Godfrey John, C.S.B., was a poet, writer, lecturer, and teacher.

Biography

Godfrey John was born and grew up in Wales. He served in the Royal Air Force, and graduated from Cambridge University,[1] where he was boxing team captain and a "light blue", and was a British amateur heavyweight boxing champion. For more than 40 years, poems and essays by John were published in the Christian Science Monitor.[2]

Godfrey John moved to the United States in 1958, where he lived and worked and received a first award from the Academy of American Poets.[3] He was a professor of English at several colleges in the United States,[1] including Principia College,[4] and later worked as an arts critic for the Christian Science Monitor. He became a public practitioner of Christian Science.[5] In 1970, he moved to Canada, where he became a dual citizen (Canadian and British). In Canada, he also became a Christian Science teacher and served briefly on the Christian Science Board of Lectureship.[6] For many years he was also active as a voluntary probation and parole officer.[7] He had two children with his wife Rosalind,[5] and lived in Toronto.[8]

Publications

Godfrey John was widely published in the Christian Science periodicals, including the Monitor, for over 40 years.[9] He published a collection of poems and essays in the books Five Seasons (Foursquare Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1977) and Compassion Wins (Thomson-Shore, Inc., Dexter, Michigan, 2001).[5] The foreword of his first book was written by Henrietta Buckmaster, and the second by Rushworth Kidder.[10][11] He is also published in a number of anthologies including Boundless Light: Poems of Healing.[12]

Some of his poems are in the Welsh cywydd form.

References

  1. 1 2 "Christian Science Lecture Scheduled for Monday" Ludington Daily News, Ludington, Michigan (June 13, 1991). Retrieved November 19, 2013
  2. ↑ "Thanks awfully" Christian Science Monitor (July 24, 2003). Retrieved November 19, 2013
  3. ↑ Biographical notes, back cover. Five Seasons (1977)
  4. ↑ "Unforgettable Faculty: College English Professor, Godfrey John". 2009. Principia Purpose. p. 28.
  5. 1 2 3 Kim Shippey (September 19, 2005). "Writing... a kind of prayer" The Christian Science Sentinel. Retrieved November 19, 2013
  6. ↑ "Midnight is Our Noon (How Christ Dissolves Crisis)". Vol. 21, no. 6. Lariat. 18 October 1990.
  7. ↑ John, Godfrey (2001). Compassion Wins: Collected Poems and Essays 1977-2000. Thomson-Shore, Inc. inside cover.
  8. ↑ "Midnight is Our Noon (How Christ Dissolves Crisis)" Lariat, Vol. 21, Num. 6, 18 October 1990.
  9. ↑ "Five Seasons by Godfrey John". longyear.org. Longyear Museum.
  10. ↑ Henrietta Buckmaster. Forward, Five Seasons, p. xv. (1977)
  11. ↑ Rushworth Kidder. Foreword, Compassion Wins, pp. v-vi. (2001) ISBN 0-9707341-0-7
  12. ↑ Boundless Light: Poems of Healing. Boston: CSPS. p. 120.
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