Monday, September 14, 2015

Calvin Miller

Calvin Miller (1936—2012) is the author of more than 40 books including the popular The Singer Trilogy. The first book, The Singer, appeared in 1975 and sold more than a million copies. It is an allegory, behind a gossamer-thin veil, in the tradition of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. Through the way Miller weaved his poetic spell, The Singer opened a generation of evangelicals to more artistic modes of expression.

Calvin Miller served as a Baptist pastor in Nebraska for thirty years, and later became a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and most-recently at Beeson Divinity School.

from The Singer

When he awoke, the song was there.

Its melody beckoned and begged him to sing it.

It hung upon the wind and settled in the meadows where he walked.

He knew its lovely words and could have sung it all, but feared to sing a song whose harmony was far too perfect for human ear to understand.

And still at midnight it stirred him to awareness, and with its haunting melody it drew him with a curious mystery to stand before an open window.

In rhapsody it played among the stars.

It rippled through Andromeda and deepened Vega’s hues.

It swirled in heavy strains from galaxy to galaxy and gave him back his very fingerprint.

“Sing the Song!” the heavens seemed to cry. “We never could have been without the melody that you alone can sing.”

Entry written by D.S. Martin. His latest poetry collection, Conspiracy of Light: Poems Inspired by the Legacy of C.S. Lewis, is available from Wipf & Stock as is his earlier award-winning collection, Poiema.