From the gentle hand of an experienced master, this collection of American poetry explores the timeless themes of nature and faith. The collection is filled with Biblical and literary references based on a lifetime of scholarship and reflection.
How Great Thou Art is a collection of poems and other writings by David L. Coulter, MD, compiled over his lifetime. Each of the four poetry sections explores the interrelated themes of nature, faith and spirituality based on Coulter's life and his growing, changing relationship with the physical and spiritual worlds.
The first section, The Almanack of Faith, joins the cycles of the year to the cycles of human life in a testament to the power of faith in coping with all that we face while living our lives.
The second, Syllogisms of Faith, updates Thomistic and Aristotelian philosophies in order to create a new vision of spirituality that is based on an intimate relationship with the greatness and wonders of the natural world.
The third section, Nature, Faith, and Spirituality, presents a variety of poems that capture the author's reflections on these interconnected themes over his lifetime. The poems are sometimes playful and full of joy, other times deep and dark, but are always based on the author's own experiences and his pilgrim's journey of faith.
The last poetry section, Youthful Intimations, is a happy return to Coulter's childhood and demonstrates the beginning of his lifelong love of verse. The forgivable immaturity of these poems shows the origin of his love of nature and the spirit. This section is also meant to encourage children and adolescents to have fun writing poems and to maintain their love of poetry when they grow up.
A concluding section sets out four inspirational lay sermons Coulter has delivered concerning Franciscan nature mysticism, dealing with mortality, celebrating disability and a new approach to understanding good and evil. This section also includes a story he wrote in high school that addresses the problem of racism with a discussion of themes that continue to challenge all of us today.
Read reflect, contemplate, enjoy-and discover a new wisdom.
About the Author: David L. Coulter, MD, grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, in the 1960s and experienced firsthand the deeply ingrained racism of the time. He earned his bachelor's degree in biology from Notre Dame in 1969 and his MD degree from Yale in 1973. He currently serves as senior staff neurologist at Boston Children's Hospital and as an associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.
Married for over thirty years, Coulter and his wife, Mary C. Cerreto, PhD, a child psychologist and certified dog trainer, enjoy caring for an extensive canine family. They reside together in Natick, Massachusetts, and maintain a vacation cottage on an island in the St. Lawrence River.
Coulter previously published several poems about aging in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and has one prior collection of poetry in print: Disability, Doctoring and Patient Care. He was honored in 2017 by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation's Award for Humanism in Medicine.
