Poets

I love the look and feel of our book Boundless Light.  It's elegant and somehow comforting.

I was interested to know a little about the authors of the poems.  Here are a couple of special interest to me:

Godfrey John
I love his poems. They always surprise and charm me.  And they seem very visual.  Wikipedia tells us that Godfrey John was born and grew up in Wales. ...He served in the Royal Air Force. John graduated from Cambridge University^[1] where he was boxing team captain... For more than 40 years, poems and essays by John were published in the Christian Science Monitor.^[2]
Godfrey John moved to the United States in 1958, where he lived and worked for over a decade, but remained a British citizen. He taught English at several colleges in the United States,^[1] and later worked as an arts critic for the Christian Science Monitor. He became a public practitioner of Christian Science.^[3] In 1970, he moved to Canada, where he became a dual citizen (Canadian and British). In Canada, he also became a Christian Science teacher and served briefly on the Christian Science Board of Lectureship. For many years he was also active as a voluntary probation and parole officer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_John

John's poems in this book are:
Ask Soon - page 39 (originally published CS Sentinel August 28, 1971)
Be Columbus! - page 79 (CSS August 1, 1988)
The panoply - page 13 (CS Journal, June 1979)

Rushworth Kidder
I met Rush Kidder in Perth decades ago and it changed my life. I became an early member of his "Institute for Global Ethics" and read about its work avidly. I loved that his research uncovered the fact that all of the world's major philosophies and religions have one binding commonality: The Golden Rule.

Today I found a fine tribute to this generous and far-sighted man.  It's by Richard Crispin in Forbes Magazine - http://www.forbes.com/sites/ey/2015/02/20/video-the-venture-capital-investor-and-entrepreneur-relationship/. Here's a key comment from Crispin: "I remember the day when I came upon the concept that would change my life: right versus wrong is easy; it’s right versus right that’s hard." 

Rush wrote several books, including How Good People Make Tough Choices, Moral Courage, and Good Kids, Tough Choices.  They are worth reading.

Kidder's poem in our book is Ananias. It's on page 78 and was originally published CSS Jan 17 1976.  Rush was responsible for an earlier, much loved anthology of poetry from the Christian Science magazines called "Ideas on Wings", available probably from lending libraries in most CS Reading Rooms today, though now out of print.

At one time Rush Kidder was a columnist for The Christian Science Monitor.

Violet Hay
There is now a book about Ms Hay, available from the Longyear Foundation whose web site has this to say about her -

Violet Hay is best known through her seven poems set as congregational hymns in the Christian Science Hymnal.

Less well known is the story of her pioneering role in the establishment of Christian Science in the British Isles — a story which is both deeply interesting and inspiring. Historian Dr. Peter J. Hodgson offers the first comprehensive study of one of England's well-loved practitioners and teachers of Christian Science, whose activities spanned more than seven decades. http://www.longyear.org/store/books/longyear-museum-press/violet-hay-peter-j-hodgson

Hay's poem in our book is Safety, on page 101 (originally published CSJ January 1941).


I was wondering if any of the authors here are Australian. I can't recognize any names as such. That's a pity.

Julie Swannell