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Description
Psalms for the City is a beautifully illustrated book of poetry that offers comfort, inspiration and encouragement for the heart and soul, as John-Paul Flintoff puts into vibrant, captivating and sometimes heart-wrenching words the pockets of peace he has found in the midst of the non-stop noise and colourful chaos of the city.
Inspired by the psalms – some of the oldest and most soul-stirring poetry in the world – Flintoff’s fluid style and technical skills take us on a private tour of our most-loved urban landscapes and reveal the spiritual nourishment in some of its most famous sights. In countless churches and sacred spaces, he shows us locations to lament; he teaches us to discover joy in crowded marketplaces; and shares how he found hope searching the horizon atop Hampstead Heath.
With his own hand-drawn illustrations to accompany the poems, Psalms for the City is a book that poetry lovers will treasure and is perfect for fans of Charlie Mackesy. Presented in a beautiful hardback format, it will also make a wonderful gift for friends and family, and for those who love the diversity of city life.
Open and honest, these are modern day psalms that chart John-Paul’s discovery that the extraordinary places welcomed the ordinary, and that when we’re looking closely, the ordinary places can become extraordinary.
Psalms for the City is an invitation to take your imagination on a pilgrimage across the city, experiencing the full depths of what it means to be human today.
1 Chocolate Box 2
2 Psalm Psunday 4
3 Sing a New Song 6
4 Annunciation at Grenfell 8
5 Mary, Five Minutes Later 10
6 A Pea, in Kew 12
7 Don’t Belong 14
8 FAQs 16
9 Smiting Time 18
10 Room 320 20
11 Grateful 22
12 Lifetime 24
13 Verbal 26
14 Pray for You 28
15 Next Year 30
16 Seasons of Google 32
17 Not Exactly Babylon 34
18 Consequences 38
19 Breathing Haiku 40
20 Twelve 42
21 Rejoice in the Lord 46
22 Books Have Wings 48
23 Thirty-two Boroughs 50
24 Parents Making Music 52
25 Recording Device 54
26 Really Into It 56
27 Fresh Start Haiku 58
28 Baiku 60
29 Regent’s Park Flyover 62
30 Passover, Chez Jesus 64
31 99 Names 66
32 Soho Square 68
33 Where Do Ideas Come From? 70
34 Poetry 72
35 False Hope Haiku 74
36 Unstressed 76
37 List Making 78
38 Genesis in Childs Hill 80
39 Parables 82
40 Neighbours 84
41 Dead Poets 86
42 Reflection 90
43 The Integrated Self 92
44 Pope Francis in Westminster 94
45 Weeds in June 96
46 Trellic Tower 98
47 Retreat 100
48 Revelations 102
49 The L Is My S, I Shall Not W 104
50 John-Paul’s Letter to God 106
Write Your Own Psalm 108
Sujets
Informations
Publié par | SPCK |
Date de parution | 27 octobre 2022 |
Nombre de lectures | 0 |
EAN13 | 9780281086054 |
Langue | English |
Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0900€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.
Extrait
‘Absolutely gorgeous . . . a beautiful, quirky, comforting little book.’
Annalisa Barbieri , columnist, The Guardian and The Observer
‘I’ve found Psalms for the City charming, intriguing and challenging in equal measure. I’m tickled by the wit and wordplay. I love the illustrations.’
Edward Canfor-Dumas , author of The Buddha, Geoff and Me
‘This book is a delight. Keeping quirky and cheerful, it suggests serious things without taking itself seriously. It could make even the most complacent sceptic laugh and think again.’
Richard Harries (Lord Harries of Pentregarth)
‘This intimate, approachable book provides a collection of day-by-day songs, or psalms, that fit our busy contemporary lives. Always thoughtful, often celebratory, sometimes painful: these rueful verses – and their gorgeous, witty illustrations – build up into something both serious and delightful.’
Fiona Sampson , author of Common Prayer and Come Down
John-Paul Flintoff is a writer, artist and performer. His books include How to Change the World for The School of Life, and most recently A Modest Book about How to Make an Adequate Speech . Psalms for the City is his first poetry collection.
Contents
Introduction
1 Chocolate Box
2 Psalm Psunday
3 Sing a New Song
4 Annunciation at Grenfell
5 Mary, Five Minutes Later
6 A Pea, in Kew
7 Don’t Belong
8 FAQs
9 Smiting Time
10 Room 320
11 Grateful
12 Lifetime
13 Verbal
14 Pray for You
15 Next Year
16 Seasons of Google
17 Not Exactly Babylon
18 Consequences
19 Breathing Haiku
20 Twelve
21 Rejoice in the Lord
22 Books Have Wings
23 Thirty-two Boroughs
24 Parents Making Music
25 Recording Device
26 Really Into It
27 Fresh Start Haiku
28 Baiku
29 Regent’s Park Flyover
30 Passover, Chez Jesus
31 99 Names
32 Soho Square
33 Where Do Ideas Come From?
34 Poetry
35 False Hope Haiku
36 Unstressed
37 List Making
38 Genesis in Childs Hill
39 Parables
40 Neighbours
41 Dead Poets
42 Reflection
43 The Integrated Self
44 Pope Francis in Westminster
45 Weeds in June
46 Trellic Tower
47 Retreat
48 Revelations
49 The L Is My S, I Shall Not W
50 John-Paul’s Letter to God
Write Your Own Psalm
Introduction
Some time ago, I started dropping into churches. Not just occasionally, but often. Near home, and further afield.
I was coming out of a breakdown. In therapy, I’d found myself talking a lot about faith. Specifically, about lacking faith – in myself, in my future, in everything.
This was odd, because I hadn’t thought of myself as a person who had ‘faith’ in the first place.
After my therapy sessions, I’d drop into a nearby church to think about what I’d said and heard. Why? It was cheaper to go into a church than a café.
I had no idea what to do, and felt sure that I was doing it wrong. But I watched somebody kneel silently in front of a particularly beautiful Mary and Jesus, and when she left I did the same.
I found the experience powerful, in a way I can’t begin to explain.
Another day, overwhelmed with anxiety, I dropped into a church that provided leaflets containing suggested prayers for a variety of occasions.
I learned some of the prayers by heart, and when I felt troubled I repeated them, to silence my self-critical thoughts. I carried that leaflet for months, until it fell apart.
I mentioned these developments to my therapist, and to others I knew to be religious. As well as Christians (I didn’t know many), these people included Jews and Muslims.
It would be dishonest to say that everybody was encouraging. But most were.
One in particular comes to mind: a Muslim friend encouraged me to get baptized, and after I did she asked me to read prayers to her in hospital, as she was dying of cancer. She asked me to read at her funeral.
I chose Psalm 137. It had become a favourite, as had psalms generally.
Many of the people closest to me are Jewish. I could imagine that my becoming a practising Christian might be uncomfortable for them. I looked to the psalms as an inheritance we can share.
One Jewish friend read me a modern translation of his favourite psalm. I can’t easily explain why this was so much more moving than if he had read me a favourite poem. It just was.
Though brought up in no particular faith, I’d become familiar with the Bible when I studied English literature. I’d also studied illustrated psalters.
My favourite, the Luttrell Psalter , is a priceless book commissioned by a prosperous family, combining the psalms of David with illustrations of biblical scenes and of everyday life in medieval England.
Much of what we know about how people lived 500 years ago comes from marginal illustrations in the Luttrell Psalter .
It occurred to me to create a modern psalter – to illustrate the psalms of David with images from my own part of London in the twenty-first century.