Spirit Book Word: An Inquiry into Literature and Spirituality

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Most writers are omnivorous readers, and J.S. Porter is no exception.
The writer, also a poet and critic, teaches English at Mohawk College in
Hamilton. The source of inspiration for his book’s unusual structure
of 12 very short chapters is a list of 10 key words taken from his
favorite writers. The words are “Love” (Raymond Carver), “Small”
(Kristjana Gunnars), “Revelations” (Flannery O’Connor),
“Quick” (D.H. Lawrence), “Strange” (Clarice Lispector),
“Zero” (Emily Dickinson), “Being” (Martin Heidegger),
“Tremendum” (Dennis Lee), “Obedience” (George Grant), and
“Mercy” (Thomas Merton).

Irish by birth, and a passionate reader by nature, Porter begins by
apologizing for “violating” silence. He describes his talk as small,
strange, and obedient: “Light as a David Milne brush stroke.” Porter
calls the words that have inspired him “charged with spirit,” and
his method as one that searches for “birth-words,” defined as
magical words that give life to literature.

Spirit Book Word is an unusual “inquiry,” a word from the subtitle:
a good book for reading in snatches. Always interesting, it is sometimes
profound. A relatively small book, it could be kept handy to ward off
boredom at a moment’s notice. It might even turn the reader into a
philosopher.