poems and pictures

This is a small sampling of the poems I have written on the gospels of Matthew and Luke. My aim in these poems is to discover, by imaginative means, what is fresh and surprising in familiar texts. As shown in their titles, each poem addresses a single chapter, or specific verses within a single chapter, of these gospels. References or allusions to other biblical texts, either in the New Testament or in the Hebrew Bible, are frequent. So, in the poem Of Joseph, I allude to the much earlier Joseph presented in Genesis, chapter 37, and in Of Homework I refer to three passages in Deuteronomy, which can easily be tracked down by using an annotated Bible. In the belief that poems remain longer and more firmly in the mind when they appeal to the ear as well, I write in the traditional forms, metrical and rhyming, of English poetry. And, in the spirit of imaginative re-discovery, the poems from Matthew have been illustrated by my son Atticus. My hope is that such poems and pictures will motivate readers to engage anew not just with the gospels but with scripture more widely, in all its variety and power.

OF Joseph

OF homework

Of secrecy

A Counting Rhyme

southbound

About the Author and Illustrator: Once his strictly secular upbringing was over, eight years of manual labor, a Bible as literature course in night school, and sixteen months in southern Mexico brought John Leeds around to seeing things in a different way. He became a Catholic Christian in 1986, at the age of thirty. After graduate school in English, intent on missionary work, he taught the western literary tradition, from the Bible and Homer through John Milton and Mother Goose, to college students for thirty-one years. Shortly before he retired from the academy, the Muse of Christian poetry took him by the collar and said “Look in your heart and write!”. He and his son Atticus share a taste for chivalry, for a good stout castle with a well-appointed chapel, but Atticus expresses this with up-to-date, digital flair. An extensive selection of his artwork and design can be found at https://www.artstation.com/bridge_drake. Together, Atticus and John hope to address the need for a distinctly contemporary religious art.

A Gospel Suite

Poems by John Christopher Leeds Illustrations by Atticus Anthony Leeds