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Philip Garside Books

The In-Between Land - eBooks.

The In-Between Land - eBooks.

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The In-Between Land
Psalms, Poems and Haiku

By Mark Gibson


Reduced to $5 until 30 September 2025, saving you $7.50


A deeply moving collection of reflective psalms, poems, and haiku that channels the emotional landscape of post‑earthquake Christchurch into spiritual nourishment, healing, and hope.

This book will help you:

  • Find solace and strength in the aftermath of trauma and upheaval
  • Reflect on grief and lament, yet embrace renewal and spiritual resilience
  • Connect with the natural world as a source of healing and inspiration
  • Use poetic and liturgical language for worship or personal meditation
  • Recognize shared emotional landscapes in community and story
  • Honour the seasons and rhythms of life through sparse, poignant haiku
  • Feel hopeful that amid destruction and disruption, renewal is possible

Features


  • 15 richly crafted psalms confronting despair and inviting praise
  • Poetic sequences grouped into five thematic sections: Earthquakes; Loss and Lament; Healing and Renewal; Torrent Bay Escapes; Life Goes On
  • 60 haiku capturing vivid, seasonal “snapshot impressions” of lived experience
  • Suitable for personal reflection, communal worship, or spiritual practice

You are buying a zipped file containing eBook editions of this 136 page book in PDF, ePub and Mobi formats.

ISBNs:
ePub 9781927260364
Mobi 9781927260371
PDF 9781927260388
Philip Garside Publishing Ltd (2015)

Click for Print books

Book description

Drawn from the visceral reality of Christchurch’s 2010–2011 earthquakes, this luminous collection moves readers through grief into glimmers of grace.

It begins with psalms that articulate the raw emotional landscape – hurt, outrage, despair – and then shift toward praise and a renewed vision of the world.

Each psalm lays bare the tension between loss and longing, questioning and hope.

Following the psalms, the poems are arranged in five deeply evocative sections.

In “Earthquakes,” readers encounter the unfiltered tremors and staggering impact of catastrophe.

"Loss and Lament” mourns what once was.

“Healing and Renewal” gestures toward restoration and spiritual reawakening.

“Torrent Bay Escapes” offers glimpses of solace in nature.

And “Life Goes On” affirms perseverance in the ordinary rhythms that follow extraordinary disruption.

Finally, 60 haiku unfold across the four seasons – autumn, winter, spring, summer – as compact meditations on the natural world and the human spirit.

These distilled poetic moments bring us back to breath, to earth, to quiet wonder in times of recovery.

Ideal for anyone seeking emotional clarity, spiritual companionship, or liturgical material, this volume holds space for both grief and gratitude.

Whether read in quiet moments of introspection or shared in communal settings, its language resonates deeply: in loss, we are not alone – and in endurance, hope endures.

About the Author

Mark Gibson is a retired Methodist minister in Christchurch. A sixth‑generation Cantabrian, he and his family lived through the ongoing challenges of the 2010–2011 earthquakes. Deeply rooted in parish and community ministry, he has led environmental and spiritual pilgrimages – such as a Lenten journey from Stewart Island to Wellington – and spearheaded local projects like The River of Life and the Avon‑Otakaro Network. The In‑Between Land is his first published collection, bringing together his pastoral insight and poetic voice.


Praise for The In-Between land

“The psalms and a number of the poems lend themselves to liturgical use…” Review by Lynne Frith of The In-between Land. Book review published in Touchstone October 2015

“…insightful, and often deeply moving.” Review by Jim Consedine of The In-Between Land

  

Contents

Psalms

  • Psalm 1
  • Psalm 2
  • Psalm 3
  • Psalm 4
  • Psalm 5
  • Psalm 6
  • Psalm 7
  • Psalm 8
  • Psalm 9
  • Psalm 10
  • Psalm 11
  • Psalm 12
  • Psalm 13
  • Psalm 14
  • Psalm 15

Poems

Earthquakes

  • Coup d’e tat
  • Sleep stealers
  • Adrenalin Bay
  • Tectonic plates
  • The day the letterbox danced
  • Fourth anniversary

Loss and lament

  • The Grand Old Lady
  • The Immortal Four
  • Twenty seven reasons
  • 2011 Year of The Iconoclast
  • Grey (One of those days)
  • Parihaka Day
  • They’re taking my city away
  • Dam-nation
  • Fragments from a fading frequency
  • Inefficient
  • Flight MH370
  • The stripper
  • No one comes
  • Tiredness
  • Wetlands

Healing and renewal

  • River therapy
  • Brief moments between the shaking
  • Waiting room
  • Prayer for the Otakaro-Avon River
  • Waiting room 2
  • Second call
  • The true source
  • New Year’s beach service
  • Come to the river
  • Opawaho Oracle
  • Colour blind
  • Resurrection
  • Neighbourhood all-year BBQ
  • Monck’s Bay blessing
  • The steps
  • The last days of winter
  • Cave Creek

Torrent Bay escapes

  • Dawn in Torrent Bay
  • Family walk
  • Waitangi Day
  • Sunrise 3
  • Sunrise 5
  • Awesome encounter
  • Epiphany
  • Long before sunrise

Life goes on

  • Our Emergency Office
  • Transit lounge
  • At the Show
  • The party crasher
  • Advent
  • Management
  • Waiata
  • Flight Home

Haiku

Autumn

Winter

Spring

Summer

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