Into This Holy Estate

Marriage can still make news--a celebrity wedding, a noisy divorce, a new law allowing same-sex marriage--but it's hardly the preferred option. Cohabitation is enough for many. And constancy? Staying? Do you hear about that much? We all move, fly, uproot, take vacations, tour. In fact, staying is strange! What might it feel like, or look like? A renewable resource? Sustainable energy, a school of resilience? Is there anything to this business of vows--this long history of enactment, consecration, and sacrament? What about the words we say when we do it? What about the terrain we set down roots into afterwards? Is there a parallel there--or something closer?

This book is a story of a marriage lived out under the pronouncements of an ancient text (whose archaic language makes the occasional cameo appearance or comic turn) and under the aegis and blessing of a great river named after a saint. The story passes, mostly, in a garden, and annotates ""the way love will flow through a marriage / on its way to its destination.""

""Mia Anderson's poetry always goes straight to the heart of things, with an almost shocking realism and humor. What better qualities to express the paradoxes, pains, joys, and endurances of a long and loving marriage--an ascetical endeavor now all-too rarely experienced in the contemporary West, let alone reflected upon with such poignant wisdom and insight. Evocations from the marriage service of the Book of Common Prayer accompany the reader in this journey through the many dimensions of marriage's 'great mystery.' A wonderful collection.""

--Sarah Coakley, Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge


Mia Anderson is author of six books of poetry, including The Sunrise Liturgy (2012) and Light Takes (2014), which contains the 2013 Montreal International Poetry Prize-winning poem ""The Antenna."" A retired theatre actor, Anglican priest, and shepherd, she's also a committed organic grower--and still married.