It is an old story: a church-going family man receives a violent call to become a prophet. He's read the source material, knows how this has ended for others. But without a means of running away, he reluctantly accepts a vocation he rightly fears will result in tragedy for his family. While receiving dreams and visions, delivering sermons and prayers, frequenting political protests and police stations, being placed in handcuffs and straitjackets, the prophet attempts to speak truth to power and make it home whole, if there is a home left to return to. Promises to Keep explores the fear and trembling and doubt required to have faith in ourselves, each other, and whatever forces may be guiding our steps. It demands we consider what we devote our lives to, what we say we love, and whether the cost of such devotion is worth it.
Review :
"Matthew E. Henry's Promises to Keep tells an old story, a story of being called. But he recognizes that the old story requires new wineskins; the calling is to be lived out amid our contemporary struggles, abominations, and beauty. His poetry rings out with ancient rhythms and contemporary lyricism, its influences stretching from the Biblical prophets to Rilke to Black Thought. This is theology at its best, offering not exegesis but poetics, finding god as it wrestles with the questions, finding wisdom in the uncertainty. Promises to Keep is a mythopoetic vision for this moment. And Henry, like his protagonist, is a prophet for our day."
-Theodore Richards, Author of What Happened to Icarus
"No poet today is writing theology quite like Matthew E. Henry. In Promises to Keep, Henry draws from a deep and varied well of sources, from the Hebrew Bible and De La Soul to Rilke and Chris Rock."
-Frances Klein, author of Another Life
"Promises to Keep is a shocking tour de force that turns the age old struggle between God and man on its head. Told in verse, it's a hero's journey of a modern prophet who risks losing everything to answer his God's call."
-Linda Carney-Goodrich, author of Dot Girl
"Promises to Keep is not written in invisible ink. Henry has created an oracle out of biblical characters, placing them in the political and personal turbulence of our sad times. An important book for understanding what we choose to devote our lives to and whether the cost of such devotion merits the struggle and pain it demands of us."
-Anne Elezabeth Pluto, author of How Many Miles to Babylon
