Naomi J Cochran

Razed Lutheran Naomi J Cochran

A tender and reverent look at religion at its best and worst. 27 poems depicting life as a rural Wisconsin German Lutheran from the early 1900's through present. The book opens with "The Church at Phipps," describing a farm woman who prepares the sanctuary after milking her cows, and ends with a desperate suggestion a hundred years later to "Burn All the Books." The poems weave together a lifetime of innocent faith and deep questions, masterfully creating a book that both challenges and inspires. In the end, Cochran offers the reader Martin Luther's own words, that "God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars." Cover photo: Trinity Lutheran Church at Phipps Wisconsin, 1960. Photo by Clifford Weingarten.