Rev. Kurt E. Reinhardt has released a new volume of poetry written to accompany Christians “through the valley of the shadow of death”. The 25 poems are accompanied by Scripture verses and illustrated with photography by Rev. Reinhardt, Dr Thomas Winger, and Rev. Will Weedon. Two icons by H. Avery Prozenko complete the artwork. Rev. Robert Bugbee, LCC President Emeritus, provides a foreword. The book is printed in full colour on heavy stock glossy paper, resulting in a volume that is both replete with spiritual meaning and beautiful to the eye.
Pastors will find this collection a rich resource when ministering to the dying and grieving. Those on whom the shadow of death is falling will be strengthened by reading and meditating on these words that point them ever to the life of Christ.
The book is available in hardcover and softcover on the print-on-demand service Lulu.com.
Rev. Will Weedon writes on the cover:
It has ever been the burden of poets to clothe in words what our feelings and thoughts falter to express. When our parched and weary hearts find they have no energy to bring themselves to give voice to their sorrows and their pain, we may turn to the poets and find in their words a gift of sweet comfort, a turn of phrase that releases our pent-up and hitherto wordless agony and grief. We gasp when we read them, for suddenly we know we are not alone. Their words witness that there is a heart out there who has suffered and felt this too. And yet, when that poet is also a speaker of God’s Word? Ah, then the greatest gift of all. Then his words remind us in myriad ways of Him who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, who died our death, who has opened up to us a Kingdom beyond all our broken-hearts, and whose nail scarred hands are spread wide to embrace us. This little volume will do this for you, if you let it. You will find behind the voice of faithful pastor, Kurt Reinhardt, the voice of the Great Physician. It is indeed the sweet balm of Gilead for the soul.
Rev. Reinhardt is a CLTS graduate (MDiv 1999), serving Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, Kurtzville, Ontario. He is one of the most prolific and profound poets in contemporary English-speaking Lutheranism. His first volume of poems was published by Redeemer Press, Ft. Wayne, IN, as My Light and My Salvation. One from that set, “Baptismal Waters Cover Me”, was included as hymn 616 in Lutheran Service Book. A second collection of poems was released in 2020, including 43 new poems together with the original 53 in a revised and enlarged edition of My Light and My Salvation. The book is also available for purchase on Lulu.com as a hard- or softcover book or an e-book.
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Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary 
Kurt Reinhardt: You always bring a smile to my face when I encounter your name. And I am most pleased that you have gotten into poetry and hymn writing. Good poetry and writing gets out the Gospel in a most compelling manner. I wish the Lord of the Church would have started me down that road sooner in life, but am grateful the Lord finally led me into story telling.
Your writing should be most helpful to many who read and live their faith. Thanks for growing into being a teacher for me. Thanks for changing from being my student to being my teacher!
Rev. Dr. Erv Brese