DRAWING CLOSE, ENCOUNTERING JOY

A faith-based collection of drawings and writings that personalizes the grandeur of nature.

During repeated visits to natural settings in the American Southwest, Kirk writes, she “was overwhelmed by wonder upon wonder in the beauty of creation,” believing that amid the natural surroundings of Colorado was “where God found me.” This volume compiles her Christian observations. Each entry opens with a passage from Scripture followed by poems that effectively vibrate with her sense of the immortal and sacred. “Praise God at dew point wakening,” she writes in “Creation, Hymn of Praise.” “Praise God at tints of dawn, / Praise God at morn unfolding.” Some entries take the form of prose, as when she offers gratitude to God for “water—the pure and sweet life-giving flows, for springs and seeps that moisten thirsty ground, for rivers, streams, and all reserves icebound.” Later, the author expresses despair over signs of the presence of humankind within this bucolic realm, from deforestation to pollution of the air and water, which are viewed as a betrayal of humankind’s stewardship of nature: “See the destruction we have caused / Separated from designer, we shattered the design / Parted from our God of order, we live in disorder / Godless, we are loveless” (“Lament With Jeremiah”). Ultimately, however, this collection is full of joyful abandon for the natural world, infusing even seemingly simple scenes with rapturous detail, as when her children follow her husband “across slippery rocks, stopping to explore small pools haunted by hermit crabs and bejeweled by green anemones and purple sea urchins.” Kirk’s choice to intersperse her own drawings along with her writings and Scripture passages offers readers a warm invitation to gaze at images as well as reflect on the text.

An earnest and emotional set of drawings and ecstatic writings.