the rise and fall of christian poets

FOR the last century, serious poetry has been largely secular. Literary types see religion as something literature has gotten over. Poets who fail to vanquish any Christian spirituality beyond what is quaint are usually condemned to "inspirational poetry," except poor old T.S. Eliot. But it's his angst that people take seriously, not his prayer.
LA Times

I have several unsupported and false theses:

a]  there must be people whose calling is to be both poet and Christian
b]  they are not on the best seller list in the local Xian book store because sometimes poetry requires work on the reader's part
c]  if the church were more familiar with poetry, we would have more depth in our reading of scripture
d]  the church has conceded the arena of the arts to the "secular", and chooses to engage only in the realm of science and "facts"
e]  if the church does engage in the arts, it is mainly to force the arts to be a supporting argument for a theological position  (a liturgical dance showing the badness/goodness of my cause)

Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

John Donne
Holy Sonnet XIV

A scribe on his way to Jerusalem
thought his words were sure to bamboozle them.
for the metrical word
has never been heard
since the age of the blessed Methusalem.

Joseph Walker
Holy Limerick I
(on second thought, I think I've just proven that I am not this generation's answer to the question; although the article offers a few authors for your consideration)

Comments

[Tim]

A prominent exception would be R.S. Thomas, widely thought of as the greatest English-language poet in the British Isles in the second half of the 20th Century.

[joseph]

another name I've seen (recommended by Poul Mark) is Wendell Berry (sp?)