There is a Future

Learning about the ancient Jewish tradition of midrash, a rabbinic form of textual interpretation that seeks and imagines answers to unanswerable questions, felt to Amy Bornman like a poetic invitation to re-engage with the Bible in a new way. There is a Future: A Year of Daily Midrash ΓÇô an award-winner in the Paraclete Poetry Prize competition ΓÇô grew from a yearlong project to read the Bible daily, and write daily midrashic poems in response to the readingsΓÇöto honor the text by wondering about, and struggling with, it. By engaging particular passages of scripture across the Old and New Testaments directly, these poems imagine new dimensions of the text, and make vivid connections to the world as it is now and to the authorΓÇÖs own lifeΓÇöemerging at yearΓÇÖs end with new hope in a future that at times feels impossible, as the days pile on days and the textΓÇÖs enduring questions continue to ring.