I had a terribly hard time finding a poem that I wanted to share on this November 1, a cold and rainy day here in Philadelphia that is also All Saints’ Day. There are plenty of “All Saints’ poems” out there, some quite beautiful. But for whatever reason, none seemed quite to fit the...

I love the audacity of John Donne’s poem – taking on death itself, unmasking it for what it is, challenging it in light of the resurrection. He gains his courage, I think, from the Apostle Paul, who invites Donne – and all of us – to see death along with all the other realities of this...

John Donne’s “A Hymn to the Father” was one of the first poems that I really came to appreciate. I think it’s because it names something that seems to permeate so much of the religious life – I’d say in our time and land, but apparently it was so in Donne’s time as well: fear....