Fred Redekop

A Review of Paperback: Paraclete Press, 2023 Buy Now: [ BookShop ] [ Amazon ] [ Kindle ] Reviewed by Fred Redekop Diane Woodcock is an accomplished and award winning poet. She begins Holy Sparks with a poem, The Ecopoets Prayer, telling us what she is going to write about in this book. She calls herself an ecopoet, and invites us into this world with her preface poem. I found it strange to begin by telling us the orientation of her poems and perspective.

“Fear Not “ is what the angel of the Lord says to Mary, Joseph and Zechariah. When angels show up in the lives of biblical characters, the angels are frightening. These angels that came to announce strange births are scary things. Zechariah and Elizabeth are not prepared for it because they are old. Mary and Joseph are young and not yet married. Of course they are afraid, but they all respond, eventually, in positive ways and actions. In recent political campaigns there has been fear used as a tactic.

I love the CBC. I like their radio better than their television. Two radio segments that I really love are IDEAS and UNDER THE INFLUENCE . IDEAS is about  anything and everything. They host the annual Massey lectures, that are about a current issue, and delivered by a Canadian. UNDER THE INFLUENCE  is about marketing and business. Much about what is discussed has relevance to the church, and how it is struggling at this point of its history. There are many more shows I really enjoy on CBC Radio.