What to read after An Invitation to Biblical Poetry?

"The Introduction orients readers to the aesthetic dimensions of biblical poems and argues that poems as verbal arts are not reducible to rhetoric or a single "message" but rather operate with an excess of meaning that both involves and transcends semantic content. It suggests that biblical poems can be fruitfully examined by considering what kinds of aesthetic experiences they offer. It draws on the work of Alva Noë and Susan Sontag to offer an embodied description of the intellectual work that poems can accomplish as art. The Introduction also provides a succinct overview of its chapters. This book is an invitation to biblical poetry, with students and general readers in mind. It is written with the conviction that people read poetry-even some of the most ancient poetry-because it continues to offer meaningful experiences for its readers. It speaks to us and it speaks for us, and it helps us frame crucial questions about our lives. My hope is that this book might orient readers to the texts and enrich their experiences of reading. I write this introduction under conditions of social distancing resulting from the coronavirus outbreak in the Spring of 2020. I mention this because I believe that the social circumstances of readers have an important bearing on their readings of texts. This is true for all readers of biblical poetry. This is true for me. In such circumstances, we can't help but be reminded of our creatureliness and our fragility-both individually, and communally. The human community is fragmented by isolation and shaken by devastating losses of all kinds"--