R. Michael Spangler

I am a poet, husband, and father of four, living on the East Coast of the US. There’s a constant wrestling in me between the modern world and the ancient world. I’m usually rooting for the ancient one. I study theology and culture and hold an AS in Digital Media, BTh from Bethlehem College & Seminary, and I’m working towards a MA in Classics.

I typically post my poetry here, along with an occasional essay or musing.

Poetry is the most natural way to translate the heart. May even one of these poems be a prayer you need—a heart in pilgrimage. As I attempt this, I hope to serve you, my fellow image-bearer.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Read slowly.

Prayer (I)
By George Herbert

Prayer the church’s banquet, angel’s age,
God’s breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth
Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tow’r,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-days world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood,
The land of spices; something understood.