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A Widening Light: Poems of the Incarnation
"I can think of no other anthology which celebrates with such intensity the entire drama of the Christian faith. Here we have a host of poets praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest.' A Widening Light moves the reader through recognitions and meditations toward prayer." (Harold Fickett)
"Luci Shaw has compiled perceptions both delicate and powerful of Jesus the 'baby prince, ' the Man, the golden Lion, Jesus Christ the Lord. For those who love poetry and those who think they don't, I recommend a slow and thoughtful reading of this lovely book. Each page reflects from a different angle the Light of the World." (Elisabeth Elliott)
" A Widening Light ranks as one of the very best anthologies of Christian poetry." (John H. Timmerman)
"Luci Shaw has compiled perceptions both delicate and powerful of Jesus the 'baby prince, ' the Man, the golden Lion, Jesus Christ the Lord. For those who love poetry and those who think they don't, I recommend a slow and thoughtful reading of this lovely book. Each page reflects from a different angle the Light of the World." (Elisabeth Elliott)
" A Widening Light ranks as one of the very best anthologies of Christian poetry." (John H. Timmerman)
143 pages, Paperback
First published October 28, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 29, 2023
A Widening Light made for lovely Advent/Christmas reading. As usual with anthologies, I really loved some poets, enjoyed others, and felt okay about the rest. A Widening Light concentrates on Jesus' birth, but does cover the whole arc of the Gospels.
Off to seek more poetry by some authors in this volume, and to add this to my stack of re-readables for the season!
Off to seek more poetry by some authors in this volume, and to add this to my stack of re-readables for the season!
May 28, 2017
I am madly in love with this anthology of contemporary(ish) Christian poetry! I encountered it on a reading list for Christmas and it does have lots of great Nativity poems, but it covers Jesus' whole earthly life, through the resurrection. (Although it ends with several poems related to taking down Christmas trees, which was a little jarring since I've been reading it over the course of the church year!) I adore Luci Shaw's poetry and, not surprisingly, she's also great at choosing poems. It was fun to discover new poets and poetry by writers I love in other formats (Madeleine L'Engle and C.S. Lewis--hence the "contemporary-ish"--I think all of the other contributors are living, but not sure). Highly recommended!
September 6, 2019
I really enjoyed these poets as they imagined incarnation. Certain poets gripped me more (Luci Shaw, for one) than others, but all brought a unique voice to their wonderful task. I was particularly stuck by some of the Eucharist poems, as well as the Christmas ones.
November 24, 2015
Lovely collection to read during Advent. I'm looking forward to seeing what the Red Couch Book Club thinks about it!
April 5, 2025
Can now confirm I don’t care for modern poetry. Most of this sounds like it could be read aloud in a coffee shop to a beating drum . Give me the old stuff that rhymes and has rhythm. These are all explicitly about Jesus, but even the old ones that are not are so beautifully written that they point me to Him more than these. To each his own I suppose.
May 29, 2025
A wonderful collection of Christian poems curated by Luci Shaw. There are many fine poems which are not too hard to understand if you understand the gospels and the life of Christ. I truly enjoyed this collection.
December 23, 2022
Luci Shaw is one of my favorite poets and she included plenty of her own poems in this collection that she edited. I will be rereading this for certain.
December 3, 2015
Made Flesh
When we think of God, and
angels, and The Angel,
we suppose ineffable light.
So there is surprise in the air
when we see him bring to Mary,
in her lit room, a gift of darkness.
From “The Overshadow”
Accompanied by Angels
According to Luke 1:35, the mystery of the incarnation happened in shade, and every year I come back to this weaving of words by Luci Shaw for an adjustment to my perspective on the season of so much light and love. “Made flesh” (A Widening Light, pg. 31) carries that unexpected image of shadow from Mary, in her “lit room,” to her Son, who was “eclipsed in amniotic gloom” as part of the journey of taking on a body.
In her poem, Luci Shaw has captured the enormity of the incarnation as a meeting of worlds — which is then quickly diminished to nine months of silence and a barn-birth-introduction to the “taste of bitter earth.” Ironically, Christ’s deliberate hunkering down and wizening up set in motion a chain of events that ultimately enlarges the boundaries of those who believingly follow Him.
“Now I in him surrender
to the crush and cry of birth.
Because eternity
was closeted in time
he is my open door
to forever.
From his imprisonment my freedoms grow,
find wings.
Part of his body, I transcend this flesh.
From his sweet silence my mouth sings.
Out of his dark, I glow.”
Like apogee and perigee, image and reflection, Christ’s monumental diminishment – related to his birth as a human – ushered in the possibility of another birth for his beloved, followed by a new life that is both qualitatively and quantitatively transcendent.
Christ’s “open door to forever” redeems the throttling of flesh and time for humanity, which is tremendous theological truth to delight in over a cup of Christmas tea. However, today, what matters most to me is that the claustrophobia of the never-ending December do-list, the frenzy of decking the halls and making merry are no more — and no less! — than 21st-century versions of Bethlehem straw.
My celebration of Advent is made sweeter with the confirmation that what happened in Mary’s tiny room truly was a meeting of worlds which “fused heaven with dark earth.” God-light shines through my petty particulars, and the Word can become flesh again through my life and in my deeds. Although tethered, for now, to this planet with all its weighty tasks and unmet expectations, I find that Advent is the flashpoint where I recall that I will one day, “join hands with heaven.”
//
In A Widening Light, Luci Shaw has curated a collection of over one hundred poems authored by a variety of Christian authors. She follows the incarnation of Christ through his miraculous arrival in a small, occupied nation two thousand years ago and into his ministry and miracles, his brutal death, and his victorious rising, “green again,” a “fruited tree.” If this were where the anthology ended, it would be brilliant enough, but the light widens, casting its glow on the Body as we find that out of his dark, we glow with “searing, sharply-focused light,” illumining the darkness and turning eyes and hearts toward another world.
When we think of God, and
angels, and The Angel,
we suppose ineffable light.
So there is surprise in the air
when we see him bring to Mary,
in her lit room, a gift of darkness.
From “The Overshadow”
Accompanied by Angels
According to Luke 1:35, the mystery of the incarnation happened in shade, and every year I come back to this weaving of words by Luci Shaw for an adjustment to my perspective on the season of so much light and love. “Made flesh” (A Widening Light, pg. 31) carries that unexpected image of shadow from Mary, in her “lit room,” to her Son, who was “eclipsed in amniotic gloom” as part of the journey of taking on a body.
In her poem, Luci Shaw has captured the enormity of the incarnation as a meeting of worlds — which is then quickly diminished to nine months of silence and a barn-birth-introduction to the “taste of bitter earth.” Ironically, Christ’s deliberate hunkering down and wizening up set in motion a chain of events that ultimately enlarges the boundaries of those who believingly follow Him.
“Now I in him surrender
to the crush and cry of birth.
Because eternity
was closeted in time
he is my open door
to forever.
From his imprisonment my freedoms grow,
find wings.
Part of his body, I transcend this flesh.
From his sweet silence my mouth sings.
Out of his dark, I glow.”
Like apogee and perigee, image and reflection, Christ’s monumental diminishment – related to his birth as a human – ushered in the possibility of another birth for his beloved, followed by a new life that is both qualitatively and quantitatively transcendent.
Christ’s “open door to forever” redeems the throttling of flesh and time for humanity, which is tremendous theological truth to delight in over a cup of Christmas tea. However, today, what matters most to me is that the claustrophobia of the never-ending December do-list, the frenzy of decking the halls and making merry are no more — and no less! — than 21st-century versions of Bethlehem straw.
My celebration of Advent is made sweeter with the confirmation that what happened in Mary’s tiny room truly was a meeting of worlds which “fused heaven with dark earth.” God-light shines through my petty particulars, and the Word can become flesh again through my life and in my deeds. Although tethered, for now, to this planet with all its weighty tasks and unmet expectations, I find that Advent is the flashpoint where I recall that I will one day, “join hands with heaven.”
//
In A Widening Light, Luci Shaw has curated a collection of over one hundred poems authored by a variety of Christian authors. She follows the incarnation of Christ through his miraculous arrival in a small, occupied nation two thousand years ago and into his ministry and miracles, his brutal death, and his victorious rising, “green again,” a “fruited tree.” If this were where the anthology ended, it would be brilliant enough, but the light widens, casting its glow on the Body as we find that out of his dark, we glow with “searing, sharply-focused light,” illumining the darkness and turning eyes and hearts toward another world.
February 2, 2009
Every morning I try to spend a little time with myself and God. I don't make enough time for either of us during my busy days. So I read a bit and write a bit and just try to stay open to the world and the word.
I read a variety of things and last October I decided to try this book - A Widening Light. Although edited by Luci Shaw, the poems are written by a variety of people - all of them excellent poets. I read about 2 poems a day - which was the right pace for me. I could read a couple and think about them, maybe revisit the same poems the next day.
Poetry often tells me about the world in a way that no other type of literature does. These poems give glimpses of the gospel that I could not have gotten in any other ways. They are so wonderful.
I will be moving on to another devotional book for the next few months, but I will be back to these poems. They are excellent.
I read a variety of things and last October I decided to try this book - A Widening Light. Although edited by Luci Shaw, the poems are written by a variety of people - all of them excellent poets. I read about 2 poems a day - which was the right pace for me. I could read a couple and think about them, maybe revisit the same poems the next day.
Poetry often tells me about the world in a way that no other type of literature does. These poems give glimpses of the gospel that I could not have gotten in any other ways. They are so wonderful.
I will be moving on to another devotional book for the next few months, but I will be back to these poems. They are excellent.
June 20, 2012
A fantastic collection of poetry edited by Luci Shaw for Advent which focus particularly on themes related to the incarnation of the Son of God in human flesh. I can't recommend it more highly. It is a truly unique collection.
January 20, 2016
Addie Zierman and Kelley Nikondeha both recommended this book, which meant that I had to get it. It was excellent – a beautiful collection of contemporary poets, including C.S Lewis and Madeleine L’Engle, writing on Advent and the incarnation. Lovely to dip into for Advent.
June 17, 2009
These poems share the beauty, the passion, the sacrifice of our Lord's life with undecorated lines.
December 17, 2014
This is perfect Christmas reading -- and Easter too. Get a nice, hot cup of tea, a quiet room, and read slowly. It'll be a gift to yourself.
November 10, 2015
A poetry book I loved. Some might say it's a first.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews