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Annotated by:
- Dittrich, Lisa
- Date of entry: Jun-28-1999
- Last revised: Dec-11-2006
Summary
Miracles describes the speaker's Catholic school training and how he moved from an unquestioning faith in the possibility of miracles to disbelief, and the mixed feelings of relief, guilt, and a sense of exile that accompanied this shift.
Primary Source
Alcatraz
Publisher
Purdue Univ. Press
Place Published
West Lafayette, Ind.
Edition
1992
Commentary
Like many of the poems by this author, "Miracles" has a sardonic tone and some wickedly funny lines ("Oh, how my black soul rejoiced / to hear itself addressed in church")--and this may offend some readers. However, as spiritual issues are being increasingly linked to medicine and healing, it is important to acknowledge (and respect) not only believers but non-believers as well. The situation of the skeptical physician and the believing patient is frequently evoked in discussions of spirituality and medicine--but what of the believing physician and the atheist patient?