Poetry, like song, reaches into parts of our being that words alone cannot. Poems have the possibility of opening our hearts to God.

Kenneth Boulding (1910-93)

Kenneth was born & grew up in Liverpool, England, the son of devout Methodist parents. He became a convinced Friend in 1931 and moved to the U.S. in 1937. He was an active Friend throughout his adult life including being a member of Iowa YM (Conservative) from 1943-59, Ann Arbor (MI) Meeting from 1949-67, and Boulder (CO) from then until his death.

He was best known to non-Friends as a world renowned economist and a co-founder of the field of peace research. He is probably best known to Friends today for his collection There Is a Spirit: The Nayler Sonnets, written during World War II. For more information, see Cynthia Kerman’s 1974 biography, Creative Tension: The Life & Thought of Kenneth Boulding, his son Russell’s article “Kenneth & Elise Boulding: The Quaker Foundations of their Contributions to the Social Sciences” and Kenneth’s Wikipedia article.

(Ed. note: While I was in high school my parents gave me a copy of the thin blue hardback collection of Kenneth Boulding’s Nayler sonnets, based on James Nayler’s testimony, given in 1660 as he lay dying after an attack by robbers. I knew that Kenneth had written these words in the unimaginably dark days of World War II. I learned later from Kenneth’s son Russell that Kenneth also wrote them in a period of spiritual turmoil, when he and Elise’s attempts to lift up the Quaker peace testimony were repudiated by the Friends Meeting they were attending at the time. These sonnets played a large role in my own spiritual formation as a Friend. —PBP)

Winifred Rawlins (1907-97)

Rawlins was a member for many years of Philadelphia YM and taught classes at Pendle Hill. “In Memoriam: Winifred Rawlins” by Esther Muir, from Types & Shadows: The Journal of the Quaker Fellowship of the Arts.

(Ed. note: My parents, Bob & Margaret Blood, were on the staff of Pendle Hill from 1967-71. I had the chance to meet the Quaker poet, Winifred Rawlins, and hear her read some of her own poems. I bought two of her collections at the time. The final poem above has continued to remind me throughout my life of the caring at the heart of the universe. That poem was source of the title for a 2024 article, We Are All Held in Love: Reflections on the Practice of Holding in the Light — PBP)

Ken Jacobsen

Ken is a member of Ohio YM who lives in Wisconsin. He is a prolific poet and songwriter.

  • To Be Quiet—his translation of Pablo Neruda’s poem “A Callarse”
  • Deliver Us from Evil —written in February 2025 on men who wound other men from their own unacknowledged woundedness

Annie Patterson

Peter Blood-Patterson

The Harvest —This poem was written in 2000. It reflected the author’s memories of being part of New Swarthmoor, a Young Adult Friends community from 1969-74, that dreamed of being the seed of spiritual transformation in the world around them. Peter is curator of this online library.

Poems by non-Friends

Mary Oliver (1935-2019)

Oliver’s poems are beloved by many people of faith for their gentle wisdom and tenderness. Poetry foundation bio

Marge Piercy (b. 1936)

Poetry Foundation bio  Wikipedia article

Tasha Jun

Anger, I Will Not Tame Her

Martha Postlethwaite

The pastor of the Recovery Church in St. Paul MN writes poetry about her own journey of recovery.

Clearing

We would include poems by Wendell Berry, Rumi, Rilke, and of course other Quaker poets in this online Quaker library. What poems that have played a role in your own spiritual journey — or that you’ve been given at retreats or in other spiritual formation settings? Send them to info@inwardlight.org.