Customer Reviews

Velvet Steel: The Joy of Being Married to You: Selections from the Poems of John Piper

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As a companion volume to This Momentary Marriage Piper has released a collection of poetry under the title Velvet Steel: The Joy of Being Married to You. He says that it is an overflow of his affection for his wife and that in some way this book complete This Momentary Marriage. Where This Momentary Marriage deals primarily with covenant-keeping and not the affections of being in-love, Velvet Steel gives some examples of what the affections have been like over the past forty years.

The poems are arranged chronologically, perhaps not in the order they were written, but in the order of their application to marriage. So the first poems speak of a wedding and the final ones speak of death. Most of the poems are short, just a page or two in length. Many are excerpts of longer works.

Though I do not read poetry as often as I ought and though I am not very skilled at reading and understanding it, I greatly enjoyed this little volume. I read through it on my own and then returned to some of the selections later with my wife. Piper is a gifted poet and in this little book he communicates not only what he could not communicate because of the theme of the first book, but also because of the genre. There are some things that only poetry can communicate; great affections often turn from prose to poetry and for good reason. Here Piper shares his affections in a wonderful collection of little poems. It is a perfect companion to This Momentary Marriage.

I bought this book as a gift for my wife. It wasn't exactly what I had expected but it did contain some heartfelt messages which is what I had hoped. My wife loved the book and if you enjoy short poems you will too.

Velvet Steel is a book of poetry written to John Piper's wife, Noel. It is a small companion book to This Momentary Marriage. Most of the poetry included are excerpts from longer poems that Mr. Piper wrote and are "an overflow of my affection for my wife of more than forty years". There is one poem per page, so it's an easy read. If you like poetry, you'll love this book. I received this book from Crossway.

This book gently witnesses to the fact that while God calls some of us to be poets, and some of us to be systematic theologians, he rarely asks the two to mix. Those looking for a combination of poetry, religion, and passion are better served in the works of Donne, Herbert, or Schnackenberg (especially the exquisite "Supernatural Love"). Velvet Steel suffers from awkward rhyme schemes, vague and wordy imagery, and some of the most ponderous sonic turns in the canon. I imagine the collection fares better when viewed in the context of being married to Mr. Piper; it's just a shame that is not an honor many of us have.