Saturday Good Reads - Oct. 24, 2026

I’ve known poet, writer, editor, and publisher L.L. Barkat for 17 years. We met on Twitter, as it was called back then. I read her book Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places. And then God in the Yard. We worked together at The High Calling. And, since 2009, with Tweetspeak Poetry. She’s just published a new poetry collection, The Book of Joy: 100 Poems for Your Heart. You can read Maureen Doallas’s review and an interview with Barkat here. 

Some 25 years ago, we attended a church that, seemingly overnight, discovered the book The Prayer of Jabez, a short work about a very short passage in the Old Testament (2 Chronicles 4:9-10, if you’re interested).  Suddenly, The Prayer of Jabez was everywhere. Our Sunday School class. Men’s Bible studies (and the women, too, for all I know). A sermon series from the pulpit. It was a tidal wave of Jabez. It was also thinly disguised prosperity gospel, and I resisted. This week, I happened cross an article about the passage, which puts it in its proper context.

 

I’m not sure whom is behind the Substack entitled “Abstract Truth,” but a friend provided a link to a post, and I read it. The post is entitled “Men Don’t Hate Reading; They Hate Your Books,” and, in addition to the funny AI-generated illustrations, it contains considerable truth. 

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

From the Red Sea to 1776: How the Exodus Inspired America – Michael Freund at Real Clear History.

 

A Dear-Bought Victory: The Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston 1775-1776 – review by Don Hagist at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

War and Wilderness: British Soldiers in Revolutionary America – Vaughn Scribner at History Today.

 

The Siege of Yorktown – Chris Farmer at Old Dominion Post.

 

The Jewish Patriot Who Died for American Independence – Michael Freund at Real Clear History.

 

Faith

 

Should Christians vote? – Doug Spurling at Spurling Silver.

 

According to the Flesh, According to the Spirit: Christianity as Poem and Myth – Jake Meador at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Pruning – Christine Norvell at Mere Orthodoxy (my review of her book can be found here.)

 

Life and Culture

 

Learning to Love This Land – Frank DeVito at Front Porch Republic.

 

The Great Work: An Interview with David W. Orr – Terry Macker at Front Porch Republic.

 

Walking is Loving: The Liturgy of the Stroll – Gracy Olmstead at Granola.

 

Writing and Literature

 

The New Age of Reading – Nathan Heller at The New Yorker.

 

Cormac McCarthy and the Writing Life – Thomas Kidd.

 

“Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving – read by Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Poetry

 

“October,” poem by Robert Frost – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Much Has Been Said – David Whyte.

 

“No Coward Soul is Mine,” poem by Emily Bronte – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

British Stuff

 

The Quest for King Arthur – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Pylons – Jeffrey Streeter at English Republic of Letters.

 

My Song Is Love Unknown – Keith & Kristyn Getty

 Painting: Old Woman Reading a Book, oil on panel by Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), Hermitage Museum.

Baptism to temptation

After Luke 4:1-13 

The hallelujahs of the baptism

give way to the tolling bell

of temptation, the waters

of the river giving way

to the desolation of wilderness.

In inhospitable terrain,

alone, it is here alone

for forty days, it is here

he faces temptation,

temptations to good ends

through the mechanism

of wrong means. Satisfy

hunger? Circumvent

your humanity and turn

stone into bread. Become

king? Here are all the kingdoms

of the world; take them now

and skip that messy crucifixion.

Prove God exists? Throw yourself

from the top of the temple; surely

God will pass that test.

Three offers.

Three denials.

 

Painting: Christ in the Desert, oil on canvas (1872) by Ivan Kramskoi (1837-1887).

Some Friday Readings

“Christ Pantokrator,” poem by Catharine Savage Brosman – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

“Broad is the Way,” hymn by Isaac Watts – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Reading Providence – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

Worn – poem by Seth Lewis.

Poets and Poems: Betsy Mars and "Rue Obscure"

Reading poetry can produce a variety of moods. To cite only a few: Some collection prompt thoughtfulness. Others can make you thoughtful. Still others prompt you to go quiet. And I can read some of the poems by a poet like Billy Collins and smile, often laughing out loud. 

As I read Rue Obscure, the first full collection by poet Betsy Mars, one word kept popping into mind. And the word was pensive. Take that is the word’s broadest possible sense – deeply thoughtful and often hinted at sadness or wistfulness.

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

Some Thursday Readings

 

Looking Around – poem by Robert Cording at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Sextus Propertius and the Latin Love Elegy – Aaron Poochigian and A.M. Juster at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

After-Effects of Fire – poem by Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

 

“The Old Familiar Faces,” poem by Charles Lamb – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

Some Wednesday Readings - Oct. 21, 2026

 

Canada must change course on assisted suicide – Adam James Pollock at The Critic Magazine.

 

Painting the New World: The Art of Frederic Church – Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

James Boswell on Samuel Johnson: “Frequently Characteristick, and Always Amusing” – Lucy S.R. Austen at The Priory.

 

What John Berryman’s Lectures Revealed About Young Shakespeare – and Himself – Rory Loughnane at Literary Hub.

 

The Real Sherlock Holmes: How an Edinburgh Doctor Inspired Dyle’s Detective – Lindsay Fitzharris at CrimeReads.

 

What Is a Poem? – Krzysztof Koehler at Church Life Journal.

 

Photograph: Poet John Berryman (1914-1972).

Poets and Poems: Kortney Garrison and “Fixed Hours”

If I were asked what the most company themes in poetry are, I’d likely answer with two words: love and nature. Poets used to write a lot about love. But love as a poetry theme has suffered a serious blow in the popularity ratings in the last couple of generations. But nature? Poets have likely been speaking and writing about nature since the literary art was invented. Poets are still writing about nature. These days, writing about nature contains far fewer pitfalls than writing about love. 

Then I read Fixed Hours: Poems by Kortney Garrison. Many, perhaps most, of the poems use nature. She doesn’t celebrate nature for the sake of nature. Instead, she uses nature as a metaphor, and not for one particular thing, but for many things. And she uses nature in a deliberative, thoughtful, almost prayerful way.

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

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Walking into Mass in Ordinary Time – poem by Megan Willome.

 

Cords – poem by Franco Amati at Garbage Notes.

 

I Could Ask for One More Trip – poem by Peg Edera at Every Day Poems.

 

“On My First Daughter,” poem by Ben Jonson – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The Delta Dawn is Always Different – poem by Vershal Hogan at Faith on View.

Brother Lionel: A Short Story

Two years ago, I posted a poem about a visit to the crypt of St. Bride’s Church in London. It’s known as the Journalists’ Church because of its proximity to Fleet Street. There are no newspapers left on Fleet Street; they all moved to the suburbs decades ago. But the history persists, and so does the church.  

That visit inspired a short story, published today in the Autumn 2026 issue of Cultivating. The story is “Brother Lionel,” and it’s a story about forgiveness. It joins articles, poems, and similar contributions by 19 other writers on the general theme of "renewing forgiveness." 

 

St. Bride’s Church is famous for its tiered steeple, the inspiration for wedding cakes worldwide. The crypt below the church has a museum, a short walk of artifacts, and this chapel.

Some Monday Readings - Oct. 26, 2026

  

“Louisiana Fairytale” – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Anarchist Notebook – Alan Jacobs.

 

Of Course It’s the Screens. Who Are We Kidding? – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.

 

What Ten Thousand Commandments and Flock Cameras Can’t Accomplish – Greg Sullivan at Sippican Cottage.

 

The Dogs of Old London – Spitalfields Life.

 

Lebanon’s only church-bell maker on keeping a 300-year family tradition alive – William Christou at The Guardian.

 

The Archbishop of Canterbury (1953) and Artificial Intelligence – A London Inheritance.

 

Little by Little Actions – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.