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A paperback size book of poems. Half the book dedicated to 'a Journey through Easter' a series about 'Holy Week' - some of which were previously published by 'RootsWorship' a church resource.
ROOTS WORSHIP said:
“The journey from Palm Sunday to Easter Day is one of peaks and troughs, reflecting a huge range of human emotions. The entry into Jerusalem prompts a triumphal welcome from an elated crowd. At the Last Supper an elect group keep high festival, only to find that their leader says he is their servant, speaks of bread and wine as his broken body and spilled blood and then takes them out to witness his arrest. We are left to watch the terrible despair of a close friend who denies all knowledge of Jesus. On Good Friday the worst is revealed to us: bullying, gratuitous violence and mockery. Then there is more cruelty, despair, desolation, death and abandonment. Now there is silence, that awful waiting that accompanies death; the huddling together of bodies, unsure what to do next, the longing to wake up out of a nightmare. With the dawn comes more light and an action; a devotion, at least, to the body. Then shock, disbelief, puzzlement, ecstatic action and finally overwhelming joy.
All these fall within the range of human emotions which each of us may at some time experience. If we are spared the most cruel emotions, we may find it difficult to identify with and support those who do confront them. For those who are faced with extreme events, the story of Christ's Passion provides an opportunity to know that they are not alone, or freakish. Another has been there before.
This is a personal journey through the events and responsibilities of Easter. Some is narrative, some an emotional response to the awesome sacrifice of the season. If the Holy Week story is to support and speak to those on the edge of organised church life, those at many points on the journey facing the range of events and emotions which we all encounter and trying to make sense of them, then we must be both creative and courageous in what we offer. This sequence of poems and pictures might be offered as a reflection on the events of Holy Week and the range of emotions which is common to us all.”
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PERPETUAL MAGAZINE:
“Mr. Wallis shows us once again his mastery of the free-verse form of poetry, and paints pictures with his words on the canvases of our very souls. Keith considers himself a cross between Dylan Thomas and King David of the Psalms. Few poets can live up to such comparison, but Keith does so and much more“.
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