My heart is breaking, as I know yours is, for all those affected by the shootings in Connecticut. It’s hard for us to contemplate the horror, grief, and loss of the families of those poor children, teachers and staff. It’s even harder for us to understand the madness that could motivate someone to such a heinous act. Contemplating any of this, let alone all of it, is nearly overwhelming. All we can do is hold them in prayer, surround them with love, and when the time comes ask hard questions about the elements of our culture and policies that contribute to such atrocities. Before these awful events, I had been thinking about using an...
The Annunciation
posted by DJL
We are not yet at the point of Advent where we hear the story of Gabriel’s visit to Mary. But, to be honest, I think we save that reading too late in the season to give it due attention. Perhaps it’s because, as Denise Levertov notices in her poem “The Annunciation,” we...
My Name
posted by DJL
Warm summer nights are a long way off, both behind in memory and ahead in anticipation. But for some reason I found Mark Strand’s evocative description of one such night speak to me. Part of it, I think, is that I’ve had similar moments while laying atop a snowbank at night – more in...
Twenty Questions
posted by DJL
While we’re on the theme of noticing: Jim Moore’s poem “Twenty Questions” is a wonderful reminder to pay attention to the ordinary, as in the ordinary we often behold the extraordinary. Or, to put more of a point on it, I sometimes suspect that if you can’t find the extraordinary in...
For the Anniversary of My Death
posted by DJL
It’s easy during this season of holidays to get so caught up in the preparations – the shopping, cooking, cleaning, errand-running and all the rest – to miss the actual event itself. But if we choose, we can find a moment or two where the we not only observe the holiday but allow it to draw us beyond the ordinary. Which is only appropriate, as the word holiday itself is a combination of words, “holy day,” a day set aside to contemplate and give thanks for the blessings of this life. What I like about W.S. Merwin’s poem “For the Anniversary of My Death” is that it offers us a snapshot or frozen moment of such introspection. It...
Keep Us Steadfast
posted by DJL
Today is the birthday of Martin Luther, born in 1483, and so it seemed appropriate to choose of the hymns he wrote as the poem for this week. Luther’s poetry – for what are lyrics but poetry set to music – changed the course of cultural history in the West as much as almost anything else...