FAITH LOST AND FOUND

Jim Hanson’s poems speak to the epic issues of how faith is lost in a
material and mortal world, and how it can be found through responses
that are spiritual and worldly as well as religious and heavenly. They
follow the line of paradise lost and gained by John Milton and divine
transcendence by Dante, but with the breadth of perennial philosophy.
They recognize that faith is doubtful, perhaps futile, like Sisyphus
pushing his rock with great effort and no outcome, oscillating between
resolution and dissolution, sin and redemption, samsara and nirvana.
Is the end another, exalted beginning as promised by T.S. Eliot or the
futility lamented by Sylvia Plath and John Berryman? Perhaps the
finding and losing of faith is an unending process.

The poems start with doubt about self and human nature expressed in
demons, violence, and residue. They proceed to knowledge sought
starting 2,500 years ago in the Axial Age, in a dialogue of similar
issues then and now, and in the world around us regarding the
Anthropic Principle. They go on to posit multicultural responses to
doubt and suffering – theistic, Western, and Eastern – then to more
individual responses of paths to take and of perennial faith to be
found. So we all may have some faith in our selves and in the
social/cultural realm, bio-physical realm, and ideal gods and heavens
– some transcendental faith beyond who we are and what we know.

Jim Hanson is a sociologist and retired Senior Researcher at Southern
Illinois University-Carbondale. He has taught sociology and community
development, also has worked in community and economic development. He
is a lay-ordained Zen Buddhist and lives in the St. Louis area with
his wife, Carol. His poetry collections include Endless Journey: Poems
in Search of Meaning published in 2022 by Spartan Press, Perspectives:
Educational Poems on the Humanities and Sciences published in 2023 by
Resource Publications, and Ruminations: Poems on Living and Dying
published in 2023 by Cyberwit Press. Single poems have appeared in
some thirty websites and printings. He is a member of the and Illinois
State Poetry Society Southern Chapter and St. Louis Poetry Center.

BIO
Jim Hanson is a sociologist and retired Senior Researcher at Southern
Illinois University-Carbondale. He has taught sociology and community
development, also has worked in community and economic development. He
is a lay-ordained Zen Buddhist and lives in the St. Louis area with
his wife, Carol. His poetry collections include Endless Journey: Poems
in Search of Meaning published in 2022 by Spartan Press, Perspectives:
Educational Poems on the Humanities and Sciences published in 2023 by
Resource Publications, and Ruminations: Poems on Living and Dying
published in 2023 by Cyberwit Press. Single poems have appeared in
some thirty websites and printings. He is a member of the and Illinois
State Poetry Society Southern Chapter and St. Louis Poetry Center.