Made beautiful by use / Sean Horlor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Horlor, Sean, 1981-

Language:

English

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

69 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Winnipeg : Signature Editions, 2007.

Summary:

What should we believe in? Tough, gritty innovative, Sean Horlor's Made Beautiful by Use tackles issues of believe by questioning whether it's possible for anyone to be conscious, compassionate, and ethical in a twenty-first-century world. Whether it is St. Joan before the walls of Orleans, St. George returning to the world as George W. Bush or St. Veronica terrorizing the office copy room, here are some of the West's greatest stories retold from a contemporary perspective. Here we have the dark age St. Brendan in a series of poems that focus on a search for higher levels of consciousness acted out during Branda's legendary voyage across the Atlantic. Contrast these to the George W. Bush satires that explore societal ethics and avoidance of social responsibility in favour of ideology. Horlor's hagiographies, praises, and virtues are set in a milieu that is contemporary and streetwise, aware of homelessness, drug cultures, sexuality, and consumerism. Belief, therefore, is not set among the liturgical pieties of the Church, but in the grittiness of the world itself, where belief is breached, found, and confirmed. Can what we beliefe in be reduced to sign that prove existence? Mostly written at Queenwood Convent on southern Vancouver Island, Made Beautiful by Use questions what constitutes faith in a time when to many have stopped believing.

Contents:

Empty Container

In Praise of Beauty 13

In Praise of Solitude 14

In Praise of What is Found Again 15

In Praise of Verse 17

In Praise of Listening 18

In Praise of Letting Go 19

St. Brendan the Navigator

St. Brendan Sets Sail 23

St. Brendan and the Isle of Sheep 24

St. Brendan and the Isle of Weeping 25

St. Brendan and the Isle of Birds 26

St. Brendan and the Devil 27

St. Brendan and the Abbot of Clonmacnoise 28

St. Brendan and the Land of the Blessed 29

The Seven Heavenly Virtues

Faith 33

Fortitude 34

Love, or What should you believe in? 35

Justice 36

Temperance, or You'll never wear a tank top in this town again 37

Hope 38

Prudence, or The place where you think of your ex 39

St. George the Dragon Slayer

Intellect 43

For Corporal Kelly Card 44

The Greatest War of the 21st Century will be the War Against Time 45

Albuquerque Barrio 46

On Their Way to Wyoming, They Roam Around Iowa 47

Real Estate 48

Get Yourself Into It! 49

Talking to Other Canadians About Canada 50

He's Your Pusher 51

St. George and His Dragon 52

Hagiographies

"Behold St. Christopher and go thy way in safety" 55

For St. Jude, or What gets him where he is 56

For St. Fiacre 57

For the Anonymous Saint of Gaming 58

For St. Christopher, or Outside a strip-mall Starbucks 59

For St. Veronica, Our Lady of Xerox 60

For St. Jude 61

Creeping St. John's Wort, Late October 62

Grief, or St. Isidore roams the Stanthorpe Farming District 63

St. Erasmus in the Gulf 64

What God Asked of Joan in the Fields of Orleans 65

Saints & Patronages 66.

ISBN:

189710913X

9781897109137

OCLC:

86226064