I Lost Faith But Once

Fanny Howe (15 October 1940 – 9 July 2025)

This is from an interview (“Theology and Poetry: An Interview with Fanny Howe”) I did in 2005 with Fanny Howe for Lyric Poetry Review:

The following lines, from Fanny Howe’s poem “They Are, They Must,” explode “the sequence,” they break into

a Divine happiness the way Gene Kelley breaks into happiness when he steps into the rain:

These lines, with their anaphora and petitions, take on a religious aura, and they are also reminiscent of Sir Walter Raleigh’s poem “The Passionate Man’s Pilgrimage” where Raleigh considers the accoutrements of the pilgrim. The utilitarian objects in his poem and in Fanny’s embody the spiritual.

While Raleigh’s poem was written in extraordinary circumstances (they are an account of his pilgrimage towards death), all poems, in some way, are reflections, witness statements, and petitions in our hours towards the final end in this world.

PROMPT: Try writing a poem that includes a memory of complete happiness (for example, one man’s moment was five minutes on a train with his mother). Employ anaphora and every day utilitarian objects.