From the Belly of the Whale: Poems of the Male Soul

by N. Thomas Johnson-Medland

Publisher:

Resource Publications

, 2011

Men have been spit up onto shore by whales and great fish since the beginning of time. This has been going on for forever; perhaps, even longer than forever. This may be true.
It may also be true that men have spit whales and great fish up onto shore since the beginning of time. This has also been going on or forever; perhaps, even longer than forever. Which of these happened first, I cannot say. Who knows; who can say?
Regardless, before being spit up on land both men and fish sat idly by inside the bellies of their captors, ruminating on their fate-wondering what it all meant-what it all means. Men and fish and everything alive wonder about life, and how they fit into it and it into them; as much as they are able to wonder. Some men I have met seem to wonder less than some fish I have met. Who knows; who can say?
Our lives are about wondering: wondering about our lives. Each and every living thing yearns toward growth. This longing is nothing but an eternal search, an eternal wondering about everything that is. At some point we lose the beginning into the end; and what came first is dissolved into the ongoing process. Fish then man, or man then fish, no one can say which came first. All we know is that we are held captive, we ruminate, and then we are spit out into a rebirth.
Our mythic journeys as men are like this. Sometimes you cannot tell which came first, the idea that you are a man and that you should do a certain thing because of that; or the doing of a certain thing and then later realizing or deciding that you did it because you are a man. Which came first the fish or the man? You cannot be sure and when you think you have become sure, things shift.

Praise for From the Belly of the Whale

"Men are rediscovering poetry if it speaks to their honest experience, people are rediscovering poetry when it is accessible and evocative. Well, here it is-for your discovery and enlightenment!"
-Richard Rohr, OFM_
author of From Wild Man to Wise Man and Adam's Return

Product Details

• Title : From the Belly of the Whale: Poems of the Male Soul
• Author: Johnson-Medland, N. Thomas
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Publication Date: 2011
• ISBN: 9781621893875

About N. Thomas Johnson-Medland

N. Thomas Johnson-Medland is ordained in the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is a life-long pastoral counselor and hospice worker. He now serves as the CEO of Lighthouse Hospice. He wrote Feed My Sheep; Lead My Sheep: A Handbook of Leadership Formation for Individuals and Groups, Bridges, Paths, and Waters, and From the Belly of the Whale: Poems of the Male Soul.