Many years ago, I signed up for a membership in the Academy of American Poets. I got a nice little membership card and some free swag. I am pretty sure that I let my membership lapse, but even though I have stopped getting American Poet, the Academy‘s quarterly magazine, I am still getting the occasional free book in the mail.

The most recent book I received was a signed copy of Fanny Howe: Selected Poems. I had never heard of Fanny Howe until last year, when she started to become a sort of poet du jour and you read a lot of pieces singing her praises (I think the first thing I read was an Ange Mlinko piece in The Nation, but don’t hold me to that). I added her to the list of poets to read, but never quite got around to her.

Let me simply say that I am a believer. As a relatively recent convert to Catholicism (from a sort of atheism/agnosticism, though I was raised in the Episcopal Church) and someone who has a difficult relationship to God (during my recent illness, I became, despite my best efforts, very angry at God; and though I believed in his love, I did not always feel it), I have wondered how to include questions of faith and religion in my poetry.

Well, Fanny Howe has solved that problem with incredible power. An experimental poet, in a similar vein to Rae Armantrout (at least, in this would-be poet’s humble opinion), she writes very movingly about God, the spirit and faith.

In an interview she gave with Lyric Review, she speaks about being an agnostic Catholic. Specifically, about having come to the Church from a rationally inspired, intellectual atheism. She also speaks about still being able to understand the view of atheists.

For myself, as someone who found the Catholic Church from a very much a place of the mind (I was only able to accept that Church because of its rich, intellectual tradition and its focus on education and rigorously thought out theology), this provided a clear answer to why I found her religious poems so moving.

So, if you like Rae Armantrout and are curious how to write a religious poem in this brave new world, I direct to Fanny Howe.