#The shepherd poem series#

The shepherd bears this heavy responsibility to assume responsibility for others, but it is borne of an awesome knowing that each of us are caretakers for the other. As a precocious wunderkind, David tells Saul that he is ready to fight the giant Goliath precisely because he has killed bears and lions as part of protecting his sheep. But we can’t ignore it – almost all of the patriarchs and matriarchs in the Hebrew Bible were shepherds, a job that most fundamentally requires practice in the art of caretaking. It is easy to either romanticize the shepherd’s calling (the humble/simple servant of God), or ignore it altogether, overly-metaphorized as it has been (the shepherd as religious leader and the people as the flock). ‘He is tending the sheep.’ 2 David is sent for, recognized, and secretly anointed. “So he asked Jesse, ‘Are these all the sons you have?’ ‘There is still the youngest,’ Jesse answered.

When the prophet Samuel, with the intention of identifying the future king, asks Jesse the Bethlehemite to bring forward his sons, the prophet sees a row of hearty young men, but he knows the king is not among them. In fact, the first thing we learn about David is that he is a shepherd. And in a way, it is those two grappling archetypes inside him that makes his story so uneven and so compelling. In this spirit, it is worth remembering that before he was king, before the fame and the infamy, David was a shepherd and a poet.

Robert Pinsky writes that “even though is both horrible and beautiful, he is so in a way that reminds you of human beings.” 1 Indeed, there is something about David that brings us closer to our own imperfect selves – how vast our longing to love, how devastating our failures to do so. He was a betrayer, an adulterer, and a murderer he was a grieving father and a confused monarch. And he was also a man who experienced immense grief and suffering in his short time on earth. He was a warrior without peer, a prodigious lover, the unifying king of ancient Israel, the seed of messianic consciousness (it is said the Messiah will come from David’s line). King David did everything large-screen format. Since Leonard Cohen died, I’ve been thinking a lot about King David, perhaps the ur-ancestor in Cohen’s lineage as a Jewish poet who also sought the “secret chord” that would bring God joy. New readings will be uploaded on Fridays.King David, Leonard Cohen and the Search for Meaning Leonard Cohen at the Arena in Geneva, 27 October 2008 (Wikipedia) Stay tuned as we bring you readings from international poets, writing groups, and emerging writers. We hope you feel relaxed as you encounter some new poems and begin to truly feel at home with poetry. Whether this is your first time listening to poetry or you are a life-long fan, you are in the right place.

#The shepherd poem series#

This series will provide a comfortable, accessible, and welcoming virtual space for listeners to attend poetry readings. In brief, the goal is to help everyone feel “at home” with poetry.

This series is geared toward those who may have never attended a poetry reading before, might feel intimidated by the setting, or may be unable to attend due to a disability. Welcome to the AT HOME WITH POETRY series! This series publishes videos of our favorite poets reading their work from inside their homes. Popodicon-Business Residence of the President.Agricultural Innovation Center at Tabler Farm.Shepherd Entrepreneurship and Research Corporation.Bonnie & Bill Stubblefield Institute for Civil Political Communications.

Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence.Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars.Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities.