WayPoems
Imprint: Resource Publications
This book contains fragments of story, memory and everyday encounters with place. In this collection, South African poet Allen Goddard invites the reader on a sacred pilgrimage into delight, grief, lament, and hope.
Allen Goddard is a high school history teacher, a post-doctoral fellow in theology in Stellenbosch University, and a homestead vegetable and flower farmer. He lives in Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal with his wife and two sons.
“Two centuries ago, the traditional connection between beauty, truth, and goodness began to fall away. Allen Goddard manages to restore this link with a series of thoughtful and well-crafted poems from his life in South Africa which show a dimension of the country unrecognized by most citizens of Europe and America. ‘Like sparrows fledged near Galilee,’ these poems ‘will boldly kite Earth’s fabrics of / the deepest friendliness . . .’”
—Jock Stein, author of From Cosmos to Canaan
“In this collection, the poetic eye of Allen Goddard ranges over a multitude of nature images in his South African environment, pays attention to events such as the Marikana massacre of 2012, and reflects on major Christian feasts. The reader is invited to pause and look at what is right there before us—if we wish to see more deeply.”
—Susan Rakoczy, School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics, University of Kwazulu-Natal
“Poetry does not sell, some publishers insist—more’s the pity because poetry is the spice of life. So bravo to Resource Publications for making Allen Goddard’s WayPoems more widely known. Allen is a genuine pilgrim who not only travels mindfully but also reflects deeply and is able to capture his journaling in evocative metaphors, rhymes, and rhythms that enrich and inspire.”
—John W. de Gruchy, Stellenbosch University