What did they see?

After James 2:14-26 

I wonder about

the early days,

when followers

of the Way were

growing in number,

growing in geography,

fueled by the Spirit.

But what did 

the people around

them see? Preachers

of philosophies and

new things and 

new gods were 

a dime a dozen;

they were all over

the culture. What

made the Way 

different? It was

because of what

these believers

did, how they

cared for the

the widows,

the orphans,

the rejected,

the sick, the poor,

the shunned – 

all those people

ignored and

left as road kill

by the world.

People watched,

they saw, they

understood, they

acted, wanting

that for themselves.

 

Photograph by Tahamie Farooqui via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

A Sonnet for Ascension Day – Malcolm Guite.

 

Won’t Somebody Think of (Having the) Children – Stephen McAlpine.

 

Saturday Good Reads – May 16, 2026

When the American Revolution started, a group not insignificant in numbers and influence was not impressed. They were known as the Loyalists, and as Kimberly Nath at The Conversation writes, they paid a steep price for their allegiance to Britain. At the same publication, Amanda Moniz writes about an unintended effect of the American Revolution. The conflict which led to American political independence also transformed philanthropy, not only in America but in Britain as well. 

It’s one of the most famous of American short stories. A young couple give up their most treasured possessions for each other. John Savoie at Literary Matters writes that the biblical allusions in “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry is far more present than the story’s title.

 

In 1862, Nathaniel Hawthorne found himself almost unable to write. He was distracted by the growing conflict we now call the Civil War. So, he went to Washington, D.C., to observe what was happening from one of the two epicenters of the conflict. Richard Smith at Emerging Civil War has the story.

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

Exhibitions marking 250^th anniversary of the US open in New York – J. Cabelle Ahn at The Art Newspaper.

 

Why 1776? – J.M. McDonald at Emerging Revolutionary War Era. 

 

The Limits of a Propositional Nation – Glen Sproviero at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

The Death of Colonel Christopher Greene at Pine’s Bridge, May 1781 – Bjorn Bruckshaw at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

Escape from Yorktown – Nicholas Marsella at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

The Part of the Declaration Nobody Reads – Eli Lake at The Free Press.

 

General Benedict Arnold and the Battle of Saratoga – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

Writing and Literature

 

In Marce Catlett, Wendell Berry Remembers for All of Us – Robert Ordway at Front Porch Republic.

 

Bookish Diversions: How the Pros Do It – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

The Midlist, the Middlemen and the Future of American Literature – Nadya Williams at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Consider the Sister – Lindsey Adler at The Small Bow on David Foster Wallace.

 

American Stuff

 

Lincoln’s Illegal Arrests – Joseph Connor at American Heritage.

 

Life and Culture

 

Beyond the Precipice – Michael Oren at Clarity.

 

Throwback Thursday: Dealing with Crime – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

 

Faith

 

“Christ Hath a Garden,” hymn by Isaac Watts – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

The Dangerous Days Past Middle Age – Michelle Morin at Desiring God.

 

Poetry

 

“Dream Song,” poem by Walter de la Mare – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

To Tell It How It Is – Christian Lingner at New Verse Review.

 

Nothing But the Blood – Tommee Profitt x Jeremy Rosado

 

Painting: In the Scriptorium, oil on canvas by Friedrich Hornemann (1813-1890). 

Works! Faith!

After James 2:14-26 

Faith alone saves,

but it is faith with

works that justifies.

Works alone do not 

save; they must be

attended and enveloped

by faith. Both matter.

Both are necessary.

Faith without works

is dead. Works without

faith will not save you.

Works come from faith,

not to earn God’s favor,

but to demonstrate 

God’s power to transform.

Works with faith changes

the won who does them 

as much as the one who

receives.

 

Photograph by Billy Pasco via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“The Central Moment,” poem by A.F. Moritz – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

The Best Way to Resist Temptation – Seth Lewis.

 

Heart of the Verse: Psalm 34:18 – Jason Clark at This is Jason.

 

Dimensions – Patrick Luscri.

Poets and Poems: Julia Alvarez and :Visitations

Have you ever read a poetry collection that catapults you back three decades? 

Another lifetime ago (35 years, to be exact), I wrote book reviews for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It was an offshoot from a graduate seminar on the Latin American novel. I had more than liked the assigned readings; I’d discovered a world that went beyond the one Latin American novel I’d previously read, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

 

At the time I started writing book reviews, publishing was in the midst of a Latin American boomlet, an echo of the original “boom” in the 1960s and 1970s. After an introductory conversation, the newspaper’s book editor began routing any book relating to Latin America, Spain, and Hispanic culture in the United States. 

 

One of the books I reviewed was How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991) by writer and poet Julia Alvarez. It’s a story about four sisters in the Dominican Republic whose father is forced to flee the Trujillo regime. Her parents return to New York City, becoming with their children people of two cultures. It’s a novel, but it’s drawn from Alvarez’s own family history.

 

Thirty-five years later, I picked up her new poetry collection, Visitations: Poems. And, suddenly, I was back in 1991, reading How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. 

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

Some Thursday Readings

 

“Shakespeare,” poem by Matthew Arnold – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Blue sky – poem by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

“Properties of a Good Greyhound,” poem by Dame Juliana Berners – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

When You Hit a Writing Drought

Since the time I was a reporter for my college newspaper, longer ago than I care to admit, writing has been an integral part of my life. I’ve been a reporter, editor, newsletter editor, speechwriter, public relations manager, novelist, short story writer, non-fiction book author, blogger, book reviewer, essayist, poet, and more. Writing has been central in every job I held and every employer I worked for. 

I never had time for writer’s block. A speech had to be written. News releases had deadlines. Contracts had to be met. Employers had expectations (or demands, often unreasonable). I might have a project where I had to pause to understand the challenge fully, but I’d figure out a way through it.

 

What I’ve had for the last year isn’t writer’s block. I still blog, write book reviews, and even write a few short stories. But the flood of writing that’s carried me for 50-plus years has slowed considerably. It’s less of a block and more of a “moderate drought.”

To continue reading, please see my post today at the ACFW blog.

 

Photograph by Glenn Carstens-Peters via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Micro Monday #56: Cuba, Missouri, 1961 – short fiction by Tom Darin Liskey at Fictive Dream.

 

Murders for May – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

‘Institutional Poverty’ in Charles Dickens and Barbara Kingsolver – Susan Bruxvoort Lipscomb at Mere Orthodoxy.

Poets and Poems: Fred Chappell at "Ever After"

I came to the writing of Fred Chappell (1936-2024) through his novels. A friend at work, who’d grown up in the mountains of West Virginia, recommended I read I Am One of You Forever. It’s set where most of Chappell’s novels are set – the mountains of western North Carolina. And it’s a wonder. Over the years, I read several of his other novels and story collections. Superficially, Chappell might sound like North Carolina’s answer to Kentucky’s Wendell Berry. Even though they’re approximate contemporaries writing about family, heritage, and place, they’re very different kinds of writers. 

 

It was only in 2015 that I discovered how Chappell had first made his name – through poetry. I happened across a used copy of his 2000 collection, River: A Poem. It’s one poem with 11 divisions, and it tells a story, the story of his grandparents. It’s aptly named; reading it is like wading through a river of memory and family history. 

 

As it turns out that River is one of some 18 collections of poetry that Chappell published between 1971 and 2009. In fact, he published more poetry volumes than works of fiction. In 2024, the year of his death, LSU Press published his last collection, Ever After: Poems.

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

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Fray Alonso in La Florida, A.D. 1587 – Coldy Ilardo at Power & Glory.

 

Morning sticks – poem by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

“Alice in the Looking Glass,” poem by A.E. Stallings – Joseph Bottum and Adam Roberts at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The Apple of Granada – Hedy Habra at Every Day Poems. 

Around Three in the After – Laura Wifler at Rabbit Room Poetry.

Some Monday Readings - May 11, 2026

Revolting England – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Not-so-bookish thoughts about book clubs – Kelly Belmonte at Bandersnatch Books.

 

Serious Reading Was Always a Minority Sport – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Back When the Pulitzer Meant Something – Liel Leibovitz at The Free Press.

 

When You Hear Crickets – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

The Spitalfields Roman Woman – Spitalfields Life.

 

The Royal Festival Hall at 75 – A London Inheritance.

 

The Gratitude Shift – Melissa Edgington at Your Mom Has a Blog.

 

Photograph by Clay Banks via Unsplash. Used with permission.