Beautiful Lightning

“These poems illuminate spirit in the material world. A baby's small fist, one tear, a lone lost sheep, a mosquito's bite, the drive-thru line for coffee. Nothing exists outside one source of creation. ‘Coming home is always a family affair,’ and Ed excludes no one and nothing. Spiritual life is a means of resisting exclusion and alienation. From farm boy to professor, Ed mines the ‘mortal coil’ for simplicity and mystery.”


—Anna Bat-Chai Wrobel, historian, teacher, poet





“Dr. Rielly's Beautiful Lightning, a multifaceted window into mystery, is a tour de force of poetic expression. Readers will delight in sharing in the author's story narratives, including his mother's making bread pudding, and reflections on topics such as birth, aging, and death. The poems in this collection serve as exquisite entryways into spiritual reality embedded in the ever-changing seasons of human experience.”


—Marilyn Sunderman, RSM, Professor of Theology, Saint Joseph's College of Maine





“‘What does He ask of us?’ begins Beautiful Lightning, and the question echoes throughout this elegant book. What, indeed? The gentle dignity of Rielly's language and graceful symmetries of form and imagery create a safe, sacred space where readers can explore the answers. I love how Rielly trusts us to find God and maybe a little bit of ourselves in his work.”


—Lora Homan Zill, writer, artist, publisher, Time of Singing: A Journal of Christian Poetry