Lucky ?

Holy Luck Eugene Peterson

Darton, Longman and Todd

It's been a while since I have read a book of poetry. Back then it was the war poets of Sassoon and Owen. So opening Peterson's collection was a literary challenge to me. The prose introduction reminded me of Peterson's eloquence and spiritual wisdom and he argues persuasively about the power of words in pastoral ministry. So many of us have benefitted from his own skilful paraphrase of Scripture, particularly the Psalms, where his poetic gifts are on full display. So I had great hopes for this little book.

Divided into three sections and just 84 pages long Peterson has given us first seven poems based on the beatitudes called “Holy Luck”. Next is the longest section called “Rustling Grass” which reflect on ordinary life, mining those moments for their spiritual significance. The final section is a collection of occasional poems called “Smooth Stones”. To be honest I found his poems rather heavy-going . There were occasional couplets that helped me take a fresh view of life or God. But for the most part I was left scratching my head struggling to grasp what was meant. Perhaps this book is going to be useful to the more poetically astute and not a general readership. Or perhaps like a new album that I would listen to several times before really beginning to appreciate the music, I should spend a little longer contemplating his articulations.