A Poultice for Belief

Tom Delmore

Guests

When Abraham sat down
with angels,
Sarah laughed. They looked
like ordinary men.
They whispered that Sarah was with child,
When Abraham hadn’t been hard
In decades. Sarah laughed.
He said he slept with her for the warmth—
insinuating his varicose legs
beneath her rump, while cupping
her breasts like manna.

This journey kept them together.
It used to be lust, then
want of a child. Security, yes:
that was good for a number of years.

Now, old as great grandparents,
entertaining angels that act like men—
or men who claimed to be angels—
Sara fed them feta and flat bread
and surreptitiously eyed their backs,
checking for hidden wings.

isbn 1-59661-122-7
33 pages/$9

A Poultice for Belief is quirky and original, expanding on the Old Testament stories you thought you knew. Delmore takes the stories—of the Ten Plagues, Abraham and Isaac, Noah, and Jacob and Esau—seriously and honors them, yet also weaves in very human details and humor. His fascination with Raven as trickster surfaces in interesting and unexpected places. Only a very assured poet would have the confidence to write this tender and emotionally charged book.
—Alice Persons, editor and publisher of Moon Pie Press

Through Tom Delmore’s finely crafted poems, I enter into the landscape of scripture. But I no longer find the tired familiar voices, I am invited here to a fresh vision. Moses, Abraham, and Noah become new, and suddenly God is new as well, through earthy language inviting me to see even the pollen as a bearer of grace.
—Christine Valters Paintner, OBISB, Ph.D., REACE, author (with Sister Lucy Wynkoop) of Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening and Awareness

Nearly 200 generations after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Tom Delmore’s Biblically themed poems expand the time-honored tradition of midrash (Torah commentary), eliciting wry smiles and knowing sighs from us today.
—Wendy Marcus, editor, Drash: Northwest Mosaic