Sharing Water by the River is a new series of poems by Uniting Church minister Denham Grierson who knows from his pastoral and teaching ministry the significance of metaphor, ambiguity and mystery.

In the spirit of a seeker of wisdom and with an enthusiasm for his experience of discovering meaning, purpose and revelation in the everyday, he offers his poems, inviting us to share the hidden depths of what makes us human; and alive to God.

The author gladly acknowledges that poets do not write poetry. They write poetry down.

Some poems (he writes) come fully formed, needing only some superficial amendment. And when a poem comes to rest, it breaks open new understandings if we choose to participate in its offering. It brings a gift. Much like welcoming a stranger in who speaks a new language that unlocks the mystery of your own deepest convictions.

In the process, what is revealed is the symbiotic relationship between the old and the new, freeing us from that powerless state where we know more than we can tell, for we do not have the words. Here is the gift of poetry, the transmission of existence clarification.

About the Author

Denham Grierson, a retired Uniting Church Minister, first had poems printed in his school magazine. Over the years in his writings and speaking engagements the occasional poem appeared, but only in retirement from thirty years of tertiary teaching, and forty years of ministry, has the time been available to focus on poetry, that access into the depths of our lives, as Denham describes it. There is still time for golf, family, and travel but they too are resources for writing poems.