New from Mercy Seat
Glory Wings
Indeed, I recall very well,
That special feeling of being exalted,
Flying helter skelter over vast fields
My dusky heels beating a tattoo on the earth,
On my skinny youthful bottom.
The rays of the sun seemed filtered
As through clouds with golden flash-lights,
Alive with thousands of golden fingers
Caressing my damp joy infused face,
As glory wings lifted skywards,
Oh yes, to race the boundless heavens.
copyright 2005 by Darrell B. Grayson
Darrell B. Grayson
was raised in Montevallo, Alabama with eleven siblings in a single parent
household. He dropped out of school in the ninth grade. At age 19, and
with no prior criminal history, he was convicted and received the death
penalty fro m
an all white jury. He has been on Death Row at Holman Prison in Atmore,
Alabama since 1982. After some years of severe depression, which he
describes as spending flat on his back, the death of his mother brought
about the decision to better himself. He began to write commentary and
poetry and received his GED and Associate Science degree. In 1994 he
became active in Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, an
organization founded and operated by Death Row inmates. In 2000 he
became its chairman. He edits and assembles Wings of Hope, the
Project Hope newsletter, with primitive equipment in the prison.
Darrell Grayson’s poetry, which he describes as "a contagion of
insecurities,” has appeared in Axis of Logic, Right Hand Pointing,
Wings of Hope, and elsewhere.
Proceeds from the sale of
this book will benefit
Project
Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty
$1200
to order,
email us for information
Publisher's Note: Many of our titles have particularly
interesting back stories. This author's son, Michael Pickard, is a
gifted young poet who has studied with Robert Pinsky, among others.
Michael approached us with the manuscript of this book. It turned
out that Michael and his mother had discovered that Rev. Pickard had been
secretly writing this book of Christian meditations. Subsequently,
Rev. Pickard was injured in an auto accident which has left him limited in
his ability to speak and move. Michael wanted to get his father's
book published for the reason any good son who is proud of his father
would want to see his father's work made available. We are
proud to be the publishers of this book.
The Rev. Jamie E. Pickard
received a Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Randolph Macon College and a
Master of Divinity from Duke University. A United Methodist Minister from
1981 until his retirement in 2000, he served on the Conference Board of
Church and Society and, in 1999, as Dean of the Cooperative School of
Christian Missions. Since 2001, he has lived in Auburn, Alabama, with his
wife, Barbara, and
three
children.
Proceeds from the sale of
this book will benefit
the Alabama Head Injury
Foundation and
The General Advance
Program of the United Methodist Church
$1200
to order,
email us for information
The Reverend Douglas Carpenter
has been a parish priest in the Episcopal Church for forty-five years,
preaching a majority of the past 2,340 Sundays. He has served
congregations in Lynchburg, Virginia and in several towns in Alabama, most
recently in Birmingham at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. He began
telling stories around campfires at Camp McDowell as a teenager and hasn't
stopped yet. All the stories in this book are as accurate and true
as the author's memory.
Proceeds from the sale of
this book will benefit
St.
Stephen's Episcopal Church
Birmingham, Alabama
$2000
to order,
email us for information
poems by Robert Collins
Robert Collins
has published poems in a variety of literary magazines, including
Ascent, Cimarron Review, Hiram Poetry Review, Louisville Review,
Connecticut Review, College English, Plainsongs, South Coast Poetry
Journal, Ohio Journal, Southern Humanities Review, Prairie Schooner,
and
Southern Poetry Review.
He has received two Individual Artist Grants from the Alabama State
Council on the Arts in 1993 and 1998, been nominated for a Pushcart
Prize, and awarded the Ascent Prize for Poetry and the Tennessee
Chapbook Prize. He teaches American literature and creative writing at
the University of Alabama in Birmingham where he edits Birmingham
Poetry Review
and directs the creative writing program. His books include The
Inventor Poems, Greatest Hits, The Glass Blower, and Lives We
Have Chosen.
Proceeds from the sale of
this book will benefit
Alethia House
Birmingham, Alabama
$1200
to order,
email us for information
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