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The Elegy Beta (and other poems)

A luminous exploration of the sacred hidden within the ordinary.

The Elegy Beta invites readers into a world where angels walk among us and the veil between heaven and earth grows thin. Through masterfully crafted verse, Mischa Willett illuminates the thresholds where divine mystery intersects with daily life—in hospital waiting rooms, kitchen windows, and quiet moments of wonder.

These poems blend intellectual rigor with spiritual sensitivity, offering readers both comfort and challenge. Willett's precise language and keen theological imagination create a collection that resonates with the depth of Hopkins and Donne while speaking directly to contemporary experience.

Perfect for readers who appreciate:

  • Contemporary poetry with theological depth

  • Accessible yet sophisticated verse

  • Themes of faith, angels, and everyday transcendence

  • Literary craftsmanship rooted in Christian tradition

Order the Elegies

What people are saying.

  • DLJ on Willett

    "An absolutely distinctive voice, angular, refractory, often unsettling in flashes of psychological and spiritual insights...A remarkable volume."

    David Lyle Jeffrey

  • JKAS on Willett is best Christian poet

    "Dwell in the lilt of Willett's play. He's dead serious and death-defying."

    James K.A. Smith

  • BM TGC Willett Christian Poets

    "Displays the capacity of poetic language to remind us of the world--its everyday glory and profound peculiarity--that gets lost in the noise."

    Brett McCracken

  • Guite on best Anglican Poet Mischa Willett

    "Here is a striking and original collection which responds to both our biblical and poetic heritage with a fresh contemporary voice."

    Malcom Guite

Sample Poem from The Elegy Beta

Another Advent

Come crack the frozen
branch-ends that’ve had you so long
penned up as in winter-trap,
snow-drift, tree-sap. 

Have the whole Earth heave
and scream at your verdant birth;
bring in your train the bright green
lips of leaves, the lengthening day,
the suggestion of sex, a mess;
wreck the hard and frostbitten ground
with your trillion shoots; break through, 
crown, come in like a tooth
into a world sore, into the ache; 

come save the stupid, drooped
stems of our hearts before they wilt;
by the Earth’s cataclysmic tilt,
Primavera, evergreen hope,
get here.

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About the author

Dr. Mischa Willett is a celebrated poet and essayist, with scholarly articles and translations appearing in a wide range of venues. He is a practicing Anglican and is Director of the Whitworth Writers’ Workshop, a low residence MFA in Creative Writing based in Spokane, WA.