Testament - by Micheal O'Siadhail (Hardcover)

About the Book

Here in Testament is an imaginative faith and wise spirituality that can inspire day-to-day living in that world, revealed through the inner life and penetrating discernment of a great poet.

Book Synopsis

Testament is an imaginative improvisation on the Bible that engages with the intensities, the ups and downs, of existence in our complex and fragmented world.

Psalter, the first part, comprises 150 psalm-like poems that sound the depths and heights of life lived in the presence of God. Here, shaped into powerful, accessible poetry, is the wisdom of a mature and practical faith that knows love, grief, doubt, fear, disappointment, and overwhelming delight and joy. Micheal O'Siadhail stretches heart, mind, and imagination to open up profound questions of God, suffering and aging, truth and trust, freedom and surprise, desire and love. There are passionate exchanges with God and daring leaps of insight. Through them all runs a gripping conversational relationship expressed in praise, thanks, lament, and distilled wisdom, embracing a dazzling variety of forms and rhythms.

Gospel, the second part, retells in poetry stories from the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The emphasis is on the plain sense of the stories, newly imagined. We are invited to reread them, to discover insights and nuances, angles and depths, and above all to encounter afresh the familiar yet endlessly mysterious central character--Jesus. The world's bestselling book shows yet again its capacity to excite and inspire.

O'Siadhail's acclaimed The Five Quintets engaged with the ways in which the arts, economics, politics, the sciences, philosophy, and theology have shaped our twenty-first-century world. Here in Testament is an imaginative faith and wise spirituality that can inspire day-to-day living in that world, revealed through the inner life and penetrating discernment of a great poet.

Review Quotes

A paramount Christian endeavour.

--Peter Costello "The Irish Catholic"

Testament creates a feast of songs and meditations that extends the lineage of poetry enriched by deep engagement with the search for transcendent, parabolic, and salvific paths to God. In this way, O'Siadhail's artistic achievement takes its rightful place with the poetry of distinguished predecessors such as Herbert, Donne, Hopkins, and Auden.

--Joseph Heininger "New Hibernia Review"

These poems are a lifeline for anyone who feels that the presence of Scripture has become sore in their spiritual lives. They are vivacious and sensitive, and some of them might break your heart with beauty or sorrow. They're also poetically brilliant.

--Kayla Robbins "Macrina Magazine"

Uplifting and edifying, as well as personal and poignant, this collection is a must-read for poetry lovers of all kinds. I read it straight through and would not have stopped to pause for any reason; then I went through again to savor each poem. This is poetry at its best, and anyone who already knows any part of O'Siadhail's extensive body of work will not be so much surprised as further gratified by this most recent achievement. Those who have not yet read any of his poems, as well as those who have, I believe, will be equally well-pleased.

--Patrice M. Wilson "Agape Review"

About the Author

Micheal O'Siadhail is an internationally acclaimed poet whose works include The Five Quintets, Collected Poems, and One Crimson Thread. He is Distinguished Poet in Residence at Union Theological Seminary.