew into the cave, hands scratching
at the earth; for weeks he watched the river.
When knights and kings came with riches
he told them things they never wanted to hear.
Centuries later he still speaks to strangers,
pilgrims to a past they cannot comprehend.
If they list, Robert offers them madness
in whichever form they choose. One man chose
murder. Buried the body in the cave. A sacrifice,
perhaps. An atrocity instead of a prayer.
More choose to go made like him. A consecrated
insanity. A heart crawling among the trees,
fingers splayed across the stone, grafting
themselves into the rock. They call out to
God in rushing words --- they sound like the
echoing water, as it carves away at the cliff. (p. 3).
I invite you to consider this book and its invitation to enter the wilderness of faith, to not be afraid of things we cannot control. It takes faith, like that of the saints, whose lives Jay Hulme embraces in "The Vanishing Song."
November 10, 2023
As usual, an entirely too long list of favorites:
*"An Almost Pilgrimage" -- The last few lines here are just everything about how it feels sometimes to be looking for God.
*"I'm not saying I talk to the dead, but the Saint and I chatted" -- "Robert, if you're listening, intercede for me" as a line just really really hit me
*"The Diocese has upheld your complaint of abuse" -- the anger and horror and desire to call out
*"Replacing the flowers on St. Valentine's head" -- The frankness around nature, death, relics, and religion in this one worked so well for me
*"'What rage or madness drives you?'" -- So I first saw this one when Jay posted it online, advertising the anthology, and the last stanza made me want to cry. I feel this very much.
*"The Holy Family" -- I love all kinds of different ways of thinking about the holy family, and this was lovely and has Opinions.
*"The Temptation of Simeon Theodochos" -- I knew the Anna & Simeon story, and then I started praying compline sometimes and got ~feelings~ about it. Also, separately, some wrestling with stuff around death. And this gets it.
*"The Creation of Adam" -- I think this one hit me because we had just been talking about this in Sunday school, but it's such a generous, insightful reading.
*Both "In the Pit Beneath Caiaphas's House" and "God as a Carpenter; hands shot through with nails" for capturing moments in the Good Friday story that really get at Jesus as both human and divine.
My list of favorites doesn't fully capture this, but I love how much this book was shaped by Jay's work as a churchwarden, by his care for an old cemetery, by interactions with an ornithologist. The medieval saints inspiration is strongest in the early part of the collection, but that reckoning with death and nature continues throughout. It's a book that is very, very embodied in ways that are meaningful to me.
*"An Almost Pilgrimage" -- The last few lines here are just everything about how it feels sometimes to be looking for God.
*"I'm not saying I talk to the dead, but the Saint and I chatted" -- "Robert, if you're listening, intercede for me" as a line just really really hit me
*"The Diocese has upheld your complaint of abuse" -- the anger and horror and desire to call out
*"Replacing the flowers on St. Valentine's head" -- The frankness around nature, death, relics, and religion in this one worked so well for me
*"'What rage or madness drives you?'" -- So I first saw this one when Jay posted it online, advertising the anthology, and the last stanza made me want to cry. I feel this very much.
*"The Holy Family" -- I love all kinds of different ways of thinking about the holy family, and this was lovely and has Opinions.
*"The Temptation of Simeon Theodochos" -- I knew the Anna & Simeon story, and then I started praying compline sometimes and got ~feelings~ about it. Also, separately, some wrestling with stuff around death. And this gets it.
*"The Creation of Adam" -- I think this one hit me because we had just been talking about this in Sunday school, but it's such a generous, insightful reading.
*Both "In the Pit Beneath Caiaphas's House" and "God as a Carpenter; hands shot through with nails" for capturing moments in the Good Friday story that really get at Jesus as both human and divine.
My list of favorites doesn't fully capture this, but I love how much this book was shaped by Jay's work as a churchwarden, by his care for an old cemetery, by interactions with an ornithologist. The medieval saints inspiration is strongest in the early part of the collection, but that reckoning with death and nature continues throughout. It's a book that is very, very embodied in ways that are meaningful to me.
October 4, 2023
These poems speak to the animist in me, the part of that sees a spark of holiness in every living thing on this planet (and I include the earth, and the rocks and mountains in the term living) and seeks to connect with it. They are full of the sort of faith that transcends religion (although it is very firmly grounded in Christianity and recalls the Celtic christainity of the early Irish and Scotish saints) and offers an experience of the numinous that sings to my soul. Every single page asks us to look beyond the everyday and let the wonder that is existance, and the holiness therein, lift us and open us and show us a different way to be and to experience the gift of life that we’ve been given. It is a call to the wild, to the re-wilding of the soul, and it is beautiful.
Every single one of the sixty four poems contained something that resonated with me but I found with ‘An Almost Pilgrimage’, ‘The Martyrs of Compiegne’, ‘What rage or madness drives you?’, ‘A Congregation of None’, ‘With Green Men in the Rafters’, ‘Community in Common’ and 'A New Commandment' connected particularly deeply.
Every single one of the sixty four poems contained something that resonated with me but I found with ‘An Almost Pilgrimage’, ‘The Martyrs of Compiegne’, ‘What rage or madness drives you?’, ‘A Congregation of None’, ‘With Green Men in the Rafters’, ‘Community in Common’ and 'A New Commandment' connected particularly deeply.
January 25, 2024
I have a great love for the old saints, and here in Jay Hulme's new poetry collection, they are just as I see them ~ beings of bone and brine, angels and anemones, barnacles and salt-encrusted song. 'With Green Men in the Rafters' was a special favourite and gave me a funny turn which I have not yet quite recovered from, because sometimes someone takes what's deep in your heart, makes it into words, and pops it on a page. And that can be a shock!
My favourite poems are indeed the ones on the saints and their continued earthy presence. They reminded me very much of Ben Myers novel, 'Cuddy', which is a wonder & would surely be loved by anyone who loves this collection.
Saints aside, every poem in this new offering is rich and deeply thought provoking, filled with bones, crumbling churches, and the hope of a wilder, untamed faith on the other side.
In the thanks at the end of the book Jay Hulme writes that, during its writing, he knows that he's been a nuisance but has no intention of stopping anytime soon. Thank goodness for that!
My favourite poems are indeed the ones on the saints and their continued earthy presence. They reminded me very much of Ben Myers novel, 'Cuddy', which is a wonder & would surely be loved by anyone who loves this collection.
Saints aside, every poem in this new offering is rich and deeply thought provoking, filled with bones, crumbling churches, and the hope of a wilder, untamed faith on the other side.
In the thanks at the end of the book Jay Hulme writes that, during its writing, he knows that he's been a nuisance but has no intention of stopping anytime soon. Thank goodness for that!
January 2, 2024
"The Devil is dressed like a man and walks like a man and commits uncountable cruelties..."
-The Devil (Un)Accountable
"Lord, you have made me for war, and I have no idea what to do with the gift of all I was fighting for."
-what rage or madness drives you?
Jay Hulme was already my favorite poet and favorite new author I discovered this year, but this book has solidified that position. "The Vanishing Song" is drastically different in subject matter than "The Backwater Sermons", but they share the same enchanting and beautiful writing, the full humanity and the wild, desperate love, and they both hit me personally. I expect both books will show up in my read books again and again for years to come.
-The Devil (Un)Accountable
"Lord, you have made me for war, and I have no idea what to do with the gift of all I was fighting for."
-what rage or madness drives you?
Jay Hulme was already my favorite poet and favorite new author I discovered this year, but this book has solidified that position. "The Vanishing Song" is drastically different in subject matter than "The Backwater Sermons", but they share the same enchanting and beautiful writing, the full humanity and the wild, desperate love, and they both hit me personally. I expect both books will show up in my read books again and again for years to come.
October 13, 2023
Too terribly good to put down, I anticipate a gentle meander revisiting my favorites.
As one who also loves the Christian Mystics, this brought them alive. Or resurrected them, more. Since the ones engaged are dead, and their deaths are a character aspect directly faced throughout the series.
If you’re looking for an odd little book of poems about death that sinks it’s roots in the direction of resurrection, this is it.
As one who also loves the Christian Mystics, this brought them alive. Or resurrected them, more. Since the ones engaged are dead, and their deaths are a character aspect directly faced throughout the series.
If you’re looking for an odd little book of poems about death that sinks it’s roots in the direction of resurrection, this is it.
February 26, 2024
Another astonishing collection from Jay Hulme. The collection is hugely evocative of the spiritual power of place and in some cases people. I particularly enjoyed Fountains Abbey (one of my favourite places) and Nobody asked the Island if she wanted to be Holy. If you haven't come across Jay's work before do read it. You won't regret it.
December 6, 2024
A truly lovely book! I really enjoyed this volume of poetry, but I do wish it had included more background on the subjects of many of the poems. I went back and googled some of the saints and locations referenced (ones that I imagine very few people would know offhand) and the poems were definitely more powerful with the context second time around.
January 7, 2025
I’m so glad this is the first book I finished in 2025; it nicely sets the tone for the year to come. Just like his previous book THE BACKWATER SERMONS, this is absolutely astonishing work. The way Hulme fixes his words alongside figures from the Christian past is breathtaking. As another queer trans Christian, I don’t know that I could be more grateful for his work.
June 11, 2025
I encountered God in this collection and They were queerness and nature and change and decay and creativity and resurrection…
Genuinely mind blown by this poetry. One of the glowing cover reviews is that ‘Jay makes the numinous real’ - can’t argue with that. Will be re-reading, and reading all his other work asap. Chef’s kiss!
Genuinely mind blown by this poetry. One of the glowing cover reviews is that ‘Jay makes the numinous real’ - can’t argue with that. Will be re-reading, and reading all his other work asap. Chef’s kiss!
October 13, 2023
I might be an outlier here but I enjoyed this even more than the Backwater Sermons. These poems are beautiful and challenging. A magical exploration of faith, what faith means, and the limitless possibilities and power of faith. Gorgeous. I will be returning to these poems again and again.
November 29, 2023
A short but incredibly thoughtful read. As always, I marvel at how Jay is able to capture such vivid images of the places he sees, the feelings he has, and the historical figures he meets along the way. My faith has become so much richer thanks to his voice.
December 26, 2023
This collection by Jay Hulme is outstanding. I had never heard of him until a month ago when he was the speaker at the Wisconsin Council of Churches Annual Meeting, and his poems blew me away. They make me want to go on pilgrimage to all the ancient Christian sites in England. Hauntingly beautiful.
December 30, 2023
Hulme’s lyrical madness makes me want to become a hermit saint of the wilderness, and that is a compliment. It took me so long to read these passionate odes to the twining of nature and faith because I didn’t want to reach the last one.
April 1, 2024
Read this book on Easter Sunday 2024. A very worthy companion piece to The Backwater Sermons. The church—and indeed the world—is very blessed to have Jay Hulme scratching out poems somewhere in its rafters.
June 17, 2024
Probably a 4.5, but I love Jay hulme so deeply. This book makes me want to write poetry again. I think I have to go back.
Also, do yourself a favor and read through the thanks at the end too. His poems and his writing are full of such love I cannot express.
Also, do yourself a favor and read through the thanks at the end too. His poems and his writing are full of such love I cannot express.
October 7, 2023
It's no Backwater Sermons, but what could be? Particular hits include 'What rage or madness drives you?', The Holy Family (probably my favorite), St Guinefort, and With Green Men in the Rafters.
October 14, 2023
Extraordinary. Jay has a singularly insightful and original mind and it is a treat to read his wonderful poems.
February 29, 2024
Lots of great stuff in here, the sort of poems you'll come back to again and again
July 26, 2024
the fleshy reality of holiness in simply lovely, evocative verse--best I've read of his work so far
September 4, 2024
Cried on the train. Cheers!
July 6, 2025
So good, but unfortunately not as good as the first poem collection of this author
October 7, 2023
4.5 ⭐️ rounded up
I didn’t love this as much as the Backwater Sermons (could I love any collection as much as I love the Backwater Sermons?) but this is still a fantastic book filled with poetry.
I didn’t love this as much as the Backwater Sermons (could I love any collection as much as I love the Backwater Sermons?) but this is still a fantastic book filled with poetry.
January 16, 2024
.....I'm going to need more than one read to properly digest this.
---
Ok. Having given it a fair second read, I feel I am a little better able to review this weird and wonderful book.
Jay's work here is full of wild places, thin places, legends and life and rot and ruins and the little chinks and chasms between what we know and what we wonder. It is a work of fiction with deep roots in reality. It is a work of hope with deep roots in death. And occasionally it contains things you might not expect in a religious book, like screaming rage at God for the abuses of His churchfolk, and speculation about the sexuality of female saints.
At its heart, I think, is something very delicate and tender. A seed that could become a whole forest of awe, if you listen and let it grow, or could just as easily be dismissed and tossed aside for its oddities.
---
Ok. Having given it a fair second read, I feel I am a little better able to review this weird and wonderful book.
Jay's work here is full of wild places, thin places, legends and life and rot and ruins and the little chinks and chasms between what we know and what we wonder. It is a work of fiction with deep roots in reality. It is a work of hope with deep roots in death. And occasionally it contains things you might not expect in a religious book, like screaming rage at God for the abuses of His churchfolk, and speculation about the sexuality of female saints.
At its heart, I think, is something very delicate and tender. A seed that could become a whole forest of awe, if you listen and let it grow, or could just as easily be dismissed and tossed aside for its oddities.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews