The Longing: Poems

Beneath the noise and errands of everyday life, there is a longing, a yearning. What precisely we long for is not always clear; indeed, perhaps it is many things. Or perhaps it is finally one thing, the One that is behind and beneath all things. Paul Hooker probes this longing in the poem cycle of this book, exploring poetically the yearning that underlies life, love, work, worship, and faith itself. In the collections “Traditions” and “Transitions,” he explores that longing in both biblical and experiential contexts. And in the concluding essay, “Sightings of the Holy,” he meditates on four poems and the glimpses they provide of the Holy, a reality accessible only out of the corners of one’s eyes.

Paul K. Hooker is retired from a career as a Presbyterian pastor, presbytery executive, and professor of practical theology. He has published books and articles in the field of Hebrew Bible studies and Presbyterian polity. He is also the author of two previous volumes of poetry, Days and Times and The Hole in the Heart of God. He and his wife live in northeast Georgia, equidistant from grandchildren and trout streams.