Below the brightness

by steven searcy

Below the Brightness explores the life of the spirit, searching for the light piercing into a world that is full of darkness. These spiritual reflections often look to the danger and beauty of the natural world—the cycle of seasons, the lives of trees, the flight of birds—always listening for the quiet hum of hope and redemption. Most of these poems employ the traditional tools of meter and rhyme, often with strikingly compact lines, condensing images and experiences down to diamonds of clarity. These musical verses aim to offer an honest expression of the frail and flawed human condition—looking forward to the divine brightness, crying out in prayer, and sometimes breaking through to praise.

praise for Below the brightness

This is poetry of the highest order. Metrically and musically deft and finely wrought, it is full of the sensitivity to sound and meaning, close observation, nascent metaphor, and surprising revelation that we look for in the best poetry. The sheer variety of forms and themes on display here, and Searcy’s mastery of both form and theme is all the more remarkable for a first collection. I have found my appreciation of both life and faith deepened and informed by these poems.

—MALCOLM GUITE, author and editor of The Word in the Wilderness

Steven Searcy’s spare, controlled poems evoke a rich cosmos in which control—our control over things, at any rate—is always tenuous. Tracing the arc of the seasons, in worlds both natural and domestic, in the ravages of weather and time and in small rituals of daily life and prayer, this debut collection acknowledges the frailty of a fallen creation still, mysteriously, indwelt and held together by its creator. These are poems which both mark beauty, in all its large and small material occurrences, and long for it, knowing that the beauty we observe before us is not all there is: “everything living moves and weaves and strives / because love moves, and the Lord of love lives.”

—SALLY THOMAS, author of Motherland

Searcy is the George Herbert of the Atlanta suburbs, but what keeps him from being a mere imitator is his formal innovation. He is, in particular, a master of the short line, which adds a freshness and spontaneity to his own spiritual reflections. Highly recommended.

—BURL HORNIACHEK, editor of To Heaven's Rim: The Kingdom Poets Book of World Christian Poetry

Reverent and reflective, penitent and penetrating, humble and hopeful: these are words that come to mind as I read this beautiful collection of poems by Steven Searcy. You will be blessed—challenged and comforted—as you meditate on each entry.

—MATTHEW Y. EMERSON, Co-Provost & Academic Dean, Oklahoma Baptist University

In these pages and poems, Steven’s vivid word pictures draw me into the realities and mysteries of nature, and hold its moments still just long enough for me to see reflections of my own heart and human condition. I find myself lingering in solidarity . . . pondering my own soul and the One who made all things. 

—MARK A. LOOYENGA, D.Min., M.Div., M.S., Director of Soul Care, The Navigators

about the author