That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection

That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection By Gerard Manley Hopkins Cloud-puffball, torn tufts, tossed pillows | flaunt forth, then chevy on an air- Built thoroughfare: heaven-roysterers, in gay-gangs | they throng; they glitter in marches. Down roughcast, down dazzling whitewash, | wherever an elm arches, Shivelights and shadowtackle […]

Descending Theology: The Crucifixion

by Mary Karr To be crucified is first to lie down on a shaved tree, and then to have oafs stretch you out on a crossbar as if for flight, then thick spikes      fix you into place. Once the cross pops up and the pole stob sinks vertically in an earth hole perhaps at an awkward list, […]

Email From My Dad

I sat down to write you the morning email and found myself 15 minutes later perusing through news stories that, though interesting, really didn’t affect me at all. The obvious entertainment???????? stories of the celebrities mansions, loves, wayward lives and children, etc, or the IRS failure to answer taxpayers questions, (40% of calls go unanswered)……….it […]

Dust Storms

THEY DO NOT HAPPEN NOW, the sandstorms of my childhood, when the western distance ochred, and the square emptied, and long before the big wind hit, you could taste the dust on your tongue, could feel the earth under you–and even something in you–seem to loosen slightly. Soon tumbleweeds began to skip and nimble by, […]

An Embarrassment by Wendell Berry

“Do you want to ask the blessing?” “No. If you do, go ahead.” He went ahead: his prayer dressed up in Sunday clothes rose a few feet and dropped with a soft thump. If a lonely soul did ever cry out in company its true outcry to God, it would be as though at a […]

“The Years That Walk Between”

etr-gu: Ash Wednesday, and I am reading Eliot’s “Ash Wednesday” again. Isn’t this what rituals do, what rituals are for? Yes and yes. When it comes to re-reading, they let us see a familiar work with a fresh eye, or let us see ourselves with a fresh eye through reference to a work that hasn’t […]

For today, Ash Wednesday: “God Help Me!” by Ni Ketut Ayu Sri Wardani. Oil on canvas: ow.ly/i/4NJHU

Eavan Boland, “Outside History”

There are outsiders, always. These stars—these iron inklings of an Irish January,whose light happened thousands of years beforeour pain did: they are, they have always beenoutside history. They keep their distance. Under them remainsa place where you foundyou were human, and a landscape in which you know you are mortal.And a time to choose between […]

There were horses on the way home from work, so I painted a picture. Watercolor pencils finger washed with coffee on paper by Seth Wieck.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/133302717″ params=”visual=true&liking=false&sharing=false&auto_play=false&show_comments=false&continuous_play=false&origin=tumblr” width=”100%” height=”500″ iframe=”true” /] Poet Christian Wiman reads “Every Riven Thing” in an excerpt from RN Encounter’s program, My Bright Abyss, about his recent work and spiritual journey. You can hear the full program at http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/encounter/my-bright-abyss/5223134