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the deepening ground

the deepening ground

  • The Remix: Poem Inspired by a Visit to My Colleague’s Class
    30 Apr 2025

    The Remix: Poem Inspired by a Visit to My Colleague’s Class

    As the school year winds down, time to be creative grows like the lengthening Spring days! However, I was not expecting to have a creative moment when I stepped into my colleague’s classroom to observe her Contemporary Literature and Creative Writing class right after lunch. I drifted to…

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  • Coming of Age: Timeless Advice from a Father
    16 Apr 2025

    Coming of Age: Timeless Advice from a Father

    We’ve created a false dilemma (aka the either-or fallacy): “Either you remain a child or you become an adult.” And in a time where adultescence has spread like an infectious disease, it seems fitting that we raise high the banner of adulthood and call these basement-dwelling game-playing job-quitting…

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  • Advice to Our Newborns: Johnson’s “A Poet to His Baby Son”
    6 Mar 2025

    Advice to Our Newborns: Johnson’s “A Poet to His Baby Son”

    On Valentine’s Day I became a grandfather. Our first grandson! My wife was blessed to be there to prepare for and help with the delivery, as well as provide extra support for the first week of Liam’s life. By late spring, I will be a grandfather twice over…

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  • Of Herons and Hoarfrost: Winter on Wolf Creek
    3 Feb 2025

    Of Herons and Hoarfrost: Winter on Wolf Creek

    When they closed the schools for two days due to the extreme cold that dropped temperatures below -10 degrees Fahrenheit (without the wind chill), I knew the creek would freeze. And just as expected, I knew my ten-year-old would want to venture out onto the frozen waters. It…

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  • The Weight of Responsibility: Pastan’s “Sometimes in Winter”
    15 Jan 2025

    The Weight of Responsibility: Pastan’s “Sometimes in Winter”

    Tonight I came home from work to the day-to-day needs that swarm me almost as soon as I open my car door. The younger boys want to head to Walmart; my middle son’s basketball practice begins at 5:30; my wife and daughter have their book group meeting this…

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  • The Stripping Away: Reflections on Aging
    8 Jan 2025

    The Stripping Away: Reflections on Aging

    All the world’s a stage,And all the men and women merely players:They have their exits and their entrances;And one man in his time plays many parts,His acts being seven ages. Jaques, from Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7 Time. Shakespeare notes the Seven Ages of…

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  • Ring Out the Old; Ring in the New #Poem #Poetry #Poet #Bells #Ring #New #Year #Old #2024 #2025 #Longfellow #MLK #Tennyson
    29 Dec 2024

    Ring Out the Old; Ring in the New #Poem #Poetry #Poet #Bells #Ring #New #Year #Old #2024 #2025 #Longfellow #MLK #Tennyson

    Tennyson remains one of my favorite British poets. As this year winds down and the new year dawns, Tennyson’s bells ring loudly from the past into our present, ringing out hope for the future in something bigger than we can touch or see. Rather than waste your time…

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  • The Grace of Silence and Song #Poetry #Poem #Silence #Song #Noise #Prayer #Screwtape #Villanelle #MalcolmGuite #SophieJones #SirFrancisDrake
    18 Dec 2024

    The Grace of Silence and Song #Poetry #Poem #Silence #Song #Noise #Prayer #Screwtape #Villanelle #MalcolmGuite #SophieJones #SirFrancisDrake

    Ever since I listened to Malcolm Guite’s YouTube post on November 23rd, 2024, I’ve been pondering what he shared about music and silence and noise as inspired by Sophie Jones. (You should listen to BOTH presentations!) For me, it immediately inspired the thought, “Wouldn’t that make for a…

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  • Christ Born Near You: A Poetic Gift from Wendell Berry #Poem #Poetry #Poet #Advent #Birth #Shepherds #Christmas #Lamb #WendellBerry #TrumanCapote
    11 Dec 2024

    Christ Born Near You: A Poetic Gift from Wendell Berry #Poem #Poetry #Poet #Advent #Birth #Shepherds #Christmas #Lamb #WendellBerry #TrumanCapote

    I came across this poem searching for Christmas stories by Wendell Berry. Last year, I listened to his novella Andy Catlett: Early Travels, set during Christmas of 1943, as I painted a home we were renovating. Honestly, I wanted something a bit shorter to share with my students,…

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  • Remembering C. S. Lewis: Learning to Love #Poem #Poetry #Poet #Love #Selfless #Remembrance #Thanksgiving #C.S.Lewis #MalcolmGuite
    27 Nov 2024

    Remembering C. S. Lewis: Learning to Love #Poem #Poetry #Poet #Love #Selfless #Remembrance #Thanksgiving #C.S.Lewis #MalcolmGuite

    “I don’t think poetry lives on the flat page…any more than music lives in the notation. I think a poem has to be breathed into the air – it has to kind of shimmer into being as sound exchanged in the one atmosphere between people.” Malcolm Guite, from…

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