A Lot of the Way Trees Were Walking: Poems from the Gospel of Mark

By Cynthia Briggs Kittredge

This cycle of poems travels the path of the Gospel of Mark, rereading and retelling the story, flashing back and anticipating, reading from unusual vantage points, flowing with the author's perspective and rowing against it. Crossing the genres of poetry and biblical interpretation, the poems themselves become a way to experience the Gospel of Mark.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Feb 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781498200516

Book preview

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A Lot of the Way Trees Were Walking

Poems from the Gospel of Mark

Cynthia Briggs Kittredge

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A LOT OF THE WAY TREES WERE WALKING

Poems from the Gospel of Mark

Copyright © 2015 Cynthia Briggs Kittredge. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Wipf & Stock

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199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

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ISBN 13: 978-1-4982-0050-9

EISBN 13: 978-1-4982-0051-6

Manufactured in the USA.

[Scripture quotations are from] New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Permission has been granted to reprint Fierce Industry from Lifting Women’s Voices © 2009 Church Publishing Inc. New York, NY 10016.

I dedicate this book in gratitude to the students at Seminary of the Southwest with whom I have read, interpreted, and proclaimed Holy Scripture in classroom, in chapel, and in community.

And the man looked up and said, I can see people, but they look like trees, walking."

—Mark 8:24

Preface

…and he was with the wild beasts. —Mark 1:13

That fragment of a line from the gospel of Mark provokes and intrigues me. It epitomizes Mark’s laconic and austere style. With? How with? Are these beasts friendly or fierce? Are we to imagine Eden or enmity? Other gospels supply dialogue and overlook the animals, but Mark has that empty desert with Jesus, Satan, and those unidentified beasts. The lack of explanation refuses answers, but invites inquiry and wonder.

For many years I have read the gospel of Mark with classes