title: Cries of Earth and Altar: Poems That Couldn't Be Helped
author: Charles L. Bartow
description: ''These poems reveal the deep yearning that lies beneath the veneer. They could have been written only by a pastor like Charles Bartow who spent his life searching for the holy in the lives of those around him.''<br>--M. Craig Barnes, President, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ<br><br>&#34;The power of poetry lies in its ability to give voice to the mystical, magical, everlasting world beyond our knowing, and in these pages, Charles Bartow does just that for the reader, crafting a liturgical calendar of faith that speaks to the heart of humankind. Filled with questioning, wondering, remembering, and imagining, these prayerful poems speak to the enormity of our faith and the intensity of our lives.&#34;<br>--Kathleen Moore, Poet Laureate, San Ramon, CA<br><br>''Scholar, teacher, poet-preacher Charles L. Bartow offers the refreshing gift of a liturgical poesis that weds poetry and preaching to doxology, showing us once again that he is more than a poet or preacher; he is a doxologian, a contemporary psalmist attune to the cries of praise and lament rising from the earth to God's cruciform altar. This theo-poetic offering will strangely warm every reader's heart during every season of life. Enter this poetic liturgy at your own risk because these words will usher you to the throne of God.''<br>--Luke A. Powery, Associate Professor of the Practice of Homiletics, Duke University, Durham, NC<br><br>''Charles Bartow is a broad-shouldered poet whose words not only fly up but sink down in. He is concerned with the stuff and range of real life. Snaking rhythms move the manly words and lacy images. Air-filled but not airy, polished but not varnished, this is poetry you can take to the pulpit or the hospital as easily as the park bench. Whether it is grief or hunger that drives you to the poetry shelf, you will find an answering voice here.''<br>--Jana Childers, Dean of the Seminary, San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, CA --Wipf and Stock Publishers
zlib_text: Map: Fransa, Provensa, & Aragón
  
  Dedication
  
   _For Teofilo Ruiz and Mark Gregory Pegg,_
  
   _with deep gratitude,_
  
   _and for Phil,_
  
   _who makes all things possible_
  
  Epigraph
  
  > “Sin is the cause of all this pain, but all shall be well, and all shall be
  > well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”
  
  —Julian of Norwich, fourteenth-century mystic,
  
  and the first woman known to write a book in English
  
  From _Revelations of Divine Love_ , Chapter XXVII
  
  > > Whatever we inherit from the fortunate
  
  > > We have taken from the defeated
  
  > > What they had to leave us—a symbol:
  
  > > A symbol perfected in death.
  
  > > And all shall be well and
  
  > > All manner of thing shall be well.
  
  —T. S. Eliot, twentieth-century poet,
  
  quoting Julian in his poem “Little Gidding”
  
  Contents
  
    
  
    1. Map: Fransa, Provensa, & Aragón
    2. Dedication
    3. Epigraph
    4.   5. Part I: 1290
      1. Friar Arnaut d’Avinhonet
    6. Part II: 1267
      1. Botille
    7. Part III: 1241
      1. Dolssa
      2. Dolssa De Stigata, The