In ‘Still Pilgrim,’ a reminder of why prayer works so well

The title of Angela Alaimo O’Donnell’s new volume is both a paradox and an invitation.

By Nick Ripatrazone | Print | Share

Article Culture

Still Pilgrim
by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell (Paraclete Press, 2017)

The title Still Pilgrim is both a paradox and an invitation. As Christians we are called to be pilgrims—to move and journey both within and outside ourselves—and yet we are also called to contemplate. Angela Alaimo O’Donnell quotes both T. S. Eliot and Psalm 46 to show that stillness is a deliberate action in an endlessly moving world. In O’Donnell’s poems, stillness means devotion.
Every poem in this book is a sonnet, the poetic form best suited to paradox. O’Donnell’s method and style is flawless; it is easy to forget her verse is metered, rhymed, and crafted by form. Still Pilgrim reminds us why prayer works so well: Cadence makes for clarity.