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Poets and Poems: Jeremiah Webster and “After So Many Fires”

By Glynn Young 7 Comments

Sunset Jeremiah Webster After So Many Fires
From the first poem in the collection After So Many Fires by Jeremiah Webster, you know you’ve entered a landscape different from so many contemporary collections. There is no irony, no cast of a jaundiced eye or air of boredom and disillusionment, no personal angst or confession.

Instead, in the poem “Credo,” we discover the immense discomfort of attempting to live a structured life in a world gone mad: “There is the torching: / novels, martyrs, torching / of twenty-one centuries as the world falls apart. / I study my books / as the world falls apart.”

It’s a sense of being a stranger in a strange land, of creating a life in a world that has seemed to have gone mad. It’s a madness that runs through our language, our technology, our culture—all of the things we construct to make sense of the world around us.

With simple language and images, Webster has constructed a collection that resonates over and over again. He juxtaposes nature and technology, mixes faith and hope with stories from the Associated Press, ponders how many whales had to die to provide the oil for the light by which Emily Dickinson wrote her poems, and considers how poets are the only ones who after death remain in their line of earthly work . And fish, and the symbol of fish, become part of the ritual in this brave new world.

Ritual

Webster After So Many FiresIrreligious nets capture silver
tons of icthyoid offspring
like the time I was in London
hearing vespers in a dead language
not knowing what it could mean
to fish or to sing anymore.

I abandon all expectation
as winter crows fly regardless
of food outside my window.
To wait without hope
is not the same as despair.

I wave on my way past the suicides,
listen to the hum of my voice mosey
off into the maples and by the stream,
where all manner of fish shimmer
to remain in their world.

Jeremiah Webster After So Many Fires

Jeremiah Webster

Webster is an associate professor of English at Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington. He received his B.A. and M.I.T. degrees from Whitworth University, an M.F.A. degree from Eastern Washington University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. After So Many Fires is his first collection of poetry. He has also written introductions for collections by T.S. Eliot and William Butler Yeats.

Even with all the madness, Webster still finds hope in this world. After So Many Fires is ultimately a hopeful work, one that understands what light glimmers amid the madness.

Browse more poets and poems

Photo by Jon Bunting, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young, author of the novels Dancing Priest and A Light Shining, and Poetry at Work.

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How to Read a Poem by Tania Runyan How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.

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Glynn Young
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Glynn Young
Editor and Twitter-Party-Cool-Poem-Weaver at Tweetspeak Poetry
Glynn Young lives in St. Louis where he retired as the team leader for Online Strategy & Communications for a Fortune 500 company. Glynn writes poetry, short stories and fiction, and he loves to bike. He is the author of Poetry at Work and the Dancing Priest Series. Find Glynn at Faith, Fiction, Friends.
Glynn Young
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Filed Under: article, book reviews, Books, Hope Poems, Poems, poetry, poetry reviews, Poets

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Comments

  1. Laura Lynn Brown says

    July 25, 2017 at 9:53 am

    “[P]oets are the only ones who after death remain in their line of earthly work.” Hm. Interesting.

    I think I need to read this one. Partly for the presence of fish.

    Reply
    • Bethany R. says

      July 25, 2017 at 1:06 pm

      That line stood out to me too, Laura.

      Do you enjoy fish? 🙂

      Reply
  2. Jim Meals says

    July 25, 2017 at 11:27 am

    This is an excellent review. Jeremiah Webster’s poetry is refreshing because of the total lack of personal angst. Webster has no illusions about the world we live in and yet he remains an optimist. As a result, his poetry has tremendous vitality and more than a touch of humor.

    Reply
    • Bethany R. says

      July 25, 2017 at 1:08 pm

      I’m always looking for humor in my reading (and in life). Glad you pointed that out, Jim. And welcome to the Tweetspeak Poetry community.

      Reply
  3. Glynn says

    July 25, 2017 at 4:09 pm

    I continue to learn that good poetry is being published, and not only by the large publishing houses. I really enjoyed this collection by Webster.

    Reply
  4. Megan Willome says

    July 27, 2017 at 3:41 pm

    “To wait without hope
    is not the same as despair.”

    Really, really like those two lines.

    Reply
    • Katie says

      August 29, 2017 at 4:21 pm

      Glad you pointed out those lines, Megan – I had missed them entirely.
      Much to ponder here. Has set me on another meander through Glynn’s posts and reviews:)

      Reply

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