Oranges from Dominic’s Tree: A New Volume of Poetry

Matthew Powell, O.P., recently released a selected anthology of poems which he compiled and introduced, called Oranges from Dominic’s Tree. The work collects the contemplative creations of more than thirty Dominican friars, sisters, and laity. The thirteen friars, ten sisters and nine lay Dominicans included in this volume wrote and published in English from the early nineteenth century to the present. Several, such as Paul Murray, O.P., Brother Antoninus, and Rose Hawthorne, O.P., are well known. Others are nearly forgotten, such as Michael Field, the pen name of two women tertiaries, and John Gray, rumored to have been the inspiration for Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. The poems range from the poignant “Francie,” Mother Hawthorne’s poem about her son who died at the age of five, to the humorous “Ballad of a Ferocious Catholic,” by Theodore Maynard. Three poets of Saint Joseph’s Province are included: George Leonard Cochran, O.P., Thomas Heath, O.P., and Dominic Rover, O.P. The book is available from New Priory Press and Amazon.

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Image: Paul Gauguin, Still Life with Oranges