Poetry
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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 when we welcome our second grandson into…
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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 had been a long day at work…
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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 evening, so we need to order pizza…
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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 Man. Others refer to the four seasons…
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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 with my preface, I’d rather you slow…
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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 great villanelle!” Of course, the concept of…
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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, more along the lines of Truman Capote’s…
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“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 “A Spell in the Studio with Phil…
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October ended in melancholy. I had been entertaining depression for at least a week, allowing him to raid my cupboards, sleep in my bed, run my life, and steal from my bank account. Melancholy, or depression, may be associated with the color blue, but I was running in the red in terms of hope and…
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Modern miracles exist; we’ve just become too numb to recognize them. Whether or not you profess faith, the miracle of conception remains a scientific fact. To read about all the conditions necessary for conception to take place successfully and then all the steps in the process leading up to birth astounds me. As so many…
the deepening ground 