Surfing for Jesus

"Surfing for Jesus" is a 3-D IMAX picaresque where J.C. Penney is the tabernacle; Walter Cronkite, a confessor; and drivers express their "Lordy-Lord" perfections by hugging the speed limit (exactly). These poems variously mourn, moon, lampoon, side-step, meditate, bash, tweak, and imagine their way through the thickets of contemporary commerce and religiosity-to find meaning with the Dalai Lama on the basement bowling alley of a defunct Jesuit seminary; with a sand dolphin and mermaid on a New Jersey beach; and with Jesus resurrected as a Laotian drag queen. Ultimately, "Surfing for Jesus" celebrates that the personal lyric is both a vehicle for and the destination of spiritual authenticity.