A Crown for Abba Moses

Mature poetic craft deftly does its job on every page of this gathering of new and selected poems. Timothy E. G. Bartel knows precisely how to use ageless poetic tools -- metrics, metaphor, allusion -- to elicit ageless responses from us: joy, grief, wonder. He brings gentle humor, wide curiosity, and an understanding of human nature to the task. Really, what more can we ask of poetry?

-- Jane Greer, author of The World as We Know It Is Falling Away

When Moses had escaped from slavery

(Many years before he was called Abba)

He settled on the best course for his life:

To be a thief and lead a crew of thieves.

So begins Timothy E. G. Bartel's series of sonnets on Moses the Ethiopian, one of the greatest saints of the ancient Christian world. Alongside the life of St. Moses, Bartel also presents a new version of the story of Camilla, the tragic warrior of Virgil's Aeneid, whose dedication to the goddess of Diana leads her through battle and death to glory. Sonnets, hymns, elegiac couplets, and translations round out this collection, in which Bartel explores the worlds of history, legend, and nature.

Also included are selected poems from Bartel's earlier publications, including Arroyos: Sijos and Other Poems (2015) and The Martyr, The Grizzly, The Gold: Poems (2012).

Timothy E. G. Bartel is a poet and professor from California. He is the author of several books of poetry and literary criticism, including Aflame but Unconsumed: Poems (Kelsay Books, 2019) and The Heroines of Henry Longfellow: Domestic, Defiant, Divine (Lexington, 2022). Timothy currently serves as Professor of Great Texts and Writing at Saint Constantine College.