Poems of Rowan Williams
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'I dislike the idea of being a religious poet. I would prefer to be a poet for whom religious things mattered intensely.' In the poems collected in this book, Rowan Williams writes of many things. He visits the Holy Land, commemorates the deaths of parents and close friends, explores elements of ancient Celtic culture; poems are inspired by works of art, landscapes rural and urban, and historical figures from Tolstoy to Simone Weil. What connects poem to poem is the poet's vividly sensual language, his formal mastery, and how he can address, specifically and particularly, what matters most intensely. 'Earth is a hard text to read', writes Welsh poet Waldo Williams in a poem translated here. For Rowan Williams, this very reading is the task of the poet.
Rowan Williams was born in 1950 and raised in Swansea. From 1986 to 1992 he was Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford. He served as bishop of Monmouth from 1992 and archbishop of Wales from 2000. He was appointed the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury in July 2002. Williams stood down as Archbishop of Canterbury on 31st December 2012 and became Master of Magdalene College at Cambridge University in January 2013. He is the author of several books of theology and a frequent broadcaster.