The Quiet
Poems of Endurance
- Arts & Literature
- Publisher: Resource Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2026
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Publisher's Description
Jonathan E. Wilson confesses, “I wrote these poems in real time—not as reflections on crisis, but as dispatches from inside it.” Each poem has a date, from February 17, 2025, just days after his son was diagnosed with a brain tumor, to November 14 of the same year, a month after his father’s death. Wilson has spent decades traveling to war zones and disasters helping children recover from trauma, understanding it professionally, but in 2025 “trauma came home.” This book documents Wilson’s attempt to keep going in the midst of doubt, fear, uncertainty, and unbearable waiting. Poetry allowed the unthinkable and unspeakable to be written, the uncertainty and fragility of words, the emptiness and loneliness of prayer and faith, the almost deafening interior noise. Yet it also proved to be a container strong enough to hold them, so that Wilson could make it through to grace. As he writes, “My son is alive. These poems are how I held on.”
Endorsements (3)
“I’m intrigued by how we find ways to assuage hurt, finding words to process our thoughts. In this collection of poetry, Jonathan Wilson leads us through the caverns of his sorrow and hope, allowing us to accompany him on this journey of faith.”
“You may not arrive at the words, sounds, and silences of this unique testimony by the same daunting path as Jonathan Wilson. But my guess is that, like the Psalms, one of the poems has your name written on it. Strangely, I did travel by a route remarkably like that of the author: mine is the poem ‘Complete.’ Yours is waiting for you.”
“Silence, solitude, and poetry can help us cope with trauma and pending disaster. Jonathan Wilson shows this in these heartfelt poems, pain wrestling with hope. These hymns of searching and resting can bring comfort and perhaps illumination to others passing through deep waters and trying times.”
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