Author Archives: thedeepened

THANKSGIVING

Psalm 100 A psalm of thanksgiving. 1 Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!2     Worship the Lord with gladness.    Come before him, singing with joy.3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God!    He made us, and we are his.    We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving;    go into his courts with praise.    Give thanks to himContinue reading “THANKSGIVING”

Deception: Are You Seeing With or Through the Eye?

“This life’s dim windows of the soul / Distorts the heavens from pole to pole / And leads you to believe a lie / When you see with, not through, the eye.” William Blake, from The Everlasting Gospel Before we put a hard stop on life to celebrate Thanksgiving with our loved ones, perhaps weContinue reading “Deception: Are You Seeing With or Through the Eye?”

Longfellow’s Timely Celebration of Life

“1ife: the quality that distinguishes a vital and functional being from a dead body” from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/life We have been duped into accepting something as life that by definition is not. Fear, the most infectious disease spreading across the globe, has crippled us. The prescription: isolation. Look at the empty stands of sporting events (where theyContinue reading “Longfellow’s Timely Celebration of Life”

The Light, The Truth, The Life

A poem jumped me today in the busy thoroughfares of my daily routine. Unawares, it crept up in my soul in three exclamations: “O darkness! O deception! O death!” The antidotes followed immediately on my assailant’s heels: “Light! Truth! Life!” And the following sonnet was conceived. Like many of the Old Testament psalms, this sonnetContinue reading “The Light, The Truth, The Life”

November Obtestation

ob•tes•ta•tion n. The act of protesting; a protesting in earnest and solemn words, as by calling God to witness; protestation. n. An earnest or pressing request; a supplication; an entreaty. Likely, obtestation isn’t in your daily vocabulary. It wasn’t in mine, until today. The word even baffles most spellcheckers. But no better word encapsulates whatContinue reading “November Obtestation”

Fix Your Eyes on the Horizon

I first encountered “The Raft of Medusa” (1818-1819) by Théodore Géricualt this past summer through Eric Bess’s article “Hope for the Impossible” from the June 8th edition of The Epoch Times (I strongly recommend the article!). I’ve revisited the painting repeatedly over the past five months, continually meditating on the faces and figures strewn aboutContinue reading “Fix Your Eyes on the Horizon”

To Soar on Wings Like…Red-Tailed Hawks

God speaks to me through Red-tailed Hawks. I don’t really remember when it started, but I have been drawn to hawks for many years. Perhaps it was reading Robinson Jeffers’ poem Hurt Hawks under the direction of my cooperating teacher, Jack Warner. Maybe it was visiting the aviary in Pittsburgh, where my children held sticksContinue reading “To Soar on Wings Like…Red-Tailed Hawks”

A Father’s Love (or in this case, My Daughter’s Love)

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? I apologize for my lack of activity on The Deepening Ground recently. Over the last two weeks, I’ve spent little time nurturing my poetic soul. Rather I’ve finished the flooring in our addition, ripped sixteen foot boards with a friend for the trim, and finished work on myContinue reading “A Father’s Love (or in this case, My Daughter’s Love)”