Last month, we shared an interview with Tania Runyan. We are such fans of her poetry that we invited her to take over this Substack for the next two weeks. Tania has written several books of nonfiction and poetry, but we invited her to share a few poems from What Will Soon Take Place, a poetic journey through the book of Revelation. During this Stack Takeover, we’ll be sharing a few of our favorites, the poems based on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation.
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Sardis
by Tania Runyan
She sprays the nursery toys with water and bleach, erasing snot and drool from stacking rings, wiping board books crimped by toddlers' teeth. The congregation mingles in the wings. The morning's Danish and donut halves go stale. She wants to curl in the berbered corner to doze but needs to dump and scour the diaper pail before the second service fills the rows. She dares to bow in the blocks to say a prayer for the hands that will clutch these rattles and dolls, but that woman with implants and highlit hair nudges her friend and snickers down the hall. Now whether to scrub the carpet's spit-up stains. If it's even possible to strengthen what remains.
Tania Runyan is an NEA fellow and author of the poetry collections What Will Soon Take Place, Second Sky, A Thousand Vessels, Simple Weight, and Delicious Air, which was awarded Book of the Year by the Conference on Christianity and Literature. Her first book-length creative nonfiction title, Making Peace With Paradise: An Autobiography of a California Girl, was released in 2022. Tania’s instructional guides, How to Read a Poem, How to Write a Poem, and How to Write a Form Poem, are used in classrooms across the country, and her poems have appeared in publications such as Poetry, Image, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, The Christian Century, and the Paraclete anthology Christian Poetry in America Since 1940. She lives with her family in Illinois, where she works in educational publishing.
What a lovely tribute to the often unseen work and unappreciated hearts of the Sunday School teachers, especially those who work with the youngest disciples. It is a calling I only share because I feel obligated to give back—I have four children into whom numerous members of my church family pour their hearts and God’s truth into weekly. I serve alongside them to show my appreciation, but I also hold dear a reverence for those who are truly passionate about serving children. Theirs are hearts full of tenderness and joy that I only catch glimpses of when it’s my week to serve.
Pray for your children’s ministry leaders. Their calling is especially important in this cultural moment. Ask how you can support them and for goodness sake, make sure you are discipling your children at home. Do not foist that tremendous burden solely on Sunday School teachers.
Wow. Tania's verse is always stop-you-in-your-tracks.