Where God Is at Home: Poems of God's Word and World, Illuminated by the Message

Because Franciscan Sister Irene Zimmerman is about to fill that chair with poetic images of God from both the Word and the World, her verses illuminated by passages from Eugene Peterson s The Message and photos by Trappist Father James Behrens. I began to experience something of the God-Mystery on the Iowa farm where I grew up, Sister Irene explains. Breezes rustled the drying corn or moved across fragrant hay fields. Plants rooted, sprouted, bloomed, gave fragrance in spring and food in autumn in the form of apples, cherries, peaches, potatoes. The animals sharing the turf with me offered eggs, milk, butter, meat. They used their unique voices they peeped, clucked, crowed, squawked, chirped, mewed, barked, mooed, whinnied, snorted to tell me of God s creativity, generosity, humor, beauty. Sister Irene Zimmerman has learned to see like sun, as she prays at the end of her poem Solar Graffiti. If I could learn to see like sun I too would move around the world, drawing peace on every wall till earth was one. And now she shares that experience with all of us.