My essay on the relationship between faith and poetry has been published at TheCuratorBlog.org, an Anabaptist literature site that also hosts Literature Camp every summer, and publishes an annual art and lit magazine called The Leaf, after Tolkien’s Leaf By Niggle. I enjoyed attending Lit Camp the last two years, and presenting a workshop on “Artful Reading Aloud” this summer. The material from that workshop will shortly appear at vulgarismedia.com as a free curriculum. Finally, my Bible Major is coming in handy! Let me know what you think in the… Read more Read My Latest at the Curator Blog →
Issues 1 and 2 of The Author’s Journal of Inventive Literature Available now as an ebook at the online store of Vulgaris Media.
Now available from Vulgaris Media’s online store in ebook form.
The Armistice Century in Poesy November 11, 2017 Still we find it hard to go Where friendly harmonies can blow. Our songs have been self-punishment Ten decades long, and gray… Read more The Armistice Century in Poetry →
Having checked out his collected poems from my public library, I got a chance to read a short biography of this remarkable poet, the value of which biography is that it was written in 1929 by a man who knew Lanier and his wife. Sydney Lanier had one of those short and heartbreaking artistic lives. He was descended from an illustrious line founded by artists and courtiers; his family had been present in America since the early 1700’s. His father was a lawyer who somewhat discouraged Sydney from his first… Read more The Chrystal, by Sydney Lanier – with some biographical and critical notes →
“Forgive,” the Church’s founder said. “Don’t judge or punish. I’ll atone.” For centuries the Christian Church refused to cast the first stone. “Do good,” our great apostle warned. “The king holds not the sword in vain.” So Christian nations asked for earthly justice from the one who’d reign. Now times have changed. The saints demand a swordless civil government While feeling personally free to slander Christian presidents.
The challenge this time is to use the rhymes Dickinson used in this poem, whether as internal or external rhymes. We may make of them what we will. We need not emulate her style or her vocabulary or syntax, though it’s good to plow up and till our own once in a while. A Light exists in Spring Not present on the Year At any other period– When March is scarcely here. A Color stands abroad On Solitary Fields That Science cannot overtake But Human Nature feels. It waits upon the… Read more Poet’s Challenge 10: ‘A Light Exists in Spring’ by Emily Dickinson →
from The Generations of Men: (“Those of name Stark” have gathered together, by decree of the Governor of New Hampshire, for a family reunion in the town of Bow.) Someone… Read more Robert Frost Mentions the Human Taste for the Outlandish on Special Occasions →
Slow Literature 