Scott Cairns -- Reading 4 comments

Someone once said that "a poem should not mean but be." Scott Cairns prefers to have it both ways. He's long believed that poetry should not merely refer to a prior event or experience, but should make meaning in real time through the sacramental power of words. We think he's onto something.

Scott Cairns was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1954. His poetry has been published in Image many times, as well as The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, and The New Republic, and anthologized in Upholding Mystery (Oxford University Press, 1997) and Best Spiritual Writing, 1998 (HarperCollins, 1998). He has taught American literature and creative writing at Kansas State University, Westminster College, University of North Texas, Old Dominion University, and University of Missouri. He lives in Columbia, Missouri with his wife, Marcia Vanderlip, and their two children.

These poems were recorded at the 2007 Glen Workshop.

Bibliography

• Love's Immensity: Mystics on the Endless Life (Paraclete Press, 2007)
• Short Trip to the Edge: Where Earth Meets Heaven—A Pilgrimage (HarperSanFrancisco, 2007)
• Compass of Affection: Poems New and Selected (Paraclete Press, 2006)
• Philokalia (Zoo Press, 2002)
• Recovered Body (George Braziller Inc., 1998)
• The Sacred Place [co-edited with Scott Olsen] (University of Utah Press, 1996)
• Figures for the Ghost (University of Georgia Press, 1994)
• The Translation of Babel (University of Georgia Press, 1990)
• The Theology of Doubt (Cleveland State University Press, 1985)

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