FAITH LOST AND FOUND

Jim Hanson's poems speak to the epic issues of how faith is lost in amaterial and mortal world, and how it can be found through responsesthat are spiritual and worldly as well as religious and… Lue lisää Jim Hanson's poems speak to the epic issues of how faith is lost in amaterial and mortal world, and how it can be found through responsesthat are spiritual and worldly as well as religious and heavenly. Theyfollow the line of paradise lost and gained by John Milton and divinetranscendence by Dante, but with the breadth of perennial philosophy. They recognize that faith is doubtful, perhaps futile, like Sisyphuspushing his rock with great effort and no outcome, oscillating betweenresolution and dissolution, sin and redemption, samsara and nirvana. Is the end another, exalted beginning as promised by T. S. Eliot or thefutility lamented by Sylvia Plath and John Berryman? Perhaps thefinding and losing of faith is an unending process. The poems start with doubt about self and human nature expressed indemons, violence, and residue. They proceed to knowledge soughtstarting 2,500 years ago in the Axial Age, in a dialogue of similarissues then and now, and in the world around us regarding theAnthropic Principle. They go on to posit multicultural responses todoubt and suffering - theistic, Western, and Eastern - then to moreindividual responses of paths to take and of perennial faith to befound. So we all may have some faith in our selves and in thesocial/cultural realm, bio-physical realm, and ideal gods and heavens- some transcendental faith beyond who we are and what we know. Jim Hanson is a sociologist and retired Senior Researcher at SouthernIllinois University-Carbondale. He has taught sociology and communitydevelopment, also has worked in community and economic development. Heis a lay-ordained Zen Buddhist and lives in the St. Louis area withhis wife, Carol. His poetry collections include Endless Journey: Poemsin Search of Meaning published in 2022 by Spartan Press, Perspectives: Educational Poems on the Humanities and Sciences published in 2023 byResource Publications, and Ruminations: Poems on Living and Dyingpublished in 2023 by Cyberwit Press. Single poems have appeared insome thirty websites and printings. He is a member of the and IllinoisState Poetry Society Southern Chapter and St. Louis Poetry Center. BIOJim Hanson is a sociologist and retired Senior Researcher at SouthernIllinois University-Carbondale. He has taught sociology and communitydevelopment, also has worked in community and economic development. Heis a lay-ordained Zen Buddhist and lives in the St. Louis area withhis wife, Carol. His poetry collections include Endless Journey: Poemsin Search of Meaning published in 2022 by Spartan Press, Perspectives: Educational Poems on the Humanities and Sciences published in 2023 byResource Publications, and Ruminations: Poems on Living and Dyingpublished in 2023 by Cyberwit Press. Single poems have appeared insome thirty websites and printings. He is a member of the and IllinoisState Poetry Society Southern Chapter and St. Louis Poetry Center.