What do you think?
Rate this book
The Sacred Place: Witnessing the Holy in the Physical World
Some of today's most significant writers and poets explore the relation between what we call the sacred and what we witness in the apparent world.
This unprecedented anthology brings together a provocative mix of new and well known writers whose poetry and prose broaches the possibility of something "bigger" going on, something more significant at stake. Is some powerful agency at work in what we see or are we just wishing (or fearing) that there were? Who can say? Who would dare? What’s most intriguing about the selections in this volume is that the authors do dare. What’s most attractive about them is that they resist answering that dare with reductions. They prefer the swoon of multiple possibilities over the relative comfort of conclusions. Various as they are, the works collected in The Sacred Place share a common reverence for the word itself, and perhaps best of all—they share a common understanding that no one of them comprehends fully what that means. They seem to desire instead a sense that the humble stuff surrounding us affords a likely enough habitation for the sacred, even now.
This unprecedented anthology brings together a provocative mix of new and well known writers whose poetry and prose broaches the possibility of something "bigger" going on, something more significant at stake. Is some powerful agency at work in what we see or are we just wishing (or fearing) that there were? Who can say? Who would dare? What’s most intriguing about the selections in this volume is that the authors do dare. What’s most attractive about them is that they resist answering that dare with reductions. They prefer the swoon of multiple possibilities over the relative comfort of conclusions. Various as they are, the works collected in The Sacred Place share a common reverence for the word itself, and perhaps best of all—they share a common understanding that no one of them comprehends fully what that means. They seem to desire instead a sense that the humble stuff surrounding us affords a likely enough habitation for the sacred, even now.
- GenresPoetry
370 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
21 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 5, 2014
I confess this book has been on my nightstand for a few years and I have finally finished reading it. This is an anthology of poems and stories collected from many writers about their sacred experiences and places. Some of the stories and poems are inspiring, but many seemed more awful than awesome. My favorite story was by John McPhee writing about a hiking trip with David Brower and other friends. Another story by Rick Bass makes me want to explore the Wild lands around Grizzly Peak near Glacier National Park.
August 1, 2015
The essays are mostly great, especially Scott Russel Sanders, but the poems are too difficult to understand. Also, I couldn't read an entire anthology about nature.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews