The Invitation to the Garden

This poetry collection is more a description then a prescription of a mystic journey. For those who are exhausted by the self-help books of the Christian publishing industry, the meditations, vision, and love letters from God will soothe the spirit.

The author, Joanna Tulloch, is a Methodist preacher who receives a vision of Jesus in the jungle, inviting her to a place of peace and growth in the Garden. This sort of spirit-filled experience finds little voice in the Methodist tradition, so may be confusing. Tulloch turns to a form of art that uses words to create the images we can’t quite express, to share the truths of our faith that are tired from being hammered into a sermon.

While I quite liked this accessible and quick poetic journey, there are some forms I wish were different. The first section focuses too much on rhyming, which is a personal pet peeve. I do appreciate that in the desperate middle of the book, the form breaks down as her mind does. The shards of diction express more than many of the longer poems.

There are some lovely lines, including:

“Your depression, all your mind’s pain are for me to gaze on.”

“Straining to make their songs appear good news--when worship is hard work for priest and flock and eyes keep wandering off to check the clock.”

“Though I lose hold of You, You never withdraw your hand.”

“There are many ways out, many doors to oblivion; it is easy to take these. Harder to remain a seeker”

An Invitation into the Garden is a lovely easy book to read. I loved the way Joanna Tulloch uses poetry in her book.