The Cloister Walk: Recapturing the Beauty of Traditions
“Ritual and symbol are as necessary to human beings as air and water. They mark us as human, and give us identity.” -Kathleen Norris, 316 In many modern churches, traditions […]
poetry
St. Patrick’s Breastplate: A Poem for St. Patrick’s Day
Today is St.Patrick’s Day. A day we wear green to avoid being pinched. The holiday that makes us think of four-leaf clovers, and also the luck of the Irish. When […]
As Freedom Is A Breakfast Food: Love According to E.E. Cummings
“but love is the sky and I am for you/ just so long and long enough“- E.E. Cummings E.E.Cummings’s poem, “as freedom is a breakfast food” is a poem full […]
American Son: A Poetry Book Review
“We cry for grief/ a long cry for grief/ America cries for we/ daughters and sons/ growing like grains of wheat in a dry and weary land/ put the tears […]
Vagabond Song: Why Poetry, Autumn, and Wanderlust Are 3 Peas in a Pod
A Vagabond Song by Bliss Carman There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood— Touch of manner, hint of mood; And my heart is like a […]
“Brier Sermon–‘You Must Be Born Again'”: Knowing Your Roots
“Well, I went home./ And when I stepped out of my own front door/ when I knew where I was starting from/ I knew then where I was going./ The […]
And I Was Alive: Mandelstam and a Moment of Being
And I Was Alive by Osip Mandelstam (tr. Christian Wiman) And I was alive in the blizzard of the blossoming pear, Myself I stood in the storm of the bird-cherry […]
If China: Combating Displacement
If China by Stanislaw Baranczak (Tr. Magnus J. Krynski) If china, then only the kind you wouldn’t miss under the movers’ shoes or the treads of a tank; if a […]