• Backyard Communion: Finding Rest on a Sunday Morning

    Stepping out my backdoor on a typically busy Sunday morning, I was compelled to stop and listen to the varied carols of a mid-May Western Pennsylvania morning. Rather than move forward with my task of moving the car up to the road to pick up my family and…

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  • Heading Upstream: A Late April Sojourn in Wolf Creek

    Spring comes early for a twelve-year-old. No sooner had Wolf Creek thawed and warmer weather returned than my son came asking to go in the creek. A western Pennsylvania April isn’t the ideal time to return to the waters. As T. S. Eliot so aptly put it, “April…

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  • Don’t Judge a Poem by Its Title: Smucker’s Masterpiece

    When a voice I respect in the AP English Literature community suggested a poem titled “Please Use AI,” I sickened with disgust. How could a teacher of literature ever make such a nefarious recommendation? I said as much to my students this morning in my British Literature class.…

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  • Far Worse Than Insomnia: The Inability to Dream

    Here’s a short poem I worked on throughout the month of March but never got around to posting. I honestly can’t imagine what it’s like to struggle with insomnia. I’ve never had difficulty falling asleep nor have I been plagued by night thoughts. Sure, I’ve had a few…

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  • Processing Loss: Remembering “We Are the Absent Ones”

    According to The Encyclopedia Britannica, Alfred, Lord Tennyson took nearly eighteen years to fully process the grief of losing his good friend Arthur Henry Hallam. We find this in his elegiac masterpiece, In Memoriam A. H. H. While it may be Tennyson’s greatest work and certainly earned him…

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  • It’s No Eagle and Child: Finding Inspiration at Dunkin’

    For over seven years, my friend and fellow writer, James, and I have met every few weeks at our local Dunkin’ to carve out an hour and a half of dedicated time to write. Admittedly, it’s not the most conducive atmosphere for creativity, but beggars can’t be choosers.…

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  • Open Seas & Desert Roads:   Song of a Homesick Traveler

    Believe it or not, I still use CDs. In fact, in looking for a used Chevy Suburban to replace the one I lost, the lack of CD player in the more modern cars has been a big turn off. I know: get with the times, Anastasi! But I…

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  • Meditations from Bus Hall: A Belated New Year’s Poem

    Unsurprisingly, the new year did not usher in a slower season of life. Any resolution to visit The Deepening Ground more regularly to leave poetic breadcrumbs that lead out of the suffocating press of modernity failed within days of the calendar flipping to 2026. That’s not to say…

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  • In Light of the New Year, May You Continue: Angelou’s Wish

    My wife’s cousin sent this poem as her Christmas wish for us this year. She received it from a friend who said that no other poem better captures his wishes for his family and friends for the coming year. I love that as we end the old and…

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  • Christmas Wonder as Captured by E. E. Cummings

    Merry Christmas! May we never lose the wonder of the wondrous, nor the inexplicable joy over the miraculous. E. E. Cummings’ style perfectly captures the explosive energy of the nativity and “the whole / perhapsless mystery of paradise.” Heaven come to earth! The Creator fleshed in creation. The…

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