In A Kitchen Where Mushrooms Were Washed May30

In A Kitchen Where M...

I have said before that poems for me often require a certain amount of effort. Because I spend so much time in prose, perhaps, the linguistic twists and turns that poetry employs to evoke a difference sense, and even sensibility, about the world require me to do more lifting when it comes to...

Into Hell and Out Again Apr04

Into Hell and Out Again

Scott Cairns, reflecting on Holy Saturday in light of his adopted Eastern Orthodox tradition, describes Jesus’ descent into hell to rescue Adam and Eve and all those who had died before his arrival. Many of us know the line “he descended into hell” from the Apostles’ Creed. Interestingly, that line is not found in Scripture, nor was it in the earliest versions of the Creed (“he descended to the dead” is in the earliest texts), but even by the time of Augustine (who himself had a hard time explaining it) the “harrowing of hell” was an established part of the tradition. I’ll confess that...

Still Mar28

Still

Christians have a reputation for being uncomfortable with sensuality and desire. Unfortunately, it’s not an entirely undeserved reputation. From Paul’s admonition that only those who are being consumed with uncontrollable passion should marry – and it’s easy to forget that as he said...

Late Spring Mar21

Late Spring

Robert Leighton’s “Late Spring” seems particularly compelling to me as I look out over our snow-covered yard and desperately try to forget that today is the first full day of spring. I had grown used to a late – sometimes very late! – spring in Minnesota. Our last winter there saw...

A Limited Palette Mar14

A Limited Palette

I want to say up front that I love my life. That is, I feel tremendously grateful for the work I’ve been given to do, for the people surrounding me, for the family and friends who are regularly such a blessing. I give thanks for all of this everyday. And yet… And yet there are moments...

The Journey Mar07

The Journey

I’m still pondering the importance of paying attention, especially to joy. I think the reason Mary Oliver and Billy Collins are my two favorite living poets is probably their knack for paying close attention to things many of us miss so that we might see something we hadn’t seen...