Earlier this year I joined a mysterious organization known as the Cult of the Spiny Hog, an offshoot of The Hedgehog Poetry Press, a United Kingdom-based poetry publishing company. For over a year I had heard whispers of this mysterious group, with hints and rumors of its Illuminati-like status, so with a certain amount of trepidation I submitted my application and was accepted into the organization.
Last week I received a package with the “holy writings” of fellow members of the cult, the nine books of poetry that you see in the first photo. If you look carefully at each volume, you will spot the shadowy silhouette of a hedgehog, the mark of the cult. So far I have not been asked to have it tattooed on my body, but I do not exclude that being a future requirement. The second image shows the way the bundle was packaged, with a mysterious face looking out through the translucent paper and the seal of the cult. The final photo shows different versions of the cult’s signature mascot.
How did this happen? How did I fall under the sway of this poetry organization? It began quite modestly when I subscribed to the blog of Irish poet, Damien B. Donnelly. A few months later I had the pleasure of meeting Damien in person in Paris in November 2019—you can read all about our encounter in my blog posting entitled Paris Portraits: Damien. If you too want to be throughly enchanted, check out this YouTube video called An Evening of Eating The Storms in which Damien debuted his poetry collection—it is an amazing performance.
Damien is an incredible poet and over time he and his fellow cult members have helped to reawaken in me a part of myself that had been dormant for decades. When I was in college, I immersed myself in French literature, spent my junior year studying in Paris, and made the totally impractical decision to major in French. As I now look back at those years, I hardly recognize that romantic dreamer as me. I am now beginning to dream again.
If you read my blog regularly, you have seen growing indications of poetry’s growing grip on my heart. In October 2020, I did a posting called National Poetry Day 2020 that talked about new poetry collections by Damien B. Donnelly, Gaynor Kane, and Katie Proctor, poets whose works I had read and seen performed at the Zoom poetry readings that I had started to attend regularly.
I knew that I was hooked in late December 2020 when I felt prompted by the pandemic to write a poem myself. I included it in a posting called Pandemic Poetry that also looked at a powerful collection of pandemic poetry by Gaynor Kane and Karen Mooney. One of the benefits of joining the cult is that I can submit poetry for free into the various competitions run by the publish, a step that I do not envision myself taking now, but can envision such a possibility in the future.
Why am I so smitten with poetry? If I reduced my answer to a single statement, I would have to say that it is because poetry speaks to my heart in a way that no other written or spoken words do. Contemporary poets express themselves in so many different ways and across such a wide range of subjects, that there is bound to be one that speaks to your heart—Amanda Gorman’s moving reading at the US inauguration opened the eyes of many Americans to the power of poetry.
I am not recruiting for the cult and I think there is a strict numerical limit on the number of members. However, I do encourage you to consider adding some poetry to your life. One of the easiest ways to to that is to listen to the weekly Eat The Storms podcast, in which the aforementioned Damien B. Donnelly hosts an hour-long show with poets and musicians performing from around the world. (The podcast is named after Damien’s debut poetry collection, which you can order directly from Damien at his website.)The podcast is already in its second season and new episodes come out each Saturday and are available on Anchor, Spotify, Podbean, Google, Apple, and other podcast platforms.
Here is a comment I left on the podcast’s website that gives you a feel for the scope of the poetry presentations in a single podcast—”Each of your podcast episodes, Damien, is an emotional rollercoaster as your poet friends explore a wide variety of themes in an amazing range of voices, both figuratively as well as literally (with accents from around the world). Where else could I letters to letters to Sylvia Plath juxtaposed with contemplations on Chagall; memories of Paris alongside perceptions from the parallel world of Wolf Planet; humankind’s fight with nature followed by personal memories from a Kodachrome image; greying mists of colorful memories with some black-and-white consequences of British archaeological discoveries? Those topics only touch the surface of this mind-expanding episode of this wonderful podcast.”
Let me end this posting with Damien’s signature closing line, “Stay bloody poetic.”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Memorial Day 2024
Posted in Architecture, commentary, Nature, Photography, tagged Gettysburg Address, iPhone 11, Memorial Day 2024, Orkney Springs VA, Saint Francis of Assisi, Shrine Mont, Shrine Mont Retreat Center on May 27, 2024| 8 Comments »
Today in the United States we are commemorating Memorial Day, a day set aside to honor, mourn, and remember those who died while serving our country, especially in the armed forces. As some of you know, I spent 20 years in the U.S. Army and I personally feel a sense of gratitude to those who gave what Lincoln so poignantly called “the last full measure of devotion” in his address at Gettysburg in 1863. He challenged his listeners and continues to challenge us with these words, “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”
A little over a week ago I spent the weekend at a retreat at Shrine Mont in Orkney Springs, Virginia with a group from my church, St. Martin de Porres Episcopal Church. I was mostly unplugged all weekend in order to be more fully engaged with others and with the beautiful mountain setting. With my iPhone, though, I captured these images that give you a small sense of the beauty and serenity of Shrine Mont, including the outdoor cathedral that I visited each day in the early morning hours and at which we celebrated Pentecost Sunday with several other churches. Repeatedly throughout the weekend, I was captured by a sense of introspection and contemplation.
The third photo shows an extract from The Sermon to the Birds attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. Here is the full text, “My little sisters, the birds, much bounden are ye unto God, your creator, and always in every place ought ye to praise him, for that he hath given you liberty to fly about everywhere, and hath also given you double and triple raiment; moreover he preserved your seed in the ark of Noah, that your race might not perish out of the world; still more are ye beholden to him for the element of the air which he hath appointed for you; beyond all this, ye sow not, neither do you reap; and God feedeth you, and giveth you the streams and fountains for your drink; the mountains and valleys for your refuge and the high trees whereon to make your nests; and because ye know not how to spin or sow, God clotheth you, you and your children; wherefore your creator loveth you much, seeing that he hath bestowed on you so many benefits; and therefore, my little sisters, beware of the sin of ingratitude, and study always to give praises unto God.”
Today is a day set aside for us be thankful, an attitude which I believe we should cultivate every day and not just on special holidays. I can’t help but think of the Bible verses (Thessalonians 5:16-18) that say, “Rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances.” Not long ago I heard a sermon that has prompted me to look at that verse in a new way—the pastor reminded us that the verse says to give thanks in all circumstances, not for all circumstances. We definitely cannot control our circumstances, no matter how hard we try, but we can control our response to those circumstances.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
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