'Earth's crammed with heaven / And every common bush afire with God/ But only those who see take off their shoes.' This epigraph from Elizabeth Barrett Browning opens Murray Budo's marvelous new collection Brother Wind & Air: A Lifetime in Verse, and appropriately so.Father Murray Bodo is one of those who not only sees, but bears witness to the splendorofcreation in thesefinelywroughtpoems. Collected and published in celebrationofBodo's spiritual and poeticmaster, St. Francis of Assisi, and markingthe 800th anniversaryofthesaint'shymntothebeautyoftheearth, "The CanticleoftheCreatures," Father Bodo's "canticles" honor and praisethe mysteriesofourbeing--amongthem, thegiftsoftheelements, thepassageof theseasons, thechallengesoftheagingbody, thevoicesofourbeloveddead, and the power ofpoetry--thathasenabledthepoetto sing a newsonguntothe Lord, day in and day out, formostofhiseighty-someyears. Toread Father Bodo'sworkistoimmerseoneself in themusicofhislanguage, towalksidebysidewith a wisecompanion, and toshare in hisvisionof a worldinhabited, beloved, and redeemedbyGod. These poemsare a benediction and a blessing." --Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, authorofHoly Land, Dear Dante, and winneroftheParaclete Poetry Prize "The immediacy of being alive infuses these poems: 'The stars / their cars on fire as they fall,' the 'knife-edge of air / above the timberline,''an embodied soul you breathe.

' Behind this immediacy lie larger, shaping forces; among them, for Bodo, are the startling religious mystics; the unruly seasons, manifesting both inside and outside the self; and the expansive mountain-and-skyscapes of his homelands in New Mexico. "These poems speak, too, of dangers both personal and historical: a stretch of spiritual drought, a sandstorm gaining entry to a father and son's moving vehicle, atomic testing on one's doorstep--which causes an atmosphere strangely 'illuminated.' Yet everywhere, Brother Air's ever-changing presence alerts us, holds us, so that even the simple act of breathing is sacred. At times, the shaping forces provide a way to live more fullythrough them, as when 'in thinnest / Air can air be quickened breath / Become spirit breathing out / What's already there within / Breathing in the rarest air.' Breath after poem after breath, one emerges restored." --Rebekah Bloyd, authorofBuoyant.