HEART FIAT: NEW CATHOLIC POEMS

WINNER OF CATHOLIC MEDIA ASSOCIATION BOOK AWARD 1st PLACE (CHURCH LIFE: PASTORAL MINISTRY CATECHETICAL)

 

WINNER OF CATHOLIC MEDIA ASSOCIATION BOOK AWARD 1st PLACE (SPECIAL COLLECTIONS: BACKLIST BEAUTY)

 

WINNER OF ILLUMINATION CHRISTIAN BOOK GOLD AWARD (POETRY)

 

WINNER OF NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARD (POETRY)

 

WINNER OF SPEAK UP TALK RADIO INTERNATIONAL FIREBIRD BOOK AWARD (POETRY)

 

WINNER OF CATHOLIC MEDIA ASSOCIATION BOOK AWARD 2nd PLACE (INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATION: POETRY)

 

WINNER OF CATHOLIC MEDIA ASSOCIATION BOOK AWARD 2nd PLACE (CHURCH LIFE: PILGRIMAGES/CATHOLIC TRAVEL)

 

WINNER OF NAUTILUS SILVER BOOK AWARD (LYRIC PROSE & HYBRID WORKS)

 

WINNER OF INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER SILVER BOOK AWARD (POETRY–SPECIALTY)

 

WINNER OF CATHOLIC MEDIA ASSOCIATION BOOK AWARD 3rd PLACE (SPECIAL COLLECTIONS: POETRY)

 

WINNER OF LIVING NOW BRONZE BOOK AWARD (DIGITAL MEDIA)

 

WINNER OF CATHOLIC MEDIA ASSOCIATION BOOK AWARD HONORABLE MENTION (EDUCATION: FAITH FORMATION)

 

 

* The first edition of Heart Fiat is dedicated to Pope Francis. This poetry collection marks the pontiff’s visit to Singapore in 2024.

 

“Let our scars fall in love,” Galway Kinnell said. In this compelling book, Desmond Francis Xavier Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé moves his love language over old wounds, deep cuts now seemingly inappreciable. Scarred over and smoothed out—by grace. Yet, how reasoned and magnificent the rising for air, the lyric ascent that wraps a heady mix of theological imagination and handsome aesthetics, without pause or apology. This is a hearty nod to Hans Urs von Balthasar’s three transcendentals of Being—beauty, goodness, truth. In these poems, one experiences the full-bodied witness of Catholic piety, one that remains brave, vulnerable, curious, devoted, and above all, reverent.

 

The lines traverse a broad, lustrous terrain, from Mount Olivet to Macau, Malacca to Montreal. From Caravaggio’s Deposition of Christ to Salvador Dalí’s Ascension of Christ. From the Church of Agios Lazaros to the Church of the Sepulchre of Saint Mary. One walks through Ordinary Time to Advent, and looks on the year Ash Wednesday fell on Saint Valentine’s Day. Without reservation, there remains an adoring love for the Holy Eucharist. And veneration for what is an impressive host of saints—from Saint Monica to Saint Rose of Lima, Saint John of the Cross to Saint Josemaría Escrivá.

 

How do our conversations with God inhabit their own speech acts, then settle comfortably into the contemplative, the deep quiet of silence? How does the language of the confessional translate itself into confessional poetry, the expressed lyric turning itself over and over again, how iterative, how manifold the unfolding and infolding. A language always stationed in a state of contingency, open in its gentle evolutions—by turns; yet, all at once. The fragile transformations as delicate and faint, as they remain illumined, uplit. Always looking heavenward, toward the light, toward transcendence.

 

Published by Poetry Festival Singapore.

 

In various markets, this book is available for purchase here under Resource Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers.

 

* These are limited author copies put up for sale.

“Lifting us far beyond this earthbound life, Desmond Kon’s Heart Fiat displays his signature grace and erudition at its best, revealing a soul shot through with the light of eternity where God resides. This collection is Kon’s literary treasure trove of love offerings—poems of ‘bright light’ guiding us through ‘the way of language,’ a realm of a faith-infused imagination where the sacraments of daily life yield wonder and awe in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The truth shimmers on these pages with an ‘eternal echo’ in praise of Christ, the giver of all good gifts, and ultimately, our salvation.”

 

~ Karen An-hwei Lee

 

“ ‘Holy…is this moment of needing definitions,’ thus Desmond Kon situates his exploration of meaning in a rich Catholic topography inhabited by blessed ones and saints, pilgrims and penitent sinners. In a fascinating, all-encompassing tour where ‘the transcendental signified is situated, proper’ there is no area beyond experience that is not imbued with the sacred, the miraculous. What a blessing it is to encounter a poet so immersed in God’s Word that he may prayerfully, convincingly aver, all things now made for this, to house our love’.”

 

~ Sofia M. Starnes

 

“In Heart Fiat Desmond Kon roams the interior and exterior world as one. The spiritual and religious are here, but these realms are passages to the mysteries of our tangible existence: the ‘real presence’ becomes the conviction, ‘now I begin’; the wedding at Cana prompts Kon to ask, who is ‘worth my lifetime of longing.’ Elsewhere an account of the challenging marriage of a folk artist evokes a meditation on Saint Gertrude, who ‘is safe in the monastery of her own formation.’ If you’ve thought the spiritual can be safely locked away, these poems will make you think again.”

 

~ Fr Tom Holahan, CSP

 

“Desmond Francis Xavier Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé’s collection, Heart Fiat, is unlike any book I have read. This striking work of confessional poetry of varied forms and subjects reflects the author’s great love of language from the simple to the erudite. His rock-solid Catholic faith and devotion, very much informed by the Ignatian spirituality of his namesake, is clearly evident here. The combination of his intellectual theology with his humble and unaffected piety is so felicitous and so very refreshing in our often jaded world today. Please God, the deep ruminations and reflections in Desmond’s striking collection of poetry will inspire the readers of this powerful work to ponder their own faith as seriously and as fruitfully as the author has his.”

 

~ Fr Gerard Garrigan, OSB

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