Matthew 25 In Action: Honoring National Poetry Month with the Words of Marianne Moore
Poetry, Faith, and the Pursuit of Justice
April is National Poetry Month, a time to celebrate the art of language, imagination, and truth-telling through verse. As we reflect on the legacy of faith-driven justice within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), we lift up the life and voice of Marianne Moore, one of the most influential Presbyterian poets of the 20th century.
In a recent article titled "Peace of heaven, make us free" published by PC(USA), Moore’s poetic work is recognized not only for its technical brilliance but also for its spiritual depth. Her poems are infused with biblical imagery, moral reflection, and subtle resistance to cultural norms—qualities that align with the Matthew 25 Initiative’s core values: building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism, and eradicating systemic poverty.
A Poet Rooted in Presbyterian Faith
Marianne Moore was not simply a poet of theological musings—she was a lifelong Presbyterian whose work often reflected her reverence for creation, human dignity, and divine mystery. Her poetry insists on integrity, respect for life in all its forms, and a humility that echoes Christ’s teachings in Matthew 25: “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these...you did it to me.”
Through her unconventional structure and lyrical rigor, Moore gave poetic shape to the kind of attentiveness and justice-seeking to which the gospel calls us.
Poetry as a Tool for Vitality and Liberation
In the spirit of Building Congregational Vitality, Moore’s poetry encourages us to see the world anew, to listen more carefully, and to approach the divine with imagination and honesty. In a time when churches are rediscovering the power of storytelling and creative expression, her work invites us to reimagine the sacred possibilities within art and worship.
In Moore’s vision, poetry is not a luxury—it is a means of awakening, a path to Dismantling Structural Racism and Eradicating Systemic Poverty by drawing attention to the overlooked, the silenced, and the sacred in the everyday.
A Poetic Challenge to the Church Today
As we celebrate National Poetry Month, we are reminded that poetry—like faith—asks us to see beyond what is and move toward what could be. Marianne Moore’s legacy, grounded in Presbyterian values and prophetic imagination, challenges us to continue using our words and our witness to build a more just, compassionate, and creative world.
Let her voice echo in our liturgies, our classrooms, our pulpits, and our protests. Let poetry be one of the tools we use in our shared work of living out the call of Matthew 25.
To read the full article from PC(USA), Click Below
In Closing: Let the Word Be Heard
Whether through preaching, praying, or poetry, our faith calls us to speak truth, uplift the vulnerable, and celebrate the creativity of our Creator. This April, may we honor the power of poetic language—and the lives it continues to inspire—by letting our voices rise in verse and action.
Read on for an excerpt from Edward Moran’s poem, “Marianne Moore Grows Up””
“II. Palm Sunday, 1935: Marianne Moore and her Mother
Join the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church.
Fading with the morning and the tempest of hosannas
a blessed blowout dust storm east from Kansas
shearing umbrellas and tree-canopies down to bits,
to Oz and maybe back, shredded to the ribs,
and then raining the ribbed sprouts
furling Missouri soil back upon its roots
east to eden, to the place of the "savage's romance"
and the confluence of great rivers, greater tents.
The sky was darkened in New York, as damped fire,
reported some lookers, and as Brooklyn came to prayer
and old John Underwood was helped into his pew at last
the sun bore a trace halo of plowed-back dust
from its long tearing trail across
the fruited plain, as though the Indians changed course,
got soul, were ashamed no more, faced their pursuers.
Or like bread upon the waters, or plows upon the furrows
or like a typist dragging the carriage back a line
boustrophedon, to redeem a key struck in vain:
such the explanation of this west-to-east reversal
in the prevailing arcs of scythe-describing circle.
She knew earth's loosening, she and her mother both,
thinking on ancestral trek from simple truth,
as he who warned his flock of riddles, like the angry God
who flecked sinners and the just alike in sod.
Stripped of his Swedish gold, James Thorpe
might have thought of Charlie, or not, or what running meant
or how palms are burnt to ash for next year's Lent.
but here, in church of hard Knox, with Calvins on
dust is a soul swirling in a shaft of sun.
a mote in my father's eye, I his son.”