After the deaths of her brother, father and mother, the poet and writer Carla Grosch Miller felt that her world and faith had fallen apart. Lifelines is the fruit of what followed. These searingly honest yet hopeful poems reflect on the mystery at the heart of Christian faith and the journey through death to resurrection.

Carla Grosch-Miller

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Dedication

To the Reader

Genesis

Part 1. Wrestling the Word

Advent

The Waiting

The Tender Shoot

The Call to Repent

Leaping

The Joseph Cycle

Meditation on Rembrandt’s The Holy Family by Night (a scene in the family workshop/home)

Expectant

Christmas

Christmas Eve

Christmas Morn

The Slaughter of Innocence

Song of a Mother

Epiphany

Star of Wisdom

Baptism of Jesus

The Tree

The Call

Make Peace

Becoming 

In the Footsteps of Elijah

Holy

The Radiance!

Lent

Wild Beasts

For the Leader (Nicodemus)

Sarah Speaks

Temptation

Ode to Moses’ Mum

There is a time

Hidden Depths

Dying to life

Passion Sunday

Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday 2 – We rise

Good Friday

Holy Saturday

Easter

Raised to life

Heartlock

The Pruning

To love

Ordinary Time

Daybreak

Firstborn

From the mouth

Enough

Moses on Sinai

On Pisgah 

The Prophet I

The Prophet II

’Til death us do part

Amidst the Ruins

Scorched lips

Offence

Wordless

The Prophet III

And you shall lose your life to find it 

Blessed are those who mourn

Rock to sand 

The table heaves 

Who has not suffered an impediment of speech?

See these stones

Like Bartimeus, I want to see 

The clutch for meaning

The one thing, the better part 

Bent over 

Lost and Found 

Confidence misplaced,

Outsiders

Some yearnings are so deep –

The grateful eye sees beauty

Am I lost? 

I stand

Word Becomes Flesh

Part 2: Gathering Up Grace

The Geography of Grief

The Tom Cycle 

Organ Failure

Things my father gave to me

Weather Talk (for my father)

The most beautiful thing

Last Rites

Death’s undoing

Grief’s Pool

For my mother

Stardust

On the Road

The Storm

Go to your cell 

The Vow

Sea Wind

Blood Donation

What if?

• The second poetry collection from a writer with a proven track record, forged from intense personal experience of loss. • A resource for worship, seasonal reflection and preaching, with many poems reflecting on biblical stories that appear in the lectionary.

After the deaths of her brother, father and mother, the poet and writer Carla Grosch Miller felt that her world and faith had fallen apart. Numbed by grief and lacking any answers, she swapped going to church for going for long walks where, despite feeling like she was walking away from a way of life, she discovered that the Holy had no intention of leaving her. Lifelines is the fruit of what followed. These searingly honest yet hopeful poems reflect on the mystery at the heart of Christian faith: a seed falls into the earth and dies in order for new life to rise up. But as these poems reflect, the journey through death to resurrection can be arduous and cannot be hurried. This collection is in two parts. Wrestling the Word roots the reality of this journey of transformation in the sacred stories that have shaped Christian life for centuries and that we hear in the Lectionary. Gathering Up Grace attempts to name and claim the presence of the ineffable even amidst the ruins, and ultimately to celebrate the triumph of resilient love.

'Searingly honest about life's joys and pains …this deeply spiritual collection, quietly and not-so-quietly wise, will be a good guide to many searchers for meaning in this storm-battered world.'

Lifelines

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