Poets and Poems: Joseph Bottum and "Spending the Winter"

I found a perfect, if personal, antidote for the discomfort of sitting in a crammed airplane seat for an eight-hour overseas flight. And that’s to bring along a book of poetry recommended by a friend, and being enraptured by the beautiful poems it contained. 

Joseph Bottum is an essayist, critic, fiction writer, scholar, editor, and apparent master of what’s known as the Amazon Single, a short story or essay published as a standalone work (his Dakota Christmas reached #1 on the Amazon e-book bestseller list). He’s also a poet, with several published works, including Spending the Winter (2022), which the friend recommended and which I read on my overseas flight. 

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

Some Tuesday Readings

 

To the Autumn Birches – poem by Adam Sedia at Society of Classical Poets.

 

The lights – artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Text & Image: Interview with Ellen Kombiyil – Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

“Spring and Fall,” poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Matthew Arnold, ‘Requiescat’ (1853) – Adam Roberts at Adam’s Notebook. 

Portrait of a Lady – poem by William Carlos Williams at Every Day Poems.

“A Saxon Shadow” by H L Marsay

DCI John Shadow of the York police is back with a new case to solve, and it may be his most perplexing yet. As he muses to himself, the real difficulty in a case like this one is separating what matters from what doesn’t matter. 

A series of thefts, break-ins, and vandalism seem to have one thing in common – they’re connected to Saxon history. A legend exists concerning King Alfred’s Hoard – supposedly he buried a stash of gold and golden objects when fleeing a Viking army. Two long-time friends, Kenelm Underhill and Lance Debenham, have grown up trying to find that hoard, following in the footsteps of Kenelm’s father. A fragment of a map has been found in an attic trunk, and Kenelm believes he may be on to the hoard at last. 

 

But then he’s killed in his study. And Shadow and his DS Jimmy Chang found themselves overwhelmed with too much information and way too many suspects – a housekeeper who doted on the dead man, a brother preparing to run off with the not-grieving widow, the friend who felt cut off, the friend’s sister who supports herself in criminal ways, the local minister who was up to his eyeballs in Saxon lore, and the security guard at the pet food mill owned by Kenelm and his family. 

 

H L Marsay

It's not just a matter of sifting the important from the trivial; it’s a matter of eliminating what doesn’t figure into the case at all.

 

A Saxon Shadow is the eighth DCI John Shadow mystery by H L Marsay. It’s more complex than any of its predecessors, requiring a fairly close reading to keep track of the numerous characters (and suspects) and all of the possible motives feeding into the crime. 

 

The eight DCI John Shadow series are all set in York, and they share a number of features in common: a curmudgeonly DCI, his irrepressibly cheerful sergeant, a culinary tour of the city restaurants, café, and pubs (some of which actually exist), and an introduction to York’s colorful history and present. A member of the Crime Writers Association, Marsay lives with her family in the city of York in England. She’s also published The Secrets of Hartwell trilogy and 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.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

On Charles Dickens’s Unfinished Murder Mystery – Olivia Rutigliano at CrimeReads.

 

Redefining ‘Academic Excellence’ Will Not Save Colleges – Jeffrey Polet at Acton Institute.

 

Helene: the haves and the have-nots – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

 

The Hurricane Speech Panic is Here – Matt Taibbi at Racket News. 

 

Filling the emptiness

After Exodus 20:1-3 

To follow other gods

is to worship self,

really. The heart

pumps the blood

of self and ego,

grasping anything

that feeds our

belief that we are

the center of

the universe, that

no one, no thing 

is more important.

Nothing else is

allowed to sit

on the throne

of the human heart,

the empty throne,

the empty heart.

Only one thing

fills the empty

heart.

Only one.

 

Photograph by Vlad Kutepov via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Who Were the Hittites? – Robert Marineau at Tyndale House.

 

I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow – Jacob Crouch.

 

No Little People, No Little Places – Randy Alcorn at Eternal Perspective Ministries. 

 

The Problem of Faith Today – Josef Pieper at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

Saturday Good Reads - Oct. 12, 2024

This past Monday was the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 atrocity led by Hamas in Israel. Much has changed in the past year: Hamas is teetering, Hezbollah is leaderless and reeling, and their patron Iran is now waiting for the expected Israeli retaliation for its massive missile attack. We’ve also learned that anti-Semitism is alive and well in the United States, especially on the campuses of our so-called elite universities.  

Here are a few of the reflections on Oct. 7 and its aftermath. 

 

The View from Israel’s Universe – Michael Oren at Clarity.

 

Can Israel Win Back What October 7 Took? – Matti Friedman at The Free Press.

 

Black Sunday: Reckoning with Oct. 7 a year later – Uri Kurlianchick at The Spectator.

 

Jonathan Sacks on the Improbability of Israel – Douglas Murray at The Free Press.

 

Meeting a Survivor – Jonathan Dunsky at The Jewish Book Council.

 

A Year of Revelations – Bari Weiss at The Free Press.

 

A Year Without Empathy – Mich Baum at Sundial / Columbia University.

 

More Good Reads

 

Writing and Literature

 

Edgar Allan Poe’s Literary War – Harry Lee Poe at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

A Label for My Father – Hope Coulter at Literary Matters.

 

From Beowulf to Foucault: The Literary Influences of Cormac McCarthy – Michael Lynn Crews at Literary Hub.

 

A Brief History of the Rise in Horror in 19^th Century America – Jeremy Dauber at CrimeReads.

 

Unpacking My Library (Again) – Michial Farmer at Front Porch Republic.

 

Faith

 

Goya’s Drowning Dog – Rod Dreher.

 

With chain saws and supply runs, ‘faith-based FEMA’ responds to Hurricane Helene – Bobby Ross Jr. ay The Christian Chronicle.

 

Neither Despair Nor Blind Optimism – James Williams at GS Discipleship. 

 

When the Trees Fall – Jon Hyatt at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

News Media: What has happened to the network of Murrow and Cronkite?

 

How is CBS Marking October 7? By Admonishing Tony Dokoupil – The Free Press. 

 

The Fallout at CBS Continues – Bari Weiss and Oliver Wiseman at The Free Press.

 

CBS ’60 Minutes’ airs two different answers from VP Harris to the same question – Brian Flood and David Rutz at Fox News.

 

CBS: from the Tiffany Network to the cheap discount bin – Chalres Lipson at The Spectator.

 

Poetry

 

“Without and Within,” poem by James Russell Lowell – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

My Mother’s Diary: “Uncloudy Day” – Megan Willome at Poetry for Life.

 

“Variations of an Air” by G.K. Chesterton – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

British Stuff

 

A Ramble Through Long-Forgotten London – Spitalfields Life. 

 

Pass Me Not – The Soil and Seed Project

 Painting: The Hermit, oil on canvas (1643) by Salomon Koninck (1609-1656). 

Idols and gods

After Exodus 20:1-3 

I’m not a pagan, 

worshipping any and

all, including unknown

gods. I know my faith;

I know who my one,

true God is. I tithe.

I serve. So what do

you mean to tell me

not to worship 

other gods? What is

this you hand me,

this list? (Reading.)

Money, Security. 

Success. Comfort. 

Recognition. Politics.

Beauty. Books. Power.

Popularity. Influence.

Control. Being obeyed.

Philosophy, Knowledge.

Education. Wealth.

Gluttony. Lust. 

The list goes on and

on, unending.

Oh.

 

Photograph by Egor Myznok via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Bells Toll – Paul Phillips at He’s Taken Leave.

 

The Daily Dance of Family Life – Seth Lewis.

 

The Normalization of Slander – Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition.

"Penitent" by Pete Brassett

Retired DCI James Munro is recovering from some hefty heart surgery, and his friend and former subordinate Charlotte West has rented a cottage for him to recuperate. Munro’s definition of “recuperate,” however doesn’t match West’s nor his doctors’. And his old boss has asked him to look into a nearby cold case, the widow of a postmaster who went missing some years back. 

West and her team are investigating the death of a young woman whose body has been found in a swimming pool. She didn’t drown; in fact, she was mercilessly beaten to death. He flat has been ransacked as well; someone has been looking for something and apparently didn’t find it. At the scene, West pulls up a kitchen floorboard and finds a safe; the combination is inside the locket the dead woman was wearing. But then the question becomes, how did a young recreation center worker come to have a huge amount of cash?

 

Pete Brassett

When Munro reappears at the police station, much to West’s consternation, the two cases are discussed – and with a few suspect names in common, it becomes clear that the missing postmaster’s wife and the dead woman in the swimming pool are part of one case.

 

Penitent is the ninth novel in the DCI James Munro series by Pete Brassett, and it is every bit as good as its predecessors. Brassett has an exceptional ear (and hand) for police team banter, jargon and all, and part of the pleasure of reading the DCI Munro stories is the dialogue. The intriguing mystery is almost an add-on to the fascinating conversations between Munro, West, and West’s two assistants.

 

Brassett, a native Scot, has published 10 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as several general fiction and mystery titles.   

 

Related:

She by Pete Brassett.

 

Avarice by Pete Brassett.

 

Duplicity by Pete Brassett.

 

Terminus by Pete Brassett.

 

Talion by Peter Brassett.

 

Perdition by Peter Brassett.

 

Rancour by Peter Brassett.

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

Murders for October – Jeremy Back at The Critic Magazine.

 

Nazi-looted Monet returned to heirs after FBI traces it to New Orleans – Catherine Hickley at The Art Newspaper. 

 

Booknotes: Robert E. Lee’s Reluctant Warrior by Sheridan Barringer – Civil War Books and Authors.

Some Wednesday Readings

Massacre at St. Louis: The Road to the Camp Jackson Affair and Civil War by Kenneth Burchett  - review at Civil War Books and Authors. 

What does it mean to be Christian? – Steve Dew-Jones at The Critic Magazine.

 

My Journey From a Jerusalem of Ghosts to the Living Jerusalem – Niall Ferguson at The Free Press.

 

“Digging,” poem by Edward Thomas – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The Ironclad St. Louis at Lucas Bend, Missouri – Greg Wolk at Emerging Civil War.

 

Letter #140: The Great Remarriage – Spencer Klavan at The New Jerusalem.

 

Why Gen Z Men Like Me Are Staying in Church – Luke Simon at The Gospel Coalition.

 

Is The Book of Common Prayer Still Useful Today? – Michele Morin at Living Our Days. 

 

Illustration: A contemporary drawing of the St. Louis Riot, also called the Camp Jackson Affair, on May 10, 1861.