Welcome to National Poetry Month at The Other Pages. My name is Steve Spanoudis and I curate the series each year, with help and contributions from Bob Blair in Texas, Kashiana Singh in Chicago, and (Nelson) Howard Miller in Georgia. I’m coming to you from Coral Springs, Florida, on the eastern edge of the Everglades. After yesterday’s light-humored contemplation of Karma, we turn to more serious stuff, as today is Easter Sunday, as recognized by the non-Orthodox Christian faiths. Orthodox faiths follow the Julian rather than the Gregorian calendar, which recognizes May 2nd this year. Faiths of all kinds are a common subject, as well as a persistent metaphor in poetry.

Today’s piece was contributed by (Nelson) Howard Miller, who has been one of the major contributors to Poets’ Corner (https://theotherpages.org/poems/). Anything with the initials NM next to it, is something he transcribed and edited.

Vassar Miller (who lived from 1924 to 1998) was born in Houston, Texas and lived there all her life. She was named Texas poet laureate two times.

She was born with cerebral palsy and learned to write at an early age with the help of a typewriter. Despite her disability, she produced 10 volumes of poetry between 1956 and 1981.  Much of her work is rigorously formal, with carefully crafted form, meter, and rhyme. That is especially true of her sonnets.

Her two main subjects are the effects of disability - especially the isolation which is often one of its consequences, and her deep religious faith.

Her poem "Without Ceremony" is a Shakespearian sonnet. It is the first poem of her second book [I]Wage War on Silence[/I], published in 1960 and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The book's title comes from this poem (lines 9 - 10).

Contrary to what we might expect from someone to whom words were so important, she contends that we have no words with which to pray meaningfully to God;  the only prayer which matters is the self, humbled before God:  “We fall not on

our knees, but on our hearts," where God is the only word which matters:

"Oh Word, in whom our wordiness dissolves,

When we have not a prayer except ourselves."

https://www.reddit.com/r/ReligiousPoetry/comments/8897k5/poet_of_the_month_vassar_miller/

Nelson comments that he also admires her Italian sonnet titled “Holy Week,” a sentiment echoed by fellow Texan and author Larry McMurtry, who considered her the best poet in Texas. She is also, according to Nelson, the only poet he is aware of has who used the word "artichoke" as a rhyme word in a serious sonnet. (yes, it is in "Holy Week.")

Thanks for Listening

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