Lion Sun

"Lion Sun" contains more than 70 poems by a poet who was received into the Catholic Church in 1988 and who derives much of his inspiration from the natural world. His poetry takes the reader to gardens inhabited by warblers, groundhogs, toads, and bumblebees, to the beginnings of the cosmos, to the Garden of Eden, to the shores of the Sea of Galilee, to the foot of the Cross, and to lonely chapels where God himself hears confessions, where St. Christopher drowsily guards the tabernacle, and where painted statues "earless listen to the chants." Pavel meditates on serpents, spiders, thunderstorms, geological processes, and the obstinate sinfulness of humanity. Reminders of the Creator are everywhere: "Sight of God, a white-tailed buck / Apparition in the meadow-- / Tines aloft above the rack / A temple's undulant menorah..." "Crocodiles are hammered out with tongs / Strong to grapple, strong to sprawl and squat / Fire sprays around them in the forge / Sparks arise, the iron jaws are hot..." "A cormorant, glistening with oil and water / A wise crane, ordained as was Melchizidek..." Pavel's relationship with the spiritual is intimate and affectionate: "Our Lord was in the chapel cleaning / Swung his mop in curving lines / As once he wrote archaic dust / So now he soaps a long design..." "Mary fell on greyish ice / Near St. Pimen's church on Seleznovskaya-- / An angel helped her, saying: / 'There, there, go slowly dear,' / and led her to Tikhvinskaya..." "Gabriel stands behind my chair / Folding brown-blue wings to fit the room..."