The academic year winds down, and all the responsibilities and tasks that come with it come crashing in like a tsunami. At the same time, gigs are picking up and I’m readying myself to serve as an AP reader in early June. In the midst of this, I tweaked my neck and it’s taken multiple … More Streamed Life: Lessons from Wolf Creek #Poetry #Life #Rest
A week away from the normal routines of life is refreshing, even if it comes with other, pressing responsibilities. We have just returned from New Jersey where my son and daughter competed in a regional speech tournament. While there, I spent most of my time either judging rounds (ten, to be exact) or watching my … More Blackout Poetry for a Quiet Morning #Poetry #Morning #Solitude #NPM22
Having not actually written anything new recently, a quiet hour to write (or blackout) tonight was a gift. Flipping through the same book that I have been using for nearly six years, I gratefully unearthed the following poem just in time for Resurrection Day, known to many as Easter. The celebration that finds its source … More A Poem a Day: Blackout Poetry for Resurrection Day #Poetry #Resurrection #Easter #NPM22
About a year ago, I shared a sample of blackout poetry: essentially a found poem drawn from an already published text. In my case, I have been crafting my poems from a discarded book I picked up at our school library. I have titled that collection Odd Things, as each poem appears on the odd … More A Poem a Day: Blackout Poetry #Poetry #NPM22
The discovery of the Endurance earlier this month is a prophetic message for us all. Even as the vessel itself was prophetically named Endurance because of what Shackleton’s legendary expedition would entail, so we too are on a journey that requires endurance, skill, and courage. In meditating on a few articles I read on The … More Finding Endurance: More than Just Shackleton’s Ship #Poetry #Endurance
When I first saw this photograph posted by Vova Zinger on his website back on February 10, 2022, I knew there was a poem waiting to be found. At the time, I didn’t exactly know where to go with it, but I knew it was there, lurking just beneath the surface of those rippled waters. … More Remains of the Bridge: A Poetic Response to Vova Zinger’s Photography #WordPrompt #Bridge #Poetry #Photography
Sitting down to breakfast early on February 18th, God served up a fresh poem just outside my windows. Wolf Creek had leapt its bounds and was slowly creeping up the lawn as a result of the hard rains and melting snows of multiple weeks. In the midst of attending my sons’ basketball tournaments, filing taxes, … More Ducks and Debris: On Freshet’s Flow #Poetry #Creek #Life
Though it may seem odd to some to return to the stable on Epiphany, it’s the culmination of the celebration of Christmas, and, personally this year, a reminder of my late mother who passed away five years ago on New Year’s Day. According to NationalToday.com: “Epiphany is a Christian feast day celebrating the revelation of … More An Epiphany: Brokenness Turned Kaleidoscopic!
As I hinted in my last post, I had an unforeseen trip to the optometrist last Wednesday. What I initially thought was a pernicious eyelash playing hide-and-seek beneath my eyelid ended up being a two-day ordeal that led to the removal of a minuscule calcification that had been abrading my cornea. And though I can’t … More Seeing My Way to Rest
We’ve begun Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol in British Literature, and as we plumb the depths of Ebeneezer Scrooge’s character, I am reminded of how easily we can be distracted from the things that are truly most important in life. Indirect characterization often speaks louder than any direct statement made about one’s character. Watch how … More First Things First
the deepening ground 