Warmth and Bite

The Blind Swimmer: Early Selected Poems 1970 - 1975 by Thomas Lux
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Clearly Mr. Lux has been writing surprising and thought-provoking verse for many years. This little collection demonstrates the strange combination of charm and shocking imagery that would become even more pronounced in his later poems.

It is difficult to compare Thomas Lux to anyone because his work is so unique, but it is not uniqueness for its own sake. There is warmth and bite here, like the cat that purrs and scratches, and leaves you to figure out how the motivation for both is the same.

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Not Holding Fast

Paul warns the Colossians against people who are “puffed up without reason by his mind, not holding fast to the Head.” I see this in those who have stolen the language of religion to create a formula, an equation for hate in no way in line with the Gospel of Christ or the Scripture they claim to live by. These would create burdens for others they would not lift themselves.

But before I judge them, let me check myself that I do not allow the devil to create in me merely a member of an opposite faction, weaponizing the Holy Word for my own gain.

The reference to Jesus as our “Head” ends this way: “from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.” May we all find our nourishment in Him. May we allow Him to put us together before we stumble out to do battle against our own bodies.