{"product_id":"a-place-of-encounter-on-poetry-teaching-and-faith-paperback","title":"A Place of Encounter: On Poetry, Teaching, and Faith - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eThomas Gardner\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhat if reading poetry could change you--not just what you think, but how you move through the world?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor forty years, Thomas Gardner led students through this transformative act--not analyzing poems from a distance but reperforming them from the inside. Walking together through Elizabeth Bishop's broken beaches, Robert Frost's snowy woods, and Emily Dickinson's rooms of possibility, they discovered that getting lost is how we are found. That acknowledging fragility opens eyes to wonder. That poems, like parables, ask us not to produce definitive explanations but to keep up.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Place of Encounter\u003c\/i\u003e is Gardner's luminous record of this work. Through fifty-one short lyric essays moving between memory, close reading, and theological reflection, he opens up the inner drama of poems as spiritual exercises--spaces where, as Dickinson puts it, our narrow hands are forced wide to gather paradise. With the grace and precision of the poems he loves, Gardner shows how deep reading grooves interior change.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHere is the classroom as temple: bodies leaning forward, voices rising together, readers discovering they're no longer alone. Here is teaching from a position of faith that speaks across every spiritual commitment. Here is poetry as a place of encounter.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThomas Gardner\u003c\/b\u003e is Alumni Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at Virginia Tech. His many publications include \u003ci\u003eLyric Theology\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eRegions of Unlikeness\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eJohn in the Company of Poets\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePoverty Creek Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eSundays\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 152\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.4 x 6.94 x 4.18 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 24, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67608386306365,"sku":"9780802885968","price":27.33,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1021\/3356\/3709\/files\/qFXJGeWrz69780802885968.webp?v=1790791019","url":"https:\/\/thelordsnest.com\/products\/a-place-of-encounter-on-poetry-teaching-and-faith-paperback","provider":"The Lord's Nest","version":"1.0","type":"link"}