The Language of Light: Poems of Wit, Whimsy, and (Maybe) Wisdom

By Nancy Thomas. Fernwood Press, 2024. 122 pages. $19/paperback.

The Language of Light is a collection of poems that are so delightful that I felt compelled to read many aloud to family and friends. Quaker poet Nancy Thomas loves words and humor. Regarding her choice to use the word light in the title, she explains, “It’s a recognition that humor produces a certain lightness of spirit. Laughter lifts us up and gives a more gracious perspective of reality.” I agree, and I found that her witty, silly, and perceptive poems do the same. I felt refreshed and lighter after reading them.

The poems are divided into four sections: the first celebrates the quirks of language; the second plays with common figures of speech; the third looks at human relationships and includes insights from scripture; and the final section shares poems that reflect Thomas’s “attempt to approach growing older with courage and humor.”

Again and again, she reminds us of the magic of poetry, skillfully expressing layers of meaning in only a handful of words, as in the first poem of the collection, “You Have a Way with Words,” which we learn is something a granddaughter once said to her. Thomas wonders to herself what she meant, meditating on the possibilities: “Sometimes words / hack through the weeds / in the mind / to bring clarity,” and “Sometimes words / get in the way.” She ends with a simple twist:

Those times I say to myself,
Away with words!
Away with words!

Maybe that’s what
She meant.

Thomas does not count iambs or devise intricate rhyme schemes; she creates images and offers new ways to think about common problems. “Just a Tweak,” for example, is a prayer in which she asks God for a tweak to her aging body: “I know I’m growing older / and that a bit of wear ’n tear is natural / but is this particular malfunction / really necessary?” She includes the Lord’s side of the conversation as well. I found it amusing while not lacking reverence.

Thomas, who has served as Friends Journal’s poetry editor since 2020, is also a recorded Quaker minister with experience in theological education. In her poems that reference Bible passages, we see that her “preaching” is often querying. Let me share a few lines from “CEO,” which comments on the transfiguration of Jesus as told in Luke 9:28–36: “Peter, impulsive, full / of good ideas, / only-trying-to-help, / offered to organize the occasion.” Instead of quieting Peter, a voice from the cloud above them “said simply, Listen to Jesus.” Imagine! Jesus as chairman of the board and an apostle as a CEO! Thomas has a quirky vision.

Friends will enjoy the subtle, gentle lessons and impish, Spirit-led insights found in The Language of Light, for in the words of Nancy Thomas, “Like a cheerful giver, / God loveth / a silly poet.”

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Sandy Farley is a member of Palo Alto (Calif.) Meeting, San Mateo Worship Group. She is a credentialed teacher, storyteller, and coauthor/illustrator of the Earthcare for Children curriculum. Gail Whiffen, associate editor of Friends Journal, also contributed to this review.