First published 2023
This collection captures Lewis as a young soldier wrestling with brutal realities that shatter comfortable assumptions about divine providence. The poems move through three distinct phases, beginning with raw observations from the trenches where men die without meaning or mercy. Lewis confronts a universe that appears empty of the God he once trusted, where suffering serves no higher purpose. His verses chronicle the spiritual crisis of a generation that watched civilization collapse into mechanized slaughter. The middle section explores this theological void, as Lewis examines whether faith can survive when prayers go unanswered and innocents perish. The final poems search for new foundations, testing whether beauty and human connection might offer meaning when traditional beliefs fail. Lewis writes with the immediacy of someone still processing trauma, his language shifting between despair and tentative hope. The collection reveals the intellectual and emotional journey that would later inform his Christian apologetics and fantasy works.
Genres: 20th-century, war, poetry, religion
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-meaning, spiritual-crisis
Period: 1898-1963
122 pages · Paperback · Legare Street Press
Content warnings: death, war