Poets! Anabaptist World is looking for your poetry to include in our digital offerings.

We are looking for original poems that relate to the church calendar. We are also interested in poems engaging theological themes that can speak to us at any time of the year.  Consider these prompts to guide you. These prompts are meant to generate work and ideas, not to limit them.

• Ecotheology, the groaning of creation, resurrection/new life
• Image of God, the Kingdom of God, body of Christ/church
• Ascension, Pentecost, speech, fire, Holy Spirit
• Prophetic call, lament, confession, repentance, reconciliation, peacemaking
• Water, baptism, dying to self, new birth
• Seeds, planting, growth, darkness, soil, roots
• Communion, worship, presence, discipleship
• Praise for and celebration of gifts, life, and beauty
• Harvest, giving thanks, imagining new heaven and new earth
• Advent, making room, justice, liberation
• Epiphany, Christ our Light, incarnation/embodiment, journey
• Lent, sin, dry bones, spiritual disciplines, reflection, the cross
• History, tradition, the cloud of witnesses, martyrs, persecution, Gelassenheit/yieldedness, the power of God over all

We like well-crafted poems with clear, grounded images. We like to see scriptural, cultural, and/or theological engagement in poems, but also new, striking reflections on or articulations of classic themes in Anabaptist faith and life.  We appreciate imagination, mystery, beauty, and simplicity.

When submitting poems, please do so in a Word document, and send up to three preferably unpublished poems to poetry@anabaptistworld.org. We will do our best to respond in 4-6 weeks.