This past Saturday our family attended Mennonite Arts Weekend in Cincinnati, a biennial event we haven’t missed since 2008.  It’s always a beautiful mix of art, inspiration, food, and connection.  Mark your calendars for February 5-7, 2027. 

One of my favorite presenters was the poet Julia Baker.  She talked about poetry as a container able to hold contradictions.  “Poetry offers us a place to be that feels closer to who we are,” she said.  For her, writing a poem is like positioning herself so she can better see, the result often surprising.  She quoted Jack Gilbert’s poem, “A Brief for the Defense:”  “We must risk delight…We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.”

During a workshop, she gave the prompt “How are you?” and told us to just start writing.  From that freeform exercise, she asked us to select a phrase or two and see if there was a poem that wanted to form around them.  Perhaps inspired by the Jack Gilbert quote, my words/phrases were “good” and “confession of faith.”  Here’s the attempt at a poem:

Confession of Faith

I’m good,

I answer to

How are you?

And that could be that.

Or that could be

a confession of faith,

a prayer,

a defiant declaration,

a conviction hard earned.

Good deep down.

Good without excuse.

Good like the eighth day of creation,

after nights and days,

all in flow and pulse,

anchored in earth,

reaching for the light.

Good, as in

Look at all this life.

Joel