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An Incremental Life: Poems
“Luci Shaw is a legend” —Christianity TodayThis captivating collection of poems by beloved author Luci Shaw, reflects on daily ideas and activities as they arrive, bit by bit, to illuminate us with their wisdom and enlarge on the meanings of human experience. Like small messages from beyond, these incidents call us to pay attention. In An Incremental Life, Shaw breathes life into the simpleness of the every-day and finds God in the memory of the mundane. Through her verses, she explores the intricate tapestry of existence, from the tender memories of childhood to the profound questions of mortality. Her poems are like windows opening to the soul, inviting readers to pause, reflect, and savor the beauty of the world around them.
INCREMENTS
I live by increments, single
breaths of an ambient air,
marking off hours, days.
Apprenticed to grace, I tread statio
in sequentiae, edging every step
forward before venturing the next.
Staggering up towards the stony
crests of the foothills, dusty, I am
almost undone with weariness, only half
believing that the view will widen.
In my falling upward into your home,
O Faithful One, stay with me,
your wind music playing the ear of
my mind like an instrument.
“This is how life happens, one day at a time, in increments! And God is in each of them for us,” Luci Shaw
INCREMENTS
I live by increments, single
breaths of an ambient air,
marking off hours, days.
Apprenticed to grace, I tread statio
in sequentiae, edging every step
forward before venturing the next.
Staggering up towards the stony
crests of the foothills, dusty, I am
almost undone with weariness, only half
believing that the view will widen.
In my falling upward into your home,
O Faithful One, stay with me,
your wind music playing the ear of
my mind like an instrument.
“This is how life happens, one day at a time, in increments! And God is in each of them for us,” Luci Shaw
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 22, 2025
The poignancy of reading Luci Shaw’s final volume of poetry in the wake of her recent passing hasn’t been lost on me. Further, these poems show what filled her mind in her final years—her own mortality, the miraculous details of life that could be easy to miss, and a God well-attuned to every part of her “incremental life.” They are beautiful to read and made even more so in knowing that she now sees her God face to face.
May 4, 2025
Summary: Poems celebrating the daily moments offering glimpses of joy, growth, insight, and the quiet presence of God.
There are an abundance of ordinary moments between the “life events” we post on social media profiles, and celebrate with family colleagues, and friends. Much of the substance of our lives is found in the ordinary. Noticed and meditated upon, these become a rich tapestry that we call a life. But it is also in these moments that growth in character, and increasing “God-likeness” occurs.
Luci Shaw’s latest collection of poetry, An Incremental Life invites the reader into Shaw’s own practice of noticing and meditating upon the “moments” or “increments in her life. Reading a poem aloud with one’s eggs at breakfast is “Nutriment” for the ears, the voice, and the mind. Polishing a napkin ring with the initials of her father recalls his embrace, smell, and love for God. A return visit to the Grand Canyon reminds her of the Colorado River’s once raging torrent, now reduced to a trickle by “our consumer generation.” In “Estuary,” Shaw and her husband visit a newly formed tidal estuary. Then she reflects on the tides that have poured in and out of their shared lives. She describes “our old eyes viewing a celestial transaction as if for the first time.”
Many of her poems are filled with observations from the natural world. In “Garden Work” she considers how garden work continues when her work for the day is done. Thus, it is a blessing which may fill our lives if we recognize and receive it. “Ambush of the Heart” captures how both simply beauties and unearthed memories may ambush our hearts with wonder. In “Refresh,” a barefoot walk in the grass becomes an immersive experience of the blessing of God.
Other poems mark passages of seasons and the advance of years. “Coda or End-of-Summer Blues” reflects on hoped-for summer plans unfulfilled, regrets failure in the vegetable garden and the life of prayer, rejoices in the flourishing of love and family, and God who ever waits for our attention. She likens herself in one poem to an old cardigan, somewhat threadbare. She acknowledges her want of vigor, sapped of energy by pain and her fights against it. Finally, she fastens it to the shoulder of God. Despite her vibrant faith, in “Mortality” she asks (as have many of us), “Tell me, how may I delay my dying?”
As in other collections, some of her poetry is on the making of poetry, including “How It Happens.” She writes of her aspiration to pen “Edible Words” “rinsing away/falsehood and injury.” She describes how “The New Poem” takes shape through writing and revision as she will “smooth stuttering rhythms.” And then comes time to “blow it a fond, farewell kiss.”
Shaw captures how, as we age, we may both live in the present moment, and re-live the events of our lives, bringing those increments together into a richer synthesis. Our failings and frailties, increasing with the years, may also bring increasing awareness of the presence of the One on whom we depend. And somehow, in all of this, there is the hope of incrementally growing into God’s purposes, even in the face of our own mortality.
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
There are an abundance of ordinary moments between the “life events” we post on social media profiles, and celebrate with family colleagues, and friends. Much of the substance of our lives is found in the ordinary. Noticed and meditated upon, these become a rich tapestry that we call a life. But it is also in these moments that growth in character, and increasing “God-likeness” occurs.
Luci Shaw’s latest collection of poetry, An Incremental Life invites the reader into Shaw’s own practice of noticing and meditating upon the “moments” or “increments in her life. Reading a poem aloud with one’s eggs at breakfast is “Nutriment” for the ears, the voice, and the mind. Polishing a napkin ring with the initials of her father recalls his embrace, smell, and love for God. A return visit to the Grand Canyon reminds her of the Colorado River’s once raging torrent, now reduced to a trickle by “our consumer generation.” In “Estuary,” Shaw and her husband visit a newly formed tidal estuary. Then she reflects on the tides that have poured in and out of their shared lives. She describes “our old eyes viewing a celestial transaction as if for the first time.”
Many of her poems are filled with observations from the natural world. In “Garden Work” she considers how garden work continues when her work for the day is done. Thus, it is a blessing which may fill our lives if we recognize and receive it. “Ambush of the Heart” captures how both simply beauties and unearthed memories may ambush our hearts with wonder. In “Refresh,” a barefoot walk in the grass becomes an immersive experience of the blessing of God.
Other poems mark passages of seasons and the advance of years. “Coda or End-of-Summer Blues” reflects on hoped-for summer plans unfulfilled, regrets failure in the vegetable garden and the life of prayer, rejoices in the flourishing of love and family, and God who ever waits for our attention. She likens herself in one poem to an old cardigan, somewhat threadbare. She acknowledges her want of vigor, sapped of energy by pain and her fights against it. Finally, she fastens it to the shoulder of God. Despite her vibrant faith, in “Mortality” she asks (as have many of us), “Tell me, how may I delay my dying?”
As in other collections, some of her poetry is on the making of poetry, including “How It Happens.” She writes of her aspiration to pen “Edible Words” “rinsing away/falsehood and injury.” She describes how “The New Poem” takes shape through writing and revision as she will “smooth stuttering rhythms.” And then comes time to “blow it a fond, farewell kiss.”
Shaw captures how, as we age, we may both live in the present moment, and re-live the events of our lives, bringing those increments together into a richer synthesis. Our failings and frailties, increasing with the years, may also bring increasing awareness of the presence of the One on whom we depend. And somehow, in all of this, there is the hope of incrementally growing into God’s purposes, even in the face of our own mortality.
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
May 21, 2025
Without glossing over the realities of living in an aging body, Luci Shaw celebrates the simple beauty of forest, field, and water, reminding her readers that our bodies and our souls are always entwined. Her poetry is still inventing fresh metaphors for welcoming spring and for acknowledging loss. As a fellow gardener, I read “Let the blessing of the garden enter you,” and suddenly I am energized for the “diligent digging, the forming of furrow, the patient sowing of seeds, the covering, then, with damp soil. The waiting.”
I first encountered Shaw’s poetry as a young mother. Her nest was emptying, yet she still wrote as a “poet sorting socks.” More crucially for me, she was sorting out her faith, and her honest questions ambushed me, pushed me to settle my own doubts, and gave me some beautiful words for the strong bones of my belief.
Annie Dillard has (famously) said, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” This is a cautionary saying for those of us who live our days as the sandwich-makers, the sock sorters, and the finders of misplaced library books. This new collection of poems in An Incremental Life points to the wisdom of trusting God with our “sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life” (Romans 12:1, 2 MSG).
Shaw defines an incremental life as “one of small gains, or victories, of growth achieved gradually, of actions occurring one at a time, in a more measured sequence than what is experienced earlier, when energy and motivation are at their peak.”
The indignities of aging, the never-ending duties, and even the diligent editing that comes with Luci Shaw’s poetry-writing have become, after all, the way she has spent and is now spending her life. With lyrical wisdom, she pushes back against the dualism that differentiates between answering emails and writing sermons, between talking theology over coffee and talking science fair project over milk and cookies because, for believers, faith and everyday life are intrinsically part of one another.
Like beads on a string, our minutes slide by. Meditation on our own mortality need not be morbid—even facing the certainty of decline, for we live in hope. Incremental growth and maturity are ageless gifts from a good God who meets us with enduring patience and new grace every morning of our lives.
I first encountered Shaw’s poetry as a young mother. Her nest was emptying, yet she still wrote as a “poet sorting socks.” More crucially for me, she was sorting out her faith, and her honest questions ambushed me, pushed me to settle my own doubts, and gave me some beautiful words for the strong bones of my belief.
Annie Dillard has (famously) said, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” This is a cautionary saying for those of us who live our days as the sandwich-makers, the sock sorters, and the finders of misplaced library books. This new collection of poems in An Incremental Life points to the wisdom of trusting God with our “sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life” (Romans 12:1, 2 MSG).
Shaw defines an incremental life as “one of small gains, or victories, of growth achieved gradually, of actions occurring one at a time, in a more measured sequence than what is experienced earlier, when energy and motivation are at their peak.”
The indignities of aging, the never-ending duties, and even the diligent editing that comes with Luci Shaw’s poetry-writing have become, after all, the way she has spent and is now spending her life. With lyrical wisdom, she pushes back against the dualism that differentiates between answering emails and writing sermons, between talking theology over coffee and talking science fair project over milk and cookies because, for believers, faith and everyday life are intrinsically part of one another.
Like beads on a string, our minutes slide by. Meditation on our own mortality need not be morbid—even facing the certainty of decline, for we live in hope. Incremental growth and maturity are ageless gifts from a good God who meets us with enduring patience and new grace every morning of our lives.
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April 25, 2026Luci Shaw's last publication before she passed... I miss her voice.
She emailed me an early draft of one of these poems last year in response to an email I sent her. I'm glad I got to tell her while she was still living the debt of gratitude I owe her for the love of poetry and writing I have now.
She emailed me an early draft of one of these poems last year in response to an email I sent her. I'm glad I got to tell her while she was still living the debt of gratitude I owe her for the love of poetry and writing I have now.
May 17, 2026
I have followed Luci Shaw’s writing since I met her at a Wheaton College Writers’ Conference in the 1970’s. Her ability to take a bird sighting, a cloud, a walk, an emotion, and carefully dissect its incremental parts always stirs my heart and imagination. This is her last published collection since she died in 2025. She will always be a pinnacle model for me as an exquisite word-weaver.
May 17, 2026
Luci Shaw in her final book once again takes us on a prayerful, thought provoking journey into the ordinary. To take the time to see our blessings.
Through the light and dark, youth and mortality Shaw has rhythmically and contemplatively described daily life. This book was published in April of 2025 and Luci Shaw died on December 1, 2025, 28 days before her 98th birthday.
Through the light and dark, youth and mortality Shaw has rhythmically and contemplatively described daily life. This book was published in April of 2025 and Luci Shaw died on December 1, 2025, 28 days before her 98th birthday.
January 16, 2026
Enjoyable, with some particularly delightful bits.
July 9, 2026
Wow. Just, wow. 💛
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews