Category: Poetry

When the Sun Was a Poet: A New Chapter

“Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence.”
— Audre Lorde

Somewhere along the arc of my teaching and writing life, poetry moved from the edges of my academic work to the center of it. It didn’t happen all at once. But as I wrote more poetry and discovered its connection to my teaching and scholarly life, I one day found myself no longer just writing poems but living as a poet. A poetic theologian.

Today, I’m excited to share that my poetry collection, When the Sun Was a Poet: A Lyrical Almanac of Life’s Seasons and Seasonings, has been published by Kelsay Books, and is now available through both Kelsay and Amazon.

This is my first poetry book to be accepted by a publisher. My earlier collections were self-published, labors of love, offered from a place of conviction and care. I embrace this book is a turning point, not because it matters more, but because it marks a kind of affirmation, an affirmation of voice, of craft, of calling.

Poetic Theology, Seasoned

When the Sun Was a Poet is a thread woven through my new understanding of myself as a poetic theologian. The book reflects a way of listening to time, memory, body, ritual, and breath. The poems follow the shape of a year, with its solstices and harvests, its cold bones and blooming springtimes. The poems are rooted in the quiet power of seasons, both liturgical and lived.

For me, poetic theology is not only about writing poems that reflect faith or spirituality. It’s about practicing theology through the language of image, silence, and metaphor. It’s about bearing witness to the sacred in ordinary rhythms. It’s about holding joy and grief in the same weathered hand.

This book is an offering shaped by those convictions.

A Threshold of Gratitude

You can now order When the Sun Was a Poet here:

I’m so grateful to Kelsay Books for this opportunity, and to everyone who has supported my journey into poetic theology. Your encouragement, your listening, your witness—these are the real affirmations.

Blessings,
Jill

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A New Threshold at DrDeacondog.com

I’ve long believed that silence can speak.
That justice can unfold in contemplative realms.
That theology can be made not only with words and books
but with breath, bread, and bone.

Over the past few months, I’ve been reshaping drdeacondog.com, listening for how to let it hold the fullness of what I now understand my work to be at this time in my life and vocation.

As a professor in her 60s with over 25 years of experience in theological education, I have begun to embody my work as a poetic theologian.

Neither word in this pair is new. Even their partnership dances in ballrooms with other artists, theologians, and leaders.

What is new is my energy for embracing the pair in my work and life.

Poetic theology is the practice of attending to theological questions not only with the mind, but with breath, body, metaphor, and silence.

In the ancient sacred book of Proverbs, we glimpse Woman Wisdom calling out from the threshold of her house. Down the street, another woman stands at her threshold, named in the text as “the strange woman.” My threshold as a poetic theologian emerges somewhere between these two figures as a place where I listen beyond texts and words for beauty and truths that reside in quiet, less-seen, less-acknowledged spaces.

Today, I’m relaunching DrDeacondog.com, not as a platform but as a threshold, a space for reflection, creative engagement, and communal accompaniment.

At this threshold, you’ll find:

  • A page that introduces poetic theology as a way of being and writing
  • A curated section of featured projects and essays
  • An archive of seasonal reflections and poems (with more to come)
  • A vision for the months ahead, including a forthcoming book and workshop offerings

I invite you to visit, read, and pause.

And if something you find there resonates, I hope you’ll stay awhile so we can listen together.

With gratitude,

Jill