Poetics · 2023 · Aaron Matthew Wright
An Exercise in Theoria.
Ποιητική Πρᾶξις εν Θεωρία. Christian Contemplation.
A journey from pain to beauty; resolving with life in God.
For contemplative readers who want to go deeper and take their time.
Hardcover · Paperback · eBook
Inside the book
Fundamentally, this book is a love letter.
Written from a father to his family, from a layman to the Church, from a citizen to his culture, from a man to his world, from a now living soul to Jesus Christ, his ever-living God.
Only the voice of he whose words make the world can bring the dead back to life. That single sentence opens the book, and everything that follows is an attempt to listen for that voice, and to give the listening shape on the page.
All of the art and every poem inside is written by Aaron, with two quoted exceptions: Brandon Hampton's “Since Your Love” and the Evlogotoria of the Dead — to his memory.
Published 2023 by The Meaning of Worship LLC.
“Arise oh God; Oh Ancient Beauty,
And speak forth your mysteries.”
Epigraph
Dedicated, first, to Aaron's wife Chloe Ella and their six children, and then to the generations that come after, “to help you find life in God.”
Four movements
The classical stages of Christian contemplation.
Each section opens with a Greek anchor and closes with the next degree of nearness.
Νοῦς · Nous · With all our Mind
Purification.
Ψυχή · Psyche · With all our Soul
Illumination.
Θέωσις · Theosis · With all our Heart
Union.
Φῶς καὶ Ζωή · Light and Life · For the Life of our World
Autozoegraphy.
A sample
Ani Ani — Honey Honey — Talitha Kum.
From Section 1: Purification. “I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine.”
Ani Ani, La-dodi, Va-dodi, Lee, Lee.
You are the light; Song of my life.
You always lead me; You are the voice inside.
You are my love; No one before you.
Because all that I am; Points to you.
I was made by you. I was made for you.
And I am unfulfilled,
Without full communion.
Ani Ani, La-dodi, Va-dodi, Lee, Lee.
Drawn from Song of Songs 6:3 and “Since Your Love” by Brandon Hampton & United Pursuit. Quoted with the citation as it appears in the book.
About the author
Aaron Matthew Wright.
Husband, father of six, author and poet, sales leader, licensed insurance broker, and founder of A New Life Company and The Meaning of Worship LLC. He lives in Lee's Summit, Missouri with his wife Chloe and their children.
His writing sits in conscious dialogue with Augustine, Dante, the Philokalia, and the Song of Songs. A second work, The Confessions of a Christian Salesman, is in progress.