James Compton Bockmier

Reliquaries James Compton Bockmier

I have liked to think of my favorite poetic creations as "little jewel boxes." I take care and joy in the most delicate, most elaborate, and most dazzling constructions of form. This is celebratory. Even when the poem is not happy-even when it is outright and crushingly tragic-it is still celebratory. It is celebratory as a priest celebrates a mass. Poetry is a spiritual exercise for me and I take up its practice with the awesome gravity of a holy vocation. It is in light of my little jewel boxes' role in holy service that I have further termed them-and this volume-reliquaries.