Below is a passage from one of the books on my list - that's definitely stuck with me. I love the poetic, ponderous way in which Rubem Alves writes - speaks to my soul somehow. The prophets in the Bible are some of my favourite characters, especially John the Baptist. Something about their wildness and non-conformity and not really fitting in. Standing on the edge, I suppose. Not a comfortable place, but a necessary one. Every community needs a prophetic voice, if they are to grow and move forwards and become all they were intended to be. Prophets speak truth, and prophets get rejected. They see what the culture around them has not yet awakened to. Like Alves describes in his book, creativity and prophesy are often intertwined...beauty, poetry... Sometimes I can relate to this description below of prophets, and I definitely know people that fit the description. So this is for them :-)
And a new song is heard, the song of the prophet, a song to resurrect the dead. The prophet 'stands in the middle of the crowd, but his roots are not in the crowd. He emerges according to broader laws. The future brutally speaks through him' (Rilke).
The prophet lives in the future. He sees the semblance of life which shines on the surface of the graveyeard: too much talking, too much doing, eating and drinking before the flood, towers which are built to reach heavens. But he is an exile, he lives in a different time, his nest is built in the future. 'And in his solitude eagles shall bring him nourishment in their beaks. And he wants to live among men like strong winds, neighbours of the eagles, neighbours of the snow, neighbours of the sun...And like the wind he wants to blow among them' (Kaufman, 211).
The Poet, The Warrior, The Prophet - Rubem A. Alves - p.135
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