In her essay “Catholic Novelists and Their Readers,” Flannery O’Connor explains that a Catholic novelist “doesn’t have to be a saint; he doesn’t even have to be a Catholic; he does, unfortunately, have to be a novelist.” Similarly, in Presence, the poems, first and foremost, must be “good poems.”  Regardless of whether they include explicitly established Catholic doctrines, they must remain true to the laws of the natural world in order to convey the supernatural one.  The extended metaphor of the weathered “sea chest” in Monica Silva’s poem “Lock and Hasp” (Presence 2023) is a great example of a poem’s remaining true to the physical world in order to convey spiritual meaning—the resiliency of the human spirit.  In this poem, the speaker carefully describes the physical “parts / of the key: throating, collar, shank—” as well as the way that the key allows her to “[r]elease / the hasp” and “[l]ift the lid to reveal the light / and fully give in, outshine the darkness.” Finding her spiritual strength is “believable” because the act of unlocking was conveyed in such a “believable” way.
                                                            —Vidur Khanal

When exploring themes of war and suffering, some poems seem to stray away from hope and happiness.  Still I found that, although pessimistic on the surface, the featured translations of Ukrainian poems in Presence 2023 contain an underlying triumphant attitude toward death.  Mykhayl Semenko’s 1917 poem “Patagonia,” translated by Ella Yevtushenko with Gregory Orfalea, conveys a youthful passion for living life to the fullest, right to the moment of death: “I will die in the pause, when my heart rushes / With life, with my youth and with our fight.”  While it is hard to find light in Semenko’s tragic life story as a prisoner of war and his execution, his poem refuses to allow thoughts of death to kill the vibrancy of life. The speaker appears to face death without fear because of the underlying Catholic assumption that a physical death does not mean an end to life: “I will not die from death— / It is from life that I will die.”  The poets in Presence use their medium not just to express humanity’s pains, but to offer a glimpse of redemption.
                                                          —Gaurav Tiwari 

The poems in Presence invite readers to come closer to God and create a personal relationship with Him. The poem “Spit” by John Hodgen in Presence 2023 prompts readers to question their actions that might damage their relationship with God.  In “Spit,” the speaker spits on a lion at a zoo while he is with his friends because he wants to impress them—“so everyone would think [he] was funny.”  The speaker is looking back on this moment when he was in the eighth grade and reflecting that he was not “a decent person.”  The lion becomes a symbol of God who is King of all, “old, / selfless, never flinching, never looking at [him], / never moving at all . . .” Although the speaker spits on the lion, the King does not seek vengeance, but rather remains calm, even forgiving, and this is what leads the speaker to begin to feel guilty. The poem ends with the speaker feeling “as if [he] were lonely / Daniel in a darkened den of lions,” yet unscathed because God has been “standing guard.” He imagines that God is “all alone” with “his eye on [him].” Overall, this poem highlights the importance of remembering that God loves and cares for each of us individually and that we grow closer to God by recognizing not only our own guilt but also God’s forgiveness and love for us.
                                                            —Ashley Gonzalez

Many of the poems in Presence are truly personal and seem to reflect the poet’s own spiritual journey as well as moments of insight and grace.  Julia Snyder’s poem “Circumspect” in Presence 2023 is a self-examining poem in which the speaker reflects on the “bitter” consequences of “forgetting” to use “tact” when speaking to others. To become a more spiritual person involves circumspection, “seeing around the corner / is remembering to look / for visions bending their way / toward you.”
                                                            —Jacques du Plooy

What sets Christian poetry apart from other poetry the world has to offer? It is the simple fact that Christ dwells in the hearts of the poets and within the poetry itself.  David wrote most of the Psalms in the Old Testament and shows us a prime example of poetry that tells of a man’s nature in all of its grime but yet always points us back to the realities of God’s contrasting character.  Skip Renker’s poem, called simply “Prayer,” in Presence 2023 reminds me of this same raw conversation with God that David once had.   It is a very small prayer, but it is an honest one. He says simply, “If only I could hear / you as easily as I hear / the three clear notes / / of the faraway / mourning dove. Fly / closer, bird-God. Perch / / on a visible branch.” He wants to hear the voice and guidance of God and invites God to draw closer to him.  So close that His presence is undeniably there. Visible. I encourage poets and all writers to ponder God’s character for the whole world to be blessed by what they read.  Your story, your experiences with God should glorify God, should reflect His principles, His standards because that is what God desires. Offer something sweeter; something upside down; something against the grain; something fresh in this dark, hopeless world because we can only release what is within us. What you have is the Holy Spirit living within you, transforming your minds and hearts.
                                                            —Adelin Figueroa

One of the best parts of Presence is that it values inclusivity by welcoming translations from many countries.  Presence 2023 contains a feature on Ukrainian poets translated by Ella Yevtushenko with Gregory Orfalea.  Yevtushenko was born and raised in Kyiv. In her own poem “After Making Love,” the speaker is making dinner and wondering why Russians want to kill Ukrainians.  This poem makes readers question the malevolence of others and the purpose of our existence. It basically asks why common people who have personally done nothing wrong to the Russians must suffer the consequences of war. Finally “after making love,” she understands that the hate the Russians have toward Ukrainians comes from not wanting any of them to exist at all—“they wish that everyone in our pot ceased to exist / that a wave of history wash us from the Earth . . .” —and implies that Ukrainians exist “in spite of” the Russians’ “will” because of God’s will. Yevtushenko is fully aware that she will “disappear one day,” but because God has allowed her to live, she will leave behind this poem as a memory of her existence. Even through the terrible times she is facing and her frustrations as she contemplates the burden of her existence on the Russians, she comes to the realization that her existence cannot be diminished.  This poem reminds us that it is difficult finding a purpose when others wish malice upon you, yet you must remember that you are still wanted by God.
                                                            —Ashley Guzman 

In his article “The Catholic Writer, Then and Now,” Gregory Wolfe responds to Dana Gioia’s “The Catholic Writer Today” by choosing as his take-off point Gioia’s definition of “culture as a conversation that a community has with itself.” Wolfe tells us that he is going to “add his voice to the chorus.”  It is just this “conversation” or “chorus” that Presence Journal also “adds to” with the publication of each issue. The voices in the poems of Presence are very individual, showing us the different ways that God speaks to each one of us, but at the same time, there is an overarching sense that all of the voices are also members of the same “community” in “conversation” with each other.
                                                           —Tyler Dukevicz

The earth is a chaotic place, full of struggles both external with the environment and internal with lacking faith or facing moral challenges.  The Catholic poems in Presence often guide readers to seek solace, redemption or transformation through faith in God.  Andrew Calis’s “Settling the Storm” in Presence 2023 explores the chaos within humans.  Humans constantly struggle with the unknown outside themselves and the unknown within themselves as well. Without addressing God directly, Calis’s speaker implies through biblical allusion that God has the power to bring order to all forms of chaos: “Still me as you stilled the wild sea.”  The poet hopes that with God he will be able to “soar up toward the sky,” evoking imagery of spiritual ascent and closeness to the Divine.  Many poems in Presence look to God to bring peace.
                                                            —Sujan Thapa

Poems in Presence 2023 often emphasize the importance of paying full attention to the natural world.  These “Catholic poems,” however, do not choose to follow only the beauty of the natural world, but also its harshness.  “It’s 6 a.m.” by Lorraine Healy draws readers’ attention to some small and seemingly ignored parts of nature that she notices when driving to work early in the morning, such as the “blue fog” between the “daffodils” and the “wettest light” that “circles and plods / on canals, ditches, runoffs.”  Afterward, she calls out those who do not pay attention to these details of nature: “boys who retreat into their hoods, / / girls plugged into phones. / That is their real.”  Healy points out the beauty of the natural world and calls our attention to the need to reform our sense of reality. Mankind has become too infatuated with itself and now has lost sight of the beauty of the world, which should inspire us to “wonder,” possibly about its source or its creator. Unlike “It’s 6 a.m.,” “Dispirited” by Eric Potter calls our attention to the absence of beauty in his surroundings: the “weeds” that “have taken over” his “yard”; the “local birds” that are “lice-infested” rather than “blithe spirits.”  The whole poem flirts with the idea of trying to see the natural world as providing us with metaphors for coming to know God but calls this attempt into question: “I have no mountain, / shrouded or un-shrouded / by fog like some metaphor / / of absence and presence. / No one’s absconded, / not even God himself.”  While each poem has a different attitude toward the beauty of nature, they both invite us to consider the value of the natural world for leading us toward faith in God, its Creator.
                                                          —Tilak Datta 

“Catholic poetry” does not limit itself to one theme; rather the authors of Presence write about many topics, including birth, death, surviving a war, and the beauty of the natural world.  Depicting the harshness of humanity even while maintaining hope in the human spirit is featured in Presence 2023.  Ella Yevtushenko’s translation of Ukrainian poet Vasyl Stus’s poem “Plant a Tree” illustrates, on the surface, how planting a garden can bring beauty to a prison when the plants grow over and conceal the “barbed wire” and the prisoners.  The speaker states: “Bindweed crept, / blaring pale horns of tenderness. / Near the fence irises, peonies, and dahlias blossomed so / one’s eyes were captured.”  Although the sharpness of the bindweed’s horns is acknowledged, the poem also reminds us there is a tenderness to them as well. This tenderness of nature in the poem invites readers to have hope in the human spirit despite the irony that the observer-speaker notes in the end—that the plants merely conceal the fence, that the “barbed wire was still there,” that the presence of nature does not change the incarceration. Presence gives readers like myself the chance to read and connect with poets and translators from other countries. The diversity of nationalities, personalities, and perspectives shows readers how to find God’s grace in everyday activities, including looking into a garden, being a part of a conversation, dreaming a dream, even dancing.
                                                            —Kaitlyn Kida

Coming from a Catholic background, I sometimes take for granted that interpreting scripture and even literature will lead us to a strong faith and right action.  But reading poems in Presence 2023 disrupted this perspective.  Tom Furlong’s poem “Civil Unrest” challenged me to think about what I would do if I were to encounter “the darkness that dwells / in the heart of a man.”  Until I become the “hunted,” would I ever fully “understand” how “fear” could “inflame” me to a level of violence?  And would I allow that “fear” to cause me to adopt a “kill or be killed” mentality? Would I “turn” the “other cheek,” if I knew that it would only be met with a “club in the hand”?
                                                          —Michael Cruz

Even without explicitly referring to biblical stories, the poems in Presence often remind us of various passages from scripture through the contemporary narratives they present to us. The speaker in Susan L. Miller’s poem “PTSD” (Presence 2023) sketches out the fearfulness in her life following a horrific car accident: “silence engendered terror,” so she avoided being “alone with [her] thoughts” whenever possible, “tap[ing] prayer cards” to the inside of her “cabinet door” to occupy her mind while washing dishes, for example.  But despite her best efforts, everything she encountered “for a full year” almost paralyzed her trust in God. “Then one day coming around the corner,” she saw the aftermath of a bicycle accident on the sidewalk, and everything cleared when she found that her family and friends, “all of [her] people were safe.”  Ironically, the absence of biblical references reminds us to trust in God almost more than God’s explicit presence would have.  This poem bore out for me in a very contemporary story the following biblical passage from Proverbs 3:6: “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your path.”
                                                          —Tiabu Lewis 

If you ask me what “Catholic poetry” is, the first thing I would say is that I don’t have a definitive answer to your question.  But what I can say is that “Catholic poetry” is a way for poets to express, even struggle with, how they experience God in their lives.  When reading the poems in Presence 2023, I noticed that in many poems, the speakers tell their “stories” in a very realistic way.  In other words, readers believe that the occurrences in them really happened.  I believe this style fulfills Flannery O’Connor’s charge to Catholic writers to “make belief believable.”  Take, for example, Barbara Crooker’s poem, “Walker Canyon,” where in the very first line, the speaker tells us that “it’s three pm, and shadows are lengthening. / We are called to contemplate that death / and impermanence are part of life.” Not only do these opening lines grab my attention, but they suggest that the speaker might be struggling with the death of a loved one and maybe even with her belief in our soul’s permanence beyond this world. She goes on to describe her experience when she and her husband visited this canyon during the “2019 poppy super bloom”: the “hills exploded in poppies”; the “butterflies floated across the trail”; the “people were picnicking”; her husband took a “short video” that she “just found on [her] phone.”  All these realistic details make her grief and her desire for permanence instead of “all of this impermanence” real.
                                                          —Marialis Nunez 

The main objective of Presence is to show a wide variety of ways God’s presence is communicated to and experienced by poets and readers.  Readers get the most out of any poem in this journal by looking at the poems through the lens of belief in God. I believe the poems resonate with many readers because of the universal feelings and experiences conveyed in them.  One of the Ukrainian poems by Vasyl Stus and translated by Ella Yevtushenko with Gregory Orfalea “Endure, Endure” is a good example of a poem that is meaningful for all human beings because endurance is inevitably needed by all of us in life. The speaker gives advice to readers that is salvific for the soul by urging the human spirit not to lose hope: refrain from being “cruel,” follow a “path” that “is sure,” “stick to your hopes.” In other words, when your path is the right one, you can follow it by preserving your own individuality or autonomy in life.
                                                            —Laura Vasquez

The poets in Presence interpret their faith through their writing.  They look upon their faith with love, humor and sadness; they struggle with grief and difficult truths and remind us of what unifies us.  They remind us of our humanity.  Many of the poems are remembrances of past events or of a person.  Some are looking back on a set of beliefs held in childhood.  These poets write of the influence their childhood faith had upon them as adults and of how their beliefs have evolved.  There is regret, wonderment and resolve, as in Maryann Corbett’s poem “A Late Regret” in Presence 2022, which begins, “This is a strange arrival: / I am now as bad a Catholic as my father.” The poet, instructed by the nuns at school, grows up fearful of her father’s disregard for Church rules.  In the fourth stanza, she confesses in a very relatable way for many of us who have been raised Catholic: “Now I, too, pick and choose. / I lean away from this or that hard teaching / but still stand near, in love / with certain kinds of loveliness . . .”  And I know just what she means.  All poetry is personal and brings the reader closer to what they have known.
—Laura Osborne

Some of the poems in Presence help us see how the grace of God can come to us through the beauty of the natural world.  With its splendid imagery, Lois Marie Harrod’s poem “Cardinals in Snow” (Presence 2022) focuses on two small birds, one “a small flame;” the other, “fire tip and tinge.”  Harrod’s minimal language allows readers to imagine these red cardinals, striking in color, standing out against the white of the snow “trying to warm / the sun.”  Her brief conclusion—“I have known / Pentecosts like these”—brings us closer to God by reveling in the beauty of nature and thinking about the Holy Spirit empowering the disciples and us with God’s grace.
—Brandon Villari

Like the Incarnation itself, “Catholic poems” embody human spirituality and give us concrete ways to experience faith. They also can lead us to praise God for all that God has created and to be grateful for these gifts.  Many of the poems in Presence could be described as prayers of praise.  A poem that I have read and have even suggested as a substitute for prayer during family dinners is Michael Stalcup’s “Appled Things” in Presence 2022.  The whole demeanor of this adaptation of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poem “Dappled Things” is to praise God and all that God has made for us.  The opening lines are, “Glory be to God for appled things— / for gardens dappled rich with reds and greens; / for brimming baskets; memories of Fall.”  These lines show much gratitude for the season of Fall and all the festivities and changes that come with it.  Throughout the poem, there is a personalized tone that paints a picture of bowed heads and a strong projected voice giving thanks to God in that very moment.  This prayer ends with gratitude “for family’s faces—gathered, pied, and peaced; / small sips of cider from the coming feast: / Praise him.” 
—Zahnayaha Malone
 

The “Catholic poetry” journal Presence truly captures what it means to have a greater Presence than ourselves in our daily lives.  Although some may find divine power operating only in religious practice, the Holy Spirit can work through any means and is within us all.  A great example of a poem that finds the Spirit in the daily is Alfonso “Sito” Sasieta’s “Salsa Dura,” where Sasieta takes salsa, a style of music and emblem of his cultural upbringing, and infuses it with spirituality: “& I know what Merton says / but I say / that God is montuno / upon montuno upon / montuno / & this brash & scrappy sound / that you hear is the wrath / in our music, which is / (& you may not understand this) / a kind of mercy.”   I believe that Sasieta finds God embodied in the physical sounds of authentic salsa music, which is why he wants to preserve it from degenerating into a lesser form.  Salsa music also creates a community in which God’s presence can be experienced.  I grew up in a Hispanic household where my dad would play Latin music, including salsa, to wake us up.  I grew up going to parties where salsa was played and everyone danced on “the linoleum floor” and smelled “like a gallon of cologne.” Music is a universal language that has the power to bring everyone from all over the world together.  Much like music, Presence draws in everyone and encourages readers to form their own authentic responses to the poems based on their experiences and beliefs.
—Jacquelyn Gualpa

Often the poems in Presence look forward to a reunion between the deceased and the living.  Priscilla Orr’s poem “Moonbow Elegy” in Presence 2022 elicits emotions of longing for someone lost.  The beautiful imagery of the “lunar rainbow” persuades readers to view death in a non-intimidating manner. Although their souls have left their breathing bodies, those who are deceased have not necessarily ceased to exist.  Orr’s simplicity of language provides fluid movement, as if we are the ones walking through the “Cumberland Falls trail.”  We can almost feel the “mist” against our “arms” that is meant to impart the feeling of an embrace from the one we have lost as we stare into the “arc of white” that represents Heaven opening its gates to us.  We not only revel in the beauty of nature but feel our loved one’s presence.  Despite trying to capture the moonbow with her camera, she “waits” with faith, without seeking proof.  She lives in the moment because for those brief seconds, nothing else seems to matter, and I think that’s what’s most important about “Catholic poetry”—that “belief” never needs to be proven.
—Amanda Mestre

Presence Journal guides us to find God’s presence in our own lives.  It serves as a gateway for expressing our joy, sadness, regret, grief, anxiety and much more.  Presence makes us feel how blessed we are: there is a hand to uplift us every time, every time we feel we cannot survive.  And above all, Presence makes us ask questions—questions about ourselves, questions about faith, questions about everything we do, questions that generate a great thirst in us for the ultimate gift of God—Peace.  Who am I?  Why am I here? Where do I belong?
—Sujata Sah

“Catholic poetry” is about the essence of faith through human experience. As Flannery O’Connor states, the Catholic writer, “doesn’t have to be a saint; he doesn’t even have to be Catholic.” Although I don’t identify as Catholic myself, I have come to realize that I share a lot of the same values as some of the poets found in Presence 2021. There are themes such as hopefulness, overcoming struggles, and finding joy in life’s simplicities, that can be relatable regardless of one’s religious background. One of my favorite poems in Presence 2021 is “When I Loved Donuts” by Jimmy Long. This poem spoke to me because it acknowledges some fears I myself have as a senior in college. Long is honest about how adulthood can sometimes feel mundane and miserable. He talks about his own experience in the workforce, “stocking / grocery shelves, bursting tomato sauce jars / to a spill I thought was blood in the daze / of three a.m.” He clings to a memory of himself at a young age, enjoying the delicious taste of a glazed donut in the “church hall,” shortly after having “tongued” the “blessed bread”: “I swallowed moist / mouthfuls . . . / let sugar dissolve me back / to age nine.”  Long’s experience scares me, but I think that is what makes it so beautiful. I am reminded that I am not alone in my personal struggles because I am able to understand his raw emotion. Entering adulthood can be intimidating, and I too find myself clinging to my favorite memories in hopes that I can freeze myself in time.
                                                                        —Samantha Ashton

In Flannery O’Connor’s essay, “Catholic Novelists and Their Readers,” she gives the following advice to writers:  “But the writer, in order best to use the talents he has been given, has to write at his own intellectual level. For him to do anything else is to bury his talents.  This doesn't mean that, within his limitations, he shouldn't try to reach as many people as possible, but it does mean that he must not lower his standards to do so.” In “Catholic poetry,” poets will remain true to their vision and tell the story that they want to tell, not the story they think someone wants to hear. The poem “Coming Out the Other Side of Winter” by Cindy Veach is a good example of going against the reader’s expectation. In the poem, Veach is explaining how she has lost her faith and has doubts about God.  Some readers when reading this poem may be opposed to her speaker’s struggle with faith because they believe we should put our trust in God.  However, it is the reader’s job to be open to a different perspective and take in the piece of work even if it’s not what they are traditionally used to.  Veach went against this norm and wrote what was in her heart, which in my eyes makes her a very good poet. When Catholic writers are creating their work, they should only focus on their imagination and the story they want to tell; they should not think about other people’s opinions.
                                                                        —Jada Mentor

“Catholic poems” are often elegies, poems that deal with the loss of someone in death.  Sue Fagalde Lick’s poem “Dashboard Jesus” in Presence 2021 is about suffering the loss of both parents. The speaker talks about how Jesus has watched over her parents through their bumpy journeys. Yet the poem reveals more about the speaker’s relationship with God than her parents’ relationship with Him. The poem begins, “I’m holding Jesus in my hand,” showing her untapped potential relationship with Him. Then, she tells us that after her parents “died,” their dashboard Jesus “was left behind / to molder in the big blue Ford / as it rusted, battery dead, tires flat.”  The ending of this poem makes a strong impact on the reader by asking questions that remain unanswered: “What do I do with Jesus now? / Sacred Heart mission, the bottom says. / Is His mission done or just begun?” I feel like here she is referring to how her own past relationship with God has decayed and how she's now going to change it after thinking about her parents’ legacy of faith.                                                                      
—Ryan Naturale

I don’t believe that “Catholic poems” should be defined simply as just any poems with bible verses or that mention “God” or “Jesus.” Catholic poems can include anything. In Presence 2021, one of the featured translated poems, “Those Childhood Toys,” written by Shahnaz Rasheed and translated by Ashaq Hussain Parray, doesn’t specifically mention anything remotely Catholic until the last few lines: “How can I show him threads of the rosary / that lost each bead one after another?” I love the imagery in this poem. The author uses many descriptive words, such as “my mother’s pearl draped neckline” or “Baba’s twelve-ribbed umbrella,” that truly make readers reminisce about their own childhood.  Pervading this poem is an overwhelming sense of the adult speaker’s struggle with the loss of his mother and Baba and a longing to return to his origin: “Today, after a long time, the child / in me woke up, / looking for the same toys in the lawn[.]”  Like this poem, Catholic poems often contain an underlying sense of longing to return to one’s origins, seen explicitly in the longing for childhood joys, but implying a longing to return to our divine origin as well.
—Gabrielle Oliveira

One of the most fundamental and important concepts in making a “Catholic poem” is to always stay within the limits of the natural world. We have to respect the idea that God has given us this world and that placing a poem in a supernatural setting would cause us to lose sight of the holiness within the human world as well. In “Pyx,” John Martone inspires multiple reflections upon the mystery of the Eucharist by focusing our attention on a physical object, the pyx, which is a small container that is used for carrying the Body of Christ: “It’s empty now. / It’s my body.” That’s it. Two simple sentences. Six simple concrete words. But this small, two-lined poem raises many theological questions:  Could it be talking about being one with the body of Jesus Christ? Or could it be talking about the body being free of sin? Or could it be about numb feelings, and how empty the world feels today? There are plenty of interpretations, but the one constant about those interpretations is that readers are invited to find a connection between Christ’s body and the physical reality of their own flesh and blood.
                                                                        —Brian Prelich

“Catholic poems” remind us that beauty can be found in the darkness even when it seems not to be present.  In Presence 2021, V. P. Loggins’ “Nothing” attempts to give us a “portrait of Nothing”: “Not the night sky without a star, / surely, for even darkness is / more than the absence of light, / as dark energy and matter are / / detected but never fully seen.”  Shanna Powlus Wheeler even explores the beauty of the electron microscope images of the coronavirus: “True to your Latin name, your little suns rise, crown / the hills of our velvety cells.”  Finding beauty in the cause of human suffering strengthens our faith when we unite this suffering with the crown of “thorns that pierced the One / who took our fear.”  Wheeler’s poem reminds us that our suffering is beautiful and ennobling if we unite it with Christ’s suffering, undergone out of love for us so that we do not have to fear death.
—Christiana Santos

I find it rather ironic that I am so drawn to the poems in Presence that are about death.  While it is often an uncomfortable topic, I feel it is important to come to an acceptance that death is inevitable and to stop being afraid of death.   One of my favorite passages from Presence 2020 is the concluding stanza of “Compass Rose,” an elegy written in memory of Marie Ponsot by Susan L. Miller: “There is so much I can’t say now. / But as you are not here to say it, / in remembrance of you, I will begin.”  This poem ends with a beginning: the speaker seems to be so overcome with emotion and grief and yet is resolved to proceed and be strong for her loved one because her loved one no longer can.  This poem really resonates with so many people in religious and non-religious ways since everyone suffers loss and everyone has to keep the memory of their loved ones alive while they cannot be here to do it for themselves.

                                                            —Anastasia Anderson

What I love about the poems in Presence 2020 is how much they evoke multiple interpretations from their readers.  While Gloria Heffernan’s poem “Prayer in the Detergent Aisle” appears on the surface to be a light-hearted, humorous prayer asking God to grant her a clean spirit, it ends on a note that could spur readers toward more complex meditation:  “Remind us with each Gain / that You are the source / of All.” These lines not only made me think about God as the source of all the good things that happen to me, but they also led me to ask then who is the source of the bad.

                                                            —Keyla Crespo

Presence 2020 introduced me to poems with a strong sense of the complexity of loving and forgiving another person.  Carolyne Wright’s “I Forgive” depicts a situation in which the speaker seems to be grappling with regret at not loving another person enough to allow that person to undergo punishment that might stop his violent actions.  Many people cannot see the toxicity in a relationship as they are blinded by love.  This poem has helped me view love and forgiveness differently.  The desire to forgive another does not necessarily mean protecting them from the consequences of their bad actions.

                                                            —Leal Almodovar

The “Catholic poems” in Presence invite us to understand Catholicism and God in a contemporary language that helps to ensure that a newer generation can be appreciative of the symbolic meanings behind each work.  As a fellow Catholic, I find that the many poems in Presence remind me of how my faith is integrated, not just in church but in common acts of life.  The poems help nourish my faith in and love for God and are so helpful when I may think all is lost.  My discovery of Presence has been due to my participation in this Journal Editing class, and it has been a very spiritual experience.

                                                            —Johnny Villacis

I personally do not read much, but when I give poems a chance, I see just how much meaning a little poem can have.  A “good poem” can get us to think.  The first poem I read from Presence 2020 was “Flannery’s Misfit” by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell.  The following lines really made me think about life itself through thinking about death: “I’ve yet to meet any living soul / whose disposition wouldn’t be / improved by a sit-down with brother death.”  These lines made me see that I do not want to wait until something happens to me to change how I live.  That is the kind of poem I want to see in Presence—poems that get us to think, poems that can change someone’s point of view in life.

                                                            —Andres Terrero

Presence is living proof that you do not need to be sitting in a pew to find God.  The poems in this journal show everyday people beside whom God is walking, even if they cannot see Him.  Now as a godmother, I strive to show my godson that we can find God in our daily routine--as the poems in Presence 2019 suggest--in a grade-school lunchroom, a high-rise building, a university garden, a cruise ship, even in a Starbuck’s.

                                                                                   --Brittany Patten

Presence allows us to understand God in a language that we’ll never get from a church.  The poems speak in contemporary language, which allows them to be understood easily.  They tell stories about the experiences of others with the divine and help us build our own spiritual or physical relationship with God.  I never thought such short and light poems could hold so much weight.  The poems keep our minds pondering and searching for more faith.

                                                                                    --Dajuan Carr

Bridging the gap between the contemporary world and faith is an integral part of Presence.  A humorous example of a poem that connects a writer’s faith with the contemporary world is Debra Bruce’s “Sister Edward’s Luncheon Blessing.”  In this poem, the speaker looks back on herself as a young Catholic schoolgirl who finds that her mother had packed her a “turkey sandwich on a meatless Friday.”  What is ingenious about this poem is Bruce’s ability to make the situation humorous by the presence of Sister Edward when one thinks of how nuns back in the day were seen as strict.  The school lunchroom setting is contemporary, while Sr. Edward helps the girl understand that some acts are not sins, but mistakes.

                                                                                    --Billy Burns

The poems in Presence have helped me view life differently.  They remind me that the people whom I have “lost” to death are still with me spiritually, as in Rita Simmonds’ “You Can’t Take the Dead,” which talks about how we can’t take photos of the dead, but they live on in the memories that correspond to the photos we have taken of them.  Nicholas Samaras’s “Afterlife” talks about the choices we make when alive and the regret that can follow those choices in the afterlife.  It encourages us to embrace the good because, after death, we will find that “we became what we embraced back” in life.

                                                                                    --Nisly Baez

Every section of Presence has poems that invite us to recognize God’s presence in every situation, no matter good or bad.  In Presence 2019, there is a separate section where poets memorialize the dead.  Reading those poems makes us think about our losses and about how God helps us in those rough times.  I found the poems helped me become more engaged in my faith and even more peaceful.

                                                                                    --Sarim Hussain

Presence reminds us that everyone’s spiritual journey is not the same: some may struggle with their faith in God for their whole lives, while others may find peace.  One poem in particular, “Cardboard Dream” by Rafael Alcides and translated by Pablo Medina, is set in Castro’s communist regime in Cuba and conveys the violence, hunger and terror caused by Castro’s army through the unique metaphor of “termites” that leave “a hole / where love and hope should be,” and, by extension, where faith in God could flourish.   Ironically, the speaker, who appears to lack hope, ends by speaking to God in prayer: “Between the horror and the tears / of waking, I am speaking to you, Lord, / under the sawdust.”  Similarly, many poems in Presence use irony to show humans grappling with faith, yet by doing so they leave open its possibility.

                                                                                    --Bianca Caruso

Imagine walking down a hallway full of doors, earbuds in and music loud, creating a barrier between you and the outside world.  Behind one of those doors lies a persistent whisper, but it is veiled by the loud music playing.  This whisper is God’s voice, badgering the soul until it breeches us like David’s harp to Saul.  He tries to reveal His presence to us, even when we have a barrier up.  The poems in Presence help us to find God, as long as we decide to seek out the voice.  As Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to me and I will answer you.”  The poems are the doorways to the calling, and inside each poem God is answering the knock.  But the first step is to escape the loudness of the world and listen for His presence.

                                                                                    --Sabrina Micciche

One of my favorite verses from the Bible is James 2:26: “as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”  This verse serves as a reminder to me that we as humans should strive to act in such a way that God’s grace can work through our actions.  The poems in Presence challenge us to think about how we can improve our state of grace to get to real happiness and heaven.  One way is to listen for God.  In Presence 2019, D. S. Martin’s “How To Listen For God” reminds us to “Turn off your cell phone       lace up / a good pair of hiking shoes.”  Although in our day it is arguably a difficult task to leave technology behind in order to have a conversation with God, in terms of finding grace it is important to turn off those outside forces that steal our mindfulness to what truly matters.

                                                                                    --Elizabeth Weissenberger

One of my favorite Psalms is 27:3, “Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear!”  I experience a lot of anxiety in my daily life, often losing faith when waters are rough, and verses like these restore my faith and belief in God’s plan.  So do poems in Presence 2019, especially those that find God’s presence in the mundane.  For example, the speaker in Dennis Rhodes’s “Our Housemate” imagines God as almost a member of his own family, living in his house and serving as a humorous reminder of how we accept God every time we accept both the strengths and the “shortcomings” of others in whom God resides.  Rhodes’s Housemate “takes a long time in the bathroom” and “gets tons / of mail,” but also  provides a “fridge” that “is always well-stocked with fish.”  In Christine Valters Paintner’s “You are Here,” the speaker finds God in “the siren screeching through city streets,” in “the wound that does not heal,” in the “dandelion” and in “the old man’s spectacles.”

                                                                                    --Megan Amendola

Growing up Baptist, not by free will, but by family tradition, we were taught to always take God seriously and that God is a no-nonsense God, but in reality, He’s not.  The journal Presence shows us the humor and emotions of God.  Some poems in the journal make me laugh, cry, feel convicted, and help me to see why God said in Proverbs 17:22, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.”  The most pervasive theme in this journal, I feel, is simply God can be found EVERYWHERE.  In my experience as a Baptist minister for the past five years, I can say that the journal invites us to build a closer relationship with the one we call our God, whoever that may be.  No matter what religion, creed, race, or nationality, this book is universal.

                                                                                    --Gary L. Striggles, Jr.

Having been raised in the Catholic faith, I find that many of the poems in Presence 2019 provide me with guidance toward new ways to pray.  Poems such as “If you cannot pray as yourself” by Robin Amelia Morris and “Prayer for One in Recovery” by Sheryl St. Germain lead me to reflect that prayer does not need to be in a particular place of worship, nor does it have to be a traditional prayer, such as the “Our Father.”  Instead prayer can be a conversation that I have with God.  For example, Morris urges those who have trouble praying to imagine someone else praying while we “walk along,” rather than sit or kneel.   St. Germain prays that someone recovering from drug addiction will “learn to see / beauty in small things: / tomatoes as they redden / in sun, the smell of pine / in the woods near your house.”

                                                                                    --Katherine Kopec

Being Catholic, I love reading the poems of Presence, as they strengthen my faith by connecting me with a community of writers who seek to reach their full potential in their faith and connection to God.  The poems work as a pathway for those in search of God and invite people to think more about sacrifice, mercy and grace.

                                                                                    --Michael Marta

Presence is not only geared toward Catholics, but the poems reflect an array of religious backgrounds.  The journal can be an outlet for writers who come from different faiths, traditions, generations and upbringings.  All writers should feel encouraged to submit. Someone wants to read your words and connect with you.  Everyone experiences God differently, and it is beautiful for writers to share their experiences of God with the readers of Presence.

                                                                                    --Victoria Peerson

Presence dives into hundreds of different perspectives upon many different religious experiences, all beautiful and heaven-sent.  Writers gently weave words through which I sometimes feel not only God’s presence, but also my own presence in their writing.

                                                                                    --Carissa De Franco

All the poets in Presence share their own perspective on being blessed by God from wherever they are and at every time of day and engage readers in finding relationships between physical and spiritual realities.

                                                                                    --Justine Mohammed

Growing up Catholic, not by willful choice but by inheritance, I have found that the poems of Presence help me to see how people engage with religious belief in their daily lives.  In Felicia Mitchell’s “Bristlecone Pine, Colorado,” the speaker goes on a walk and reflects upon a form in the bark of a tree that resembles Jesus or a womb. By reading this poem, my mind was opened up to a whole new view of the intersection of poetry and religion.  Poetry can show us where and in what moment we think of God.  These contemporary poems are intriguing to me because they show me that I have only been listening to one point of view.  I am fascinated by how they differ from many poems written in the past, and yet they form a continuum with the past as well.

                                                                        --Aimee Jimenez

Laughter is a sign of humbleness and absolute dependence upon God.  It descends like rain falling on a dried up heart.  It is also a sign of our sense of a merciful God and praises God because it harkens to our final state in heaven when we will experience an abundance of joy--eternally.  Many of the poems in Presence engage readers in laughter amidst the struggles of daily life and encourage us to be on good terms with our faith.

                                                                        --Jamie Giaquinto 

The poems in Presence allow readers to hear the voice of God speaking to them through the words of the poems so that the poems become instruments of God’s grace.  An awareness arises of both God’s immanence and transcendence.  Readers can find God’s presence or the need for it through this journal. 

                                                                        --Gisselle Negrete

In the aptly named Presence, the poems examine complex relationships between physical and spiritual realities and engage readers in forming their own individual relationship with them.

                                                                        --Devin Lattuga

Presence introduced to me, a musician, a Catholic art form that is not stained-glass windows or music at Mass.  These poems display Christianity through their unique forms and language in a way that respects all religious backgrounds.

                                                                        --Adam Criaris

The poems of Presence make the reader feel spiritually full by encouraging us to feel what the writer feels, feel the emotion behind the words.  The poems cause those who struggle with their faith to start to question, “how is it possible for God not to exist?” when so many writers feel God’s presence or feel God’s absence too.

                                                                        --Connie Naturale

The poems in Presence help us see that we can believe by reading the experiences of others, even if we have not experienced our faith in exactly the same way—no matter the century in which we live.

                                                                        --Manley Dorme

The poems in Presence can help younger Christians become more engaged in their faith.  Many may enjoy reading these poems because they are short and use contemporary language and contemporary situations, like the poem in Presence 2018 by Phyllis Hemann, “Talking to God in the Drive-Thru.”  Biblical allusions in the poems may even cause young readers to read the Bible after reading these poems to understand better the connection that the poets are making between the Bible and contemporary life.  My hope is that these poems will aid in deepening readers’ experiences with their religion and beliefs.

                                                                        --Nathaniel Parrish

Presence allows readers to use the gift of poetry to submerge themselves in the presence of God--see Him, hear Him, feel Him, and taste life through Him.  May this journal help readers enter into a conversation with themselves in which they achieve wisdom.

                                                                        --Chelsea Martinez-Casiano

Being Catholic, I enjoy how I am able to explore my faith more through these poems and truly see how God is always present.  We just have to open our eyes to seeing the world in different ways.  Mark S. Burrow’s poem, “First Listening,” in Presence 2017, helped me to see that the natural world itself can give voice to the joy of God’s creation.

                                                                        --Rose Anna Dragonetti

Regardless of the poet’s belief system, the poems of Presence are capable of making a profound impression because they are, above all, aware of the reader’s presence in the poem.

                                                                        --Ryan Tunison

As a musician, I appreciate Presence’s mission to bring forth new and non-mainstream art because what is readily available is not always the best.  I like how the book reviews serve as a type of road-map to continue exploring contemporary Catholic writing.

                                                                        --Louis Del Virginia

In his article, “Faith in Fiction” (First Things), Randy Boyagoda defends literature, despite its limitations: “Insofar as it can reveal the fullness and wholeness of human experience, insofar as it can reveal ourselves in our inner lives and experiences of time and event as being created by and for love, literature doesn’t lie.  It testifies to the ultimate truth of human experience: We are not, in the end, alone.”  Through the accessibility of its poems, Presence seeks to create a community of readers who are not alone in their pursuit of the ultimate truths of human experience.

                                                                        --Colleen Brennan

Growing up Catholic, I find that my faith helped shaped my perspective, so it is interesting to see how the faith of the poets in Presence shaped their work.  Many of the poems in the 2017 issue appear to be preoccupied with humanity’s fallen state, in the vein of Flannery O’Connor, who writes: “The universe of the Catholic fiction writer is one that is founded on the theological truths of faith, but particularly on three of them, which are basic—the Fall, the Redemption, and the Judgment.”

                                                                        --Larry D’Astolfo

Renowned Catholic fiction writer, Flannery O’Connor once stated that “an identity is not to be found on the surface.”  Poets need not be so literal about their Catholic identity, but rather write in their authentic voices, confronting their demons head-on with bravery and, thereby, serving as instruments of grace and truth.
                                                                        --Gabriella Farina

Even a short lyric poem has a central action to it.  Poems in Presence will make it possible to identify the source of this action as God’s grace moving within our lives.                                                                       --Jamie Weglarz

The personae in the poems of Presence may be surprised by either finding God’s interaction in their lives or finding their own need for it.
                                                                      --Annmarie May

Humans have always worked toward a way to unite by finding common paths, such as art, religion, and language.  It is my hope that Presence will provide a pathway for transcending cultural barriers revealing the presence of God in all of human life.
                                                              --Celeste Post

Catholic art should reflect life.  It should not be modeled as a self-help or how-to guide on achieving salvation.  Instead it should awaken the imagination that grows from and even creates shared experience between believer and skeptic, traditionalist and modernist, even tragedian and comedian.
                                                                        --Catherine Stansfield

It is the test of the believer to maintain his faith in a higher being during times of distress; it is the gift of the poet to be able to make this pain and struggle beautiful.
                                                                       --Joyce Lee

So often, religion is viewed as an untouchable entity, something people observe or adhere to, but not something we may interact with or integrate into daily human experience.  I hope the poems in Presence will make faith palpable as a living, breathing organism and invite us to think more about how we interact with mercy, grace, suffering, sacrifice, and belief.
                                                                        --Sarah Morse

Poems with strong images and metaphors help readers see, feel, hear, and even taste the presence of God in human lives.
                                                                        --Cassandra Winnie

Only poems that reflect the points of view of particular social classes and genders can affect the souls of everyone universally with inspiration, joy, and healing.
                                                                       --Susana Barbagallo 

Poems that allude to other great works from the Catholic tradition, such as Dante’s Inferno, show the relevance of past experiences in the contemporary world and a long history of faith and its struggles.
                                                                      --Steven Hinkle

1 Peter 2:2 states, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.”  Presence can be that “spiritual milk” flowing through writer into reader.
                                                                       --Shyheima LeGrand

Whether the reader is a believer or not, it is important for the poems in Presence to evoke a personal response from the reader.  Our relationship with the divine is most fundamentally a personal one.
                                                                       --Megan Ilievski