After the challenges of a Lenten-like year, it's time to feast on some poetry: that miraculous union of sound and sense, that lyric mystery we cannot master. We never simply read poems. Poems "read" us. The best verse reads into our struggles and anxieties, gives voice to our wordless desires, heralds conviction in our hearts, quickens our contemplation, and ushers us back into the Garden of God's truth, mercy, and love. I have endeavored to select poems that accomplish this feat from a variety of eras and traditions, and look forward to touring them with you during this season of Eastertide. "O, taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8). Deacon Jeremiah Eastertide 2021