His word

After Revelation 3:14-22 

His word

is the last

word.

His word

is the true

word.

His word

lasts.

His word

is truth.

His word

is the last

and the

true.

There is

no other.

 

Photograph by Ajay Meganathan via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Nicholas Hawksmoor’s Churches – Spitalfields Life.

 

Christos Nika – poem by Cody Ilardo at Power & Glory.

 

My Mom, Her Drug Addiction, and God’s Grace – Caleb Orella at The Gospel Coalition.

 

The Sacred Forest – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

Saturday Good Reads - Aug. 30, 2025

In May of 2007, writer Wendell Berry gave the commencement address at Bellarmine University. The address has been something of a mystery; the university removed it from their web site, apparently at Berry’s request. It’s never been included in any of his essay or article collections.  A web site that covers published articles about Berry has posted the address, and it’s available to read, at least until someone asks that it be removed.  

It took maybe three nanoseconds before the school shooting in Minneapolis became politicized. The mayor of Minneapolis attacked “thoughts and prayers;” Jen Psaki of MSMBC, formerly of the Biden press office, attacked prayer as well and somehow conflated the shooting with the National Guard patrolling Washington, D.C. One would think people would wait at least an hour or two before trying to score political points. Neither Psaki nor the mayor mentioned that Minnesota’s Catholic bishops had asked Gov. Walz and the legislature to provide security for Catholic schoolchildren just like the state does for public schools; Walz said no. 

Peter Savodnik at The Free Press considers the American nihilism context of the shooting. His concern is amplified by former FBI agent Pat McMonigle. 

 

Take one beloved American brand, whose customers are largely conservative or centrist, and decide to “freshen” or “remake” the logo and all the associated ways logos and brands are integrated. When customers complain, call them a “vocal minority,” implying they’re unhip at best or stupid and bigoted at worst. “We’re smarter than the people at Bud Light.” Watch your sales crater. Watch your stock price crater. Reverse course and thus offend everybody. How many times do companies have to go through this before they learn? Read ““Cracker Barrel and the Power of Conservative Boycotts” by Christopher Rufo.

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

Washington Crossing: A Tale of Two Parks – David Price at the Journal of the American Revolution.

 

To Protest Taxes, Men Dumped Tea into Boston Harbor. With the Edenton Tea Party, Colonial Women Took a Different Approach – Aurora Martinez at Smithsonian Magazine.

 

Fighting for Philadelphia by Michael Harris – review by Gene Procknow at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

Founders and Drinkers – Michael Aubrecht at Emerging Revolutionary War Era. 

 

The Wrong Remedy – Victor Davis Hanson at the Journal of the American Revolution.

 

High Wages in the American Colonies – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

American Stuff

 

I Found Freedom Along the Alaska Highway – Paul Kingsnorth at The Free Press.

 

British Stuff

 

God alone can bind our nation together – Daniel Inman at The Critic Magazine.

 

News Media

 

Journalists Against Journalism – The Free Press editorial.

 

Poetry

 

An Interview on Calling with Andrew Roycroft – Karen Swallow Prior at The Priory.

 

Why no one gets to push poetry around – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

“The Desert Village,” poem by Oliver Goldsmith – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Petrichor – Rachel Dacus at The Artist’s House.

 

Poetry in an Age of Diminishing Life in Public – Kenneth Woodward at Church Life Journal.

 

“To Autumn,” poem by John Keats – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Scott’s Lot: On The Journal of Sir Walter Scott – James Campbell at The New Criterion.

 

The Longest Journey in the World – Norman Podhoretz at The Free Press.

 

Faith

 

St. Augustine: Founding Father of the Philosophy of History – Bradley Birzer.

 

Seven Reasons Why (Almost) Every Man Should (Try to) Get Married – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

 

The Power of Wonder – The John 10:10 Project

 Painting: Portrait of Man Reading, oil on canvas, 19^th century, artist unknown.

Knocking

After Revelation 3:14-22 

I am at the door,

knocking. I am

at the door, calling

out. For anyone

who knows my 

knock, for anyone

who hears my call,

for anyone who

opens the door,

I will come in.

I will eat with him.

I will seat him

with me by my throne,

forever and a day.

 

Photograph by Iamsong4141 via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Holy Mountain – poem by Cody Ilardo at Power & Glory.

 

The First Council of Nicaea Confronts Christianity’s Defining Crisis – Jason Clark at This Is the Day.

 

“As Kingfishers Catch Fire,” poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins and “A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy’s Day,” poem by John Donne – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern. 

 

“Father in Heaven, Who Lovest All,” hymn by Rudyard Kipling – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

3 Reasons to Look for the “Drip” Instead of the “Splash” When It Comes to Discipleship – Michael Kelley at Forward Progress.

 

Where will we buy food to feed these people? – poem by Sarah Crowley Chestnut at Rabbit Room Poetry.

Poets and Poems: Danelle Lejeune and "Incompleteness Theory"

Can you mix poetry, science, and humor, not only in one poetry collection but in most of the poems of that collection? 

In Incompleteness Theory: Poems, poet Danelle Lejeune shows not only that it can be done, but that it can be done successfully. The first poem in her new chapbook has a title that may be my favorite poem title of the year: “Scientists Found Ripples in Space and Time And You Have to Buy Groceries.” That humming universe, she says, is really that broken hot water heater. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings

 

“Hamlet,” poem by Boris Pasternak – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

Metanoia – poem by Caroline Liberatore at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

They’ve Stopped Playing – poem by Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

 

“The Rolling English Road,” poem by G.K. Chesterton – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The Well of Stars – poem by Davud Whyte.

"Foster" by Claire Keegan

Irish writer Claire Keegan writes stories like Johannes Vermeer painted paintings: interior scenes, perfectly drawn, with far more going on than what first meets the eye. Whether you’re reading a Keegan novel or standing before “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” when you finish and walk away you simply say, “Yes.” 

I discovered this when I read Keegan’s Small Things Like These, the story of a coal hauler doing his regular delivery at a convent when he discovers a young girl shivering outside and discovers he has walked into something else entirely. Keegan moves comfortably into her characters’ skins, and the reader becomes almost one with the story.

 

In Keegan’s short novel Foster, a young girl doesn’t entirely understand what is happening when her father brings her to the home of an older couple, Mr. and Mrs. Kinsella. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

My Ántonia, More Than a Century Later – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Ancient Wisdom: Why I Dug into My Family’s Past – Nicholas Lemann at The Free Press.

 

Why My Sons and I Take the Train – Christopher Rufo at The Free Press.

Stephen Foster: How Song Opened a Door on History

You can’t research and write a novel about the Civil War, or anything else set in the mid-19^th century, without quickly running into the songs people sang. As I researched what would eventually become my novel Brookhaven, I came across war songs, anthems, sung by the Irish who came to America and enlisted, hymns, songs by the home folk, and more.  

I went looking for a book about music in the Civil War, and I found ta small volume published by the Library of America in 2010, Stephen Foster & Co.: Lyrics of America’s First Great Popular Songs. It’s a small, eye-opening gem. I discovered that songs I learned in elementary school had been around for more than a century.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweestepak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

English Poet John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ and 3 Great One-Liners – James Sales at The Epoch Times.

 

What happens in the space of absence – Padraig O Tuama at Poetry Unbound.

 

John Deane’s Poetry of Praise – Cyril O’Regan at Church Life Journal.

 

Reading Rilke with the Catherine Project – Jordana Rosenman at Front Porch Republic.

 

Tu Me Manques – poem by Michelle Ortega at Every Day Poems.

 

“The Waste Land (Part 1: The Burial of the Dead),” poem by T.S. Eliot – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

“Betrayal at the Old Hall” by H.L. Marsay

I’ve read, and enjoyed, the eight Detective Chief Inspector John Shadow mysteries by British writer H L Marsay. Set largely in the city of York, they’re intriguing stories amplified through the often-comical interactions of the dour Shadow and his detective sergeant, Jimmy Chang. 

Marsay has also written four mystery novels in the Secrets of Hartwell series. The first is Betrayal at the Old Hall, also set in York but in the small town of Hartwell near the moors of north York. The series is less a police procedural and more of “murder club,” with four friends unexpectedly working together to solve several crimes, which may turn out to be related.

 

Lady Lucy Hanley is the youngish owner of Hartwell Hall, trying to raise her young son alone after her husband’s disappearance a year before. The hall is in desperate need of repair, and Lucy is flirting with renting it out for various events, like weddings, receptions, and movie sets. Her best friend is Rachel Foxton, a teacher in the local school and the second member of the quartet.

 

H L Marsay

Meera Kuman is the town’s new doctor, and she’s arrived with her young son to get away from her husband, his family, and her own family. And the fourth member is Jo Ormond, a former London police detective busted down to detective sergeant after a case gone awry.

 

Each of the four has personal baggage. Each is discovering a romantic interest. Lucy learns she’s being stalked. When a murder occurs, the four find themselves tracking down a killer and possibly facing danger. And their own secrets begin to unravel as well.

 

Betrayal at the Old Hall is a relatively lighthearted mystery, despite the presence of murder. It’s somewhat easy to see that the next three mysteries will like each focus on a different member of the investigating quartet.

 

A member of the Crime Writers Association, Marsay lives with her family in the city of York in England. In addition to the John Shadow mysteries, she’s also published The Lady in Blue mysteries. 

 

Related: 

A Long Shadow by H L Marsay.

A Viking’s Shadow by H L Marsay.

A Ghostly Shadow by H L Marsay.

 A Roman Shadow by H.L. Marsay.

A Forgotten Shadow by H L Marsay.

A Christmas Shadow by H L Marsay.

A Stolen Shadow by H.L. Marsay.

A Saxon Shadow by H L Marsay.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Britain: Rallying round the flag – Owen Polley at The Critic Magazine.

 

I Hated Novak Djokovic. Now I’m Rooting for Him – Uri Berliner at The Free Press.

 

Notes on the Greatest Night in Pop – Ian Leslie at The Ruffian. 

 

Will at center of legal battle over Shakespeare’s home unearthed after 150 years – Caroline Davies at The Guardian.

 

Open Sesame! Translators Unlock Words and Worlds – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Lukewarm is a curse

After Revelation 3:14-22 

Being lukewarm is a curse,

neither burning with purpose

and resolve nor iced with

indifference and smugness.

Lukewarm is useless. I spit

you out, you who believe

you are self-sufficient, that

you have prospered by

your own hand. The reality

is you are pitiful, poor, blind,

and naked. I spit you out,

again. Put salve on your eyes

so that you might see. Accept

the gold I offer that you might

be rich. Take the white robes

I have to clothe 

your nakedness.

Be zealous.

Repent.

 

Photograph by Maria Teneva via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Free of Self-Pity – Brandon at Till We Are Home.

 

The Changing of the Evangelical Guard – O. Alan Noble at You Are Not Your Own.

Saturday Good Reads - Aug. 23, 2025

I have a photograph of the three-year-old me in the backyard of the duplex where we lived in suburban New Orleans. I’m barefoot, in shorts and a t-shirt, and I’m wearing what would always be my favorite hat – a Davy Crocket coonskin cap. I was not alone; millions of boys and likely a lot of girls wore then as well. That hat reflected the marketing power of Walt Disney’s “Davy Crockett.” Greg Daugherty at Smithsonian Magazine explains how an unlikely frontiersman killed at the Alamo became an American hero – and it was all thanks to Disney. 

Poetry originated as an oral art, a form of storytelling that entertained, informed, and helped people make sense of the world. Much poetry today is written for the eye, that, is, to be read rather than spoken aloud. As the for oral tradition, what happens if you can’t hear? Poet Ilya Kaminsky describes how he discovered poetry – as a deaf child in the Ukraine. (Six years ago, I reviewed his Deaf Republic at Tweetspeak Poetry.)

 

My historical novel Brookhaven is infused with the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Translate “infused” with including a Longfellow quote for every chapter, a character who memorizes and recites it, and an author who read almost everything Longfellow ever wrote. At The Imaginative Conservative, Joseph Pearce considers one of Longfellow’s epic poems – Evangeline – and discusses how it frames the quest for love.

Imagine a father and son serving on different sides in the Civil War. Imagine a naval engagement in Galveston Bay in which both were involved. The Confederacy won the naval battle, capturing two Union ships. And the father, on the Confederate side, hears that his son is aboard one the captured ships. Read "My Father is Here": A Tragedy in the Civil War.

(FYI, some of the formatting is wacko today; Blogger insists on adding extra spaces for some strange reason.)

 

More Good Reads

America 250

Unraveling the Mystery of George Washington’s Earliest Teacher – Richard Gardiner at the Journal of the American Revolution.

Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic by Lindsey Chervinsky – book review by Al Dickenson at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

John Shee: A Grenadier Company Commander at Bunker Hill – Steven Baule at Journal of the American Revolution.

Faith

Egypt’s War Against the World’s Oldest Christian Monastery – Mariam Wahba at The Free Press.

Poetry

 A Vision of Charity – Megan Willome at Poetry for Life.

“Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” poem by Emily Dickinson – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

Pen Deep in the Deep End – Jerry Barrett at Gerald the Writer.

“Sailing to Byzantium,” poem by William Butler Yeats – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

The Meter Makers – Susan Spear at New Verse Review.

Writing and Literature 

Walt Whitman’s Souvenir of Anguish – Tina Daniels at Emerging Civil War.

The Austen Years: A Review in Six Movements – Tessa Carman at Mere Orthodoxy.

The Pickwick Papers: BBC Miniseries, 1985 – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

It’s Dangerous to Go Alone. Take Books – Spencer Klavan at Rejoice Evermore.

Life and Culture

Optimizing Ourselves to Death – Bethel McGrew at Further Up.

American Stuff

“Advice to Soldiers” Goes Viral – Tim Talbott at Emerging Civil War.

American Spirit – Teddy Macker at Front Porch Republic.

We’ll Meet Again – Sydnie Christmas

Painting: A Schoolgirl, oil on canvas (1887) by Luke Fildes (1843-1927).

A good rep

After Revelation 3:1-6 

A good rep isn’t

the same as a good

reality. You have 

a good rep, a great

rep, but it is the mirage

of what you used to be. 

It is time to awaken, grab

on to and strengthen

what good remains

and is about to die.

Go back to what

you first knew; 

start there. Otherwise,

I will come as a thief,

a thief in the night,

rescuing the few who

still walk as they should.

Those few will walk

clothed in white, 

engraving their names

in the book of life.

 

Photograph by Iqx Azmi via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

When People Are Late to Church – Barbara Lee Harper at Stray Thoughts. 

 

Layover at Stansted – poem by Seth Lewis.

 

Excerpt from “The Wanderer,” poem by William Wordsworth – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

Poets and Poems: Four Collections by Erin Murphy, Part 2

Poet Erin Murphy is credited with the creation of a new poetic form. It’s called the “demi-sonnet,” and it’s a seven-line form, half the length of a traditional sonnet. It also doesn’t rhyme (or doesn’t have to rhyme,), and it leans in the direction of an aphorism. Murphy introduced the form in 2009, and her collection Word Problems: Demi-Sonnets was published in 2011. 

I mention this because the idea of form, and related themes of order and classification, appear to have been a significant focus for Murphy’s poetry for a considerable period. Form helps establish order, as does classification. Murphy continues to explore these ideas and themes in her most recently published collections, Fluent in Blue: Poems (2024) and Human Resources (2025).

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings

 

“A Noiseless, Patient Spider,” poem by Walt Whitman and “As I Was Going to St. Ives,” poem by Anonymous at Mother Goose – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

“When on My Day of Life the Night Has Fallen,” hymn by John Greenleaf Whittier – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Alight – poem by Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

A Creativity Recess Kit –Bethany Rohde at Tweetspeak Poetry.

“Remembering: A Novel” by Wendell Berry

It’s the mid-1970s. Andy Catlett is in San Francisco, a writer attending a modern agricultural conference. His family in Kentucky is likely relieved that he’s away; Andy had become very difficult to live with. 

The reason: some time before, Andy and a few others were helping a neighbor on his farm. Andy was operating machinery, and almost without realizing what had happened, he lost his hand. The quick actions by the other men likely save his life; he could have bled to death.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Two Men. A Morgan, and a Martyr – Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

They Became Symbols for Gazan Starvation. But All 12 Suffer from Other Health Problems – Olivia Reingold and Tanya Lukyanova at The Free Press.

 

The History of the Orient Express – Sulari Gentill at CrimeReads.

Poets and Poems: Four Collections by Erin Murphy, Part 1

Erin Murphy is a professor of English at Pennsylvania State University, Altoona College. She may also be one of the most prolific writers and poets working in academia. She’s written or edited some 14 books, four in the last three years alone, with another poetry collection and an anthology of essays in the publishing pipeline. Her first poetry collection, Science of Desire, was published in 2004; her most recent, Human Resources, was published this year. She also serves as editor of The Summerset Review. 

You can wear yourself out just reading her biographical information: collections, books, prizes, teaching awards, nominations, journals and magazines publishing more than 300 of her individual poems, and editing.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

5 Fun Ways to Play with Language – L.L. Barkat at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

“The Battle-Field,” poem by William Cullen Bryant – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

“Ulysses,” poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Purposefully Lost – poem by Tim Hawkins at Every Day Poems.

“Murder in Wolfcleuf Woods” by Roy Lewis

It’s a classic standoff. A property developer, with strong local political connections, wants to build a significant development, but the access road will skirt and likely affect a historical woodland. The woods themselves are part of a local estate, whose owner is lukewarm about the proposed development and preserving the woods; he’d rather not get involved.  

The task for charting a path forward falls to the Morpeth Department of Antiquities & Museums, and since it’s so heavily political, the issue falls in the lap of Arnold Landon. His boss, Karen Stannard, want to do nothing to jeopardize a promotion, and her boss simply wants to please the powers-that-be. So, it’s Arnold’s task to determine what to do. The issue is complex; an archaeological team is excavating nearby, and they think the woods may hold artifacts and the bodies of old sacrifices. 

 

The issue gets more complicated with eco-activists show up to defend the woods, an unscrupulous sub-contractor takes a backhoe to their encampment. And Stannard’s rather beautiful assistant, increasingly at odds with her boss, may be trying to use Arnold as pawn in internal political games, including making a play for Arnold himself.

 

A body is discovered, and it’s not an ancient one. Tests determine that it’s been in the woods only about 20 years. And suddenly a property development case becomes a murder investigation.

 

Roy Lewis

Murder in Woodcleugh Woods is the 16^th novel in the Arnold Landon series by British author Roy Lewis (1933-2019). It’s a fascinating story, but it’s also the first in the series in which Arnold himself doesn’t play a significant role in solving the murder. That’s left to the local police, led by the detective inspector. He does, however, manage to find himself in the thick of the action, including a highly dangerous climactic scene.  

 

Lewis was the author of some 60 other mysteries, novels, and short story collections. His Inspector Crow series includes A Lover Too Many, Murder in the Mine, The Woods Murder, Error of Judgment, and Murder for Money, among others. The Eric Ward series, of which The Sedleigh Hall Murder is the first (and originally published as A Certain Blindness in 1981), includes 17 novels. Lewis lived in northern England. 

 

Related:

Murder in the Cottage by Roy Lewis.

Murder Under the Bridge by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Tower by Roy Lewis. 

Murder in the Church by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Barn by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Manor by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Farmhouse by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Stableyard by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the House by Roy Lewis.

Murder by the Quay by Roy Lewis.

Error in Judgment by Roy Lewis. 

Murder at the Folly by Roy Lewis.

Murder in the Field by Roy Lewis.

Murder at Haggburn Hall by Roy Lewis.

Murder on the Golf Course by Roy Lewis.

Murder on the Dawn Princess by Roy Lewis.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

The Royal Mint: A Controversial Transformation – A London Inheritance.

 

How progressivism killed American Protestantism – Chris Mondics at The Spectator.

 

Doreen Fletcher’s Early Drawings – Spitalfields Life.

 

Letter from the Farm, #2 – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.