It seems to me the world is coming up wanting, hungry for answers, certainties, and the desire to believe that “everything is going to be alright.” We come up wanting, as we scroll down social media posts, searching for a quote, a video, or a joke to give us an answer to the incomprehensible world in which we […]
Category: Poetry
Do Not Tell Me
For those who have suffered trauma. Do Not Tell Me. Do not tell me this is part of God’s plan. Do not tell me God will make something good out of this. Do not tell me God will not give me more than I can handle. Do not tell me that it sucks […]
Where the Soul Rests
Where the Soul Rests See this old sign? It looks pretty beaten up doesn’t it? Its weathered a few storms, and survived. It’s watched vacationers come and go. watched them awe at the Eagle, listen for the loon be still for the mother deer and her fawn. This is the place where my soul rests. […]
Make it Sound Like America
Make it Sound Like America. I heard a recording of Aaron Copland working with an orchestra and conducting his famous piece, Appalachian Spring. He explained how it should sound this way, “Make it sound like America, don’t play this like Tchaikovsky, make it sound more bouncy, less sentimental and more…cool.” I love this piece of music, […]
Sucking on Denial: Five Poems
We suck on denial like we are trying to resuscitate a dead body, praying life will return to it. Nothing comes, but we keep inhaling it anyway because the alternative is too painful to bear. I “I don’t want to talk about it!” the preteen cries. “Rainbows and Unicorns! Rainbows and Unicorns! Lalalalala! I don’t want to […]
Dear Mr. Keating,
Dear Mr. Keating, I never got the chance to tell you that you were my favorite teacher. Yes, I know you were only my teacher for 2 and 1/2 hours. But seeing as I watched you teach cute prep boys at least 25 times, I have been in your class for at least 75 hours. Every time […]
ROUTINE
I spent the weekend with my 96-year-old grandmother. My time with her has gotten me thinking about time and gentility and patterns and memory. With deep humility, I am posting two poems on aging. The first one I wrote and the second is written by my favorite poet, Wendell Berry. I hope he won’t mind […]
So That’s, That.
Suddenly, the poinsettia look droopy, the tree is out-of-place, the pants are tighter, the checkbook lighter, the earth quieter and the new calendar busier. I find poetry to be my closest friend in this season of transition, this time of “oh my Lord, I have so much to do….sit still, rest, chill out and….holy cow […]
November.
The Artist is changing pallets. Naked branches provide a new landscape. Deep shades of blues, purple, periwinkle cover the sky like blobs of tempera. Bright colors fade. The earth slumbers under a blanket of browns. Crisp winds brush past dabbing cheeks pink. It’s a time of turning inward. To the dormant and the quiet. Allow […]
The Church in the World Today
It helps, now and then, to stop and take a long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that […]
