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Friday
July 2010
30
Community Blogs
Signs and Wonders: A Young Catholics Poetry Journal
Last fall, Mr. Richardson published the first issue of a new poetry journal for young Catholics, called Signs and Wonders. A good explanation for his inspiration was giving during his interview as the featured poet in the November issue of The Centrifugal Eye, the editor asked about his new poetry journal, and the following is just a brief excerpt from that interview.
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ER: I think you will find it very telling that I just launched a print poetry journal for young people called Signs and Wonders, which focuses on that sense of a divine presence just below the surface of the everyday world — a sense expressed so well by the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins that "the world is charged with the grandeur of God."
ER: One of the most beautiful things about being a teacher is seeing that, like the saints and mystics, children still have their minds open to the kinds of knowledge that grown-ups dismiss as (mere) imagination. Seeing those glimpses come through in their writing over the years has made me realize that they are some of the most qualified poets among us. That realization gave rise to a summer workshop for kids on the basic elements of writing poetry. I got such great feedback that the energy sparked the idea of turning the whole thing into an ongoing project that would give kids a chance to publish their own work and to read the work of other kids like them. Hopefully, a few adults will read it too, and reopen some of the closed-off rooms in the mansions of their minds.
You teach math and computing, don’t you? How does that relate to poetry?
ER: That’s a great question, because I think a lot of people see logical things like math and computing as living on the opposite side of our mental landscape from things like art and poetry. Oddly enough, though, there is a tremendous amount of creativity and imagination that goes into mathematical thinking. Not only that, but — like a lot of the best poetry — math is trying to capture a lot of amazing nature-of-the-universe kinds of ideas and squeeze them into elegant, condensed expressions.
As it also happens, my poetry is often inhabited by mathematical ideas, which blurs the supposed line between the disciplines even more.
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That first issue was very well received among students and parents from around the country, with comments and feedback like: “What a beautiful publication!” and “
Thank you for giving our children a place to express their work.”
Hopefully the journal will continue to grow. As more Catholic students read the journal and submit their own poetry, the goals of the project will achieve greater success. Looking forward, the ideal would be for this little poetry journal to become a popular outlet to help young people connect with each other and with their religious faith in a way that is hard to accomplish outside of poetic expression. In doing this, it could help to create a deeper sense of community in a time when the Church desperately needs to reconnect with our young people.
Mr. Richardson is currently putting together the second issue of his poetry journal, complete with a few poems from the brilliant young writers at Saint Anthony’s. As a non-profit enterprise, the funding is currently coming out of his own pocket, which is not a sustainable solution. As he likes to joke with people, “It seems to be a favorite game of God’s to give me a great idea, but not give me a plan to actually make the idea work!” (Some of you might be familiar with that game.) If you can, help spread the word about the journal. If you know of any people, groups, or businesses that would be interested in advertising or sponsoring to help sustain and grow this project, please e-mail Mr. Richardson at erichardson@wi.rr.com for more information.
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