Words Against Despair with Christian Wiman

As poet Christian Wiman explains on our podcast, despair is part of the human condition: “I deal with despair because…I don't know how not to, and it would be an evasion not to. And I think if you don't feel it, then you're not paying attention.”

In his new book, Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair, the acclaimed poet chases meaning through words, including memoir and poetry. And in this conversation he explains how he has found relief from despair in poetry, even and especially when poets grapple honestly with despair, “they speak of [despair] as a thing that can be spoken of.”

Wiman returned to Christian faith in part through a terminal cancer diagnosis–one that he has, to his astonishment, now lived with for over 18 years. His work explores themes of illness, love, faith, and the “almost spiritual joy” of encountering a deadly coral snake. We trust you will find in his poetry, and in this conversation with Trinity Forum’s guest host, Tom Wash, a great tonic against despair.

This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in April 2024. Watch the full video of the conversation here, and learn more about Christian Wiman.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair, by Chrisitan Wiman

Marylin Robison

Danielle Chapman

William Bronk

William Wordsworth

Every Riven Thing, by Christian Wiman

My Bright Abyss: Meditations of a Modern Believer, by Christian Wiman

Prayer, by Carol Ann Duffy

The Bible and Poetry, by Michael Edwards 

Augustine of Hippo

Bittersweet, by George Herbert

Surprised by Joy, by C.S. Lewis

Richard Wilbur

Jürgen Moltmann

When the Time’s Toxins, by Christian Wiman

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Augustine’s Confessions

Devotions by John Donne, paraphrased by Philip Yancey

God’s Grandeur: the Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Bulletins from Immortality, by Emily Dickinson

Wrestling with God, by Simone Weil

Related Conversations:
Connecting Spiritual Formation & Public Life with Michael Wear
The Kingdom, the Power & The Glory with Tim Alberta
A Life Worth Living with Miroslav Volf
Towards a Better Christian Politics
Christian Pluralism: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference
What Really Matters with Charlie Peacock and Andi Ashworth
Scripture and the Public Square

How to be a Patriotic Christian

Life, Death, Poetry & Peace with Philip Yancey

The Fall, the Founding, and the Future of American Democracy

Fear and Conspiracy with David French

To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.