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Glory in the Margins

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I loved this book of poems that Nikki Grimes created to go with weekly sermons. I love how she uses her poetry to look at biblical passages from different viewpoints. I love her turns of phrases and moments when she makes me stop and think. As in any poetry collection, I didn't like all of the poems but I always loved the glimpses of grace that shined through Grimes' words. A book to dip into again and again.

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This book is full of absolutely beautiful poems that go with the themes of the Sunday morning lectionary. I love the fresh perspective and vibrancy these poems lend to familiar themes of the liturgical year, and can't wait to weave some of these into liturgies soon!

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Glory in the Margins was a fresh air of poems. It touched my heart and made a home there. ❤

Nikki Grimes knows how to write beautiful poems and I just loved it.

Thank you so much, NetGalley for giving me an Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was such a beautiful treat to read. ☺🙏🏾

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Glory in the Margins
Sunday Poems
by Nikki Grimes
Pub Date 28 Sep 2021
Paraclete Press, Iron Pen
Christian | Poetry | Religion & Spirituality



I am reviewing a copy of Glory in the Margins through Paraclete Press, Iron Pen and Netgalley:



If you study the scripture you learn Jesus spent a lot of time with people in the margins. As an African American, Nikki Grimes lives in the margins, and she can tell you that it's a place most of us would rather not be. And yet, she knows there is always glory to be found in the margins because of the Lord’s presence in, and with us.






Nikki Grimes job as Poet Laureate of Grace Brethren Church in Southern California, is to distill the heart of the weeks sermon into a poem. She delves into each week’s chosen scripture, viewing it from her own perspective as Black, as woman, as poet, she’s always a little left of center and looks for the glory found in the margins of text as well as in the margins of life. She reminds the readers that no one imagines that God might speak through those in the Margins.




I give Glory in the Margins five out of five SRAMs!



Happy Reading!

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Nikki Grimes has once again found words to inspire, teach, and bless. Her poetry speaks to the heart of issues and highlights the glory found in the smallest of places. She is bold in her stand for right and perceptive as she views the world in the light of Scripture. I will be purchasing this book!

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Thank you Nikki Grimes for this inspiring collection of poetry.! These Christian poems are perfect for sharing on Sunday mornings or for private edification. Glory in the Margins was enjoyable for a quick read, but each of the poems should also be savored one at a time and meditated upon. As a minister's wife I could envision these poems being shared in worship or discussed in prayer groups. I have always enjoyed Nikki's ability to tell a story through poetry and now I feel like I know her heart a little better.

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First sentence: When was the last time you heard the words poem and pulpit in the same sentence?

Nikki Grimes newest poetry book is a collection of one hundred poems inspired by the Word. She writes, "As a person of faith with a reverence for the Holy Word of God, I also understand that God welcomes, and even invites, the honest questions of his children, and so I come to the Word with an open heart, bringing my questions with me. As I climb into the skins of the men and women I encounter in Scripture, I try to look at the world through their eyes, asking the hard questions of God that they must have asked, seeking the same solace, wisdom, inspiration, and guidance they must have sought..."

The poems are arranged by month--thirteen months in all. January through another January. There are a handful of poems per month. Enough to cover all the Sundays within a given month for sure.

I would say most poems are tied directly to a Scripture. (Not all poems do. That doesn't mean the ones without are less biblical, less inspired by the Word of God, they are just more general.)

The poems often encourage readers to slow down and process--perhaps meditate is the better word for the religious context. Scriptures can be rushed through--passing in and right back out again. But reading these poems can help you slow down, unpack, really tune in. It isn't so much that the poems are absolutely necessary for this practice of reading the Bible. But it's a practice, a discipline, that perhaps many don't make time for in their busy lives.

The poems point readers straight to Scripture. The poems aren't trying to take the place of Scripture.

I read through the book in one sitting. I would probably advise readers to savor the book more slowly. Definitely make time to look up the Scriptures. The book definitely has a devotional vibe.

I have a handful of favorites from this collection. I will not share any poem in its entirety. Just a brief stanza or possibly two from each that I called FAVORITE.

From The Bright Side of Repentance:

Webster has got it wrong this time,
Repentance is not
feeling regret
although we may.
Repentance is action. It's that dirty
little six letter word
we have all heard
and wish we hadn't:
Change.

From One Cookie Leads To Another

Intense hunger
is a scream in the belly
piercing you from the inside out
demanding attention
the sorry state
forty days of fasting
will leave you in.
It is good to remember that hunger
carries no shame
but how we fill ourselves
may well be up for review.
If we knew
God was watching
how often would our hands
disappear inside those
cookie jars labeled
Do Not Touch?

From Safe Deposit

Stress is a word
life teaches us to spell.
We are all well-acquainted
with worry
that wicked worm
that eats us
from the inside out.

From Worth

We owe him skin and bone
heart and breath
for deleting eternal death
from our stories.
Our talents, our tithes
our bodies
as living sacrifices--
is anything too much
to surrender?
Ask Judas
whose cold coins failed to satisfy
his soul.

From Petition

To intercede is to plead with God
on behalf of another
slipping on another's skin
standing beneath the canopy
of another's sin
and asking the inventor of mercy
to forgive us both.
....
To go before him
we must first agree.
Then it is on us to recall
the very nature of this Holy Father,
his splendor, his might,
his glorious grace
proven through the ages.
Only then are we prepared
to pray for another
groaning with as much passion
as we would summon for ourselves.

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