Saturday Good Reads – August 8, 2026

Given the number of movies, plays, poems, and novels about the man, you would think that the entire planet knows King Arthur was obviously a real person. The actual story is that proof has never been found that the man existed. St. Gildas, a monk writing about 540 A.D., mentions an earlier figure named Vortigern who won a battle against the Saxons. That account was picked up by others, including the Venerable Bede about 731 A.D. in the early 1100s, Geoffrey of Monmouth blew those accounts up, giving us Arthur, Merlin, and the start of the legend as we’ve come to know it. At History Today, Ken Dark makes the case for Arthur as a real person. (And I know for a fact that Guinivere looked exactly like Vanessa Redgrave, and the 1968 movie “Camelot” proved it.) 

He may be the most successful writer you never heard of. Japanese author Seishi Yokomizo sold 55 million books in his lifetime, almost all detective stories. Then World War II started, and the Japanese government wouldn’t allow him to publish, because Western influences were considered verboten. After Japan’s defeat, Yokomizo was once again free to publish. And his books are finally being translated into English.

 

It may be one of the most unusual reversal stories I’ve read in a while. A young woman enters Columbia University as a liberal, and her experience transformed her into a conservative. 

 

More Good Reads

 

Life and Culture

 

The Banality of Disruption – Glen Sproviero at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

The Morning Leonard Cohen Explained Antisemitism – Steven Karras at Steven’s Substack.

 

The Wendell Berry Moment – Daniel Vollaro at Front Porch Republic.

 

Writing and Literature

 

I Prefer Not To: Literary Laments in the Age of AI Dead Letters – Barbara Castle at Front Porch Republic. 

 

Literature as Part of Life – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

Dostoevsky Rediscovered – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

America 250

 

The Declaration of Independence in Richmond – Bert Dunkerly at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Jefferson & the Crucible of Peaceable Coercions – Geoff Smock at the Journal of the American Revolution. 

 

British General Benedict Arnold, Goerge Washington and the Nadir of the American Cause – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

American Stuff

 

White Haven: U.S. Grant’s St. Louis, Missouri Home – Patrick Young at The Reconstruction Era.

 

Historian blasts Smithsonian’s activism shift after first visit in over a decade: ‘Completely different place’ – Kiera McDonald and Andrew Mark Miller at Fox News.

 

Poetry

 

Village – poem by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

The Beautiful Invisible: Jan Twardowski’s Poetic Lessons on Loving in Solitude – Grzegorz Ignatik at Church Life Journal.

 

“The Thrush,” poem by Edward Thomas – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

You’re Still You – Josh Groban (from Ally McBeal)

 Painting: Woman Reading, oil on canvas (1943) by Albert Reuss (1889-1975).

Labor pains

After Micah 5:2-5 

These are the labor pains,

the days of oppression

and cruelty, the days

of war and unrest,

the days of violence.

We are living through

the labor pains, as

the birth is imminent,

the birth foretold

from the ancient days,

the one who would

rule, who will

end the oppression,

end the cruelty and

war, will end unrest

and the violence.

The day is coming.

 

Photograph by Maria Luisa Queiroz via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“Citizen of the World,” poem by Joyce Kilmer – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

“Blessed Be the Tie that Binds,” hymn by John Fawsett – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

There is Almost Always a Need Behind the Need – Michael Kelley at Forward Progress.

 

Religion and Magic – Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative.

Poets and Poems: Tamara Madison and “Morpheus Dips His Oar”

I don’t think I was quite ready for Morpheus Dips His Oar: Poems, the 2023 collection by Tamara Madison. The word that comes to mind is raw, something beyond candid. These are the words of understanding of what has shaped a life. 

Most of that shaping is by people – parents, siblings, family friends who might be a bit too friendly. There’s the mother who is mystified by her own grandchildren and any other children not her own, but she can quickly sketch them, “stilled like insects on flypaper.” The postmaster, her mother’s friend, is a little too friendly with his hands. Her friend’s father, a professor who seems so sweet, drives his daughter to attempted suicide. 

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

Some Thursday Readings 

 

“The Toys,” poem by Coventry Patmore – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Marriage – poem by David Whyte.

 

Excerpt from The Portal to the Mystery of Hope by Charles Peguy – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Poet Laura: Summer’s End – Donna Hilbert at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Two Short Story Collections Well Worth Reading

My interest in reading, and writing, short stories has been growing for years. It started with the five Dancing Priest novels, which provided an outlet for sections that were cut, or exploring ideas that were good in themselves but didn’t fit the larger story. In some cases, they were small spinoffs from that larger story. A few have appeared online; most have not. 

But I found myself becoming increasingly interested in the short form of writing fiction. I’ve written several for the Cultivating Project. Recently, I began participating in a short story writing project, a simple, self-reporting tally every week of stories and word count (more on that next week).

 

I’ve also spent more time reading short story collections. Two recent ones that were well worth the time, more than worth the time, in fact, are Here It Snows in June by Eric Cyr and 13 Short Stories of Longing by Adam Nettesheim. 

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

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Flannery O’Connor’s Hollow Men – Mitchell Kalpakgian at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

The Great Books for You and for Me – Nadya Williams at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Dante’s Global Vision: Seeing & Being Seen in the Divine Comedy – Peter Kalkavage at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

The meaning of Ceuta – Jack Davey at The Critic Magazine.

 

The Drawing Rooms of Old London – Spitalfields Life.

Poets and Poems: Trish Hopkinson and “A Godless Ascends”

Poets, and writers in general, write from their own lives, their own experiences. How we are shaped as individuals is reflected, consciously or unconsciously, in what we write.  A Godless Ascends, the 2024 collection by Trish Hopkinson, kept punching that home in my head as I read. 

Shew rites about her family, her childhood, and herself. She writes about her mother and her father. She says this about her father: “Truth is, / my dad’s book closed before he learned / to read, so he bult a burning house instead / & when a thief offered him gold, he didn’t fight or turn to run / but swallowed it whole, carried it like lead in his throat.” That may at first sound cruel or uncharitable, but it is precise, a daughter weighing what she finally understands. 

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

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Bathing – poem by Sonja Bnskin Mesher.

 

“The Village Blacksmith” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – Kelly Keller at On the Common.

 

Waiting at Life’s Window: R.S. Thomas’s “The Word” – Alexander Fayne.

 

Blankets & Boston Terriers: Interview with Tania Runyan – Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Under the Harvest Moon – poem by Carl Sandburg at Every Day Poems.

Some Monday Readings – August 3, 2026

 

Glen Hansard Made Music Feel Alive – Spencer Klavan at The Free Press.

 

The Antiquarian Bookshops of Old London – Spitalfields Life.

 

A Brief History of Hold Music, From Early Patents to the Soundtrack of Customer Service Purgatory – Leo DeLuca at Smithsonian Magazine.

 

Why the Left’s Own Thinkers Predict New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani Will Fail – Aaron Renn.

 

All the Horrifying Things We Do to Our Books – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Local News Is Dying. This Kid Bought His Hometown Newspaper Anyway – Franne Block at The Free Press.

 

How Christopher Nolan’s Best Movies Expose The Odyssey’s Flaws – Samuel D. James at Digital Liberties.

 

Rembrandt Began a Biblical Painting. Another Artist Finished it ‘Rather Crudely.’ Now, Restorations Have Revealed the Long-Lost Original – Ellen Wexler at Smithsonian Magazine.

 

Old Sarum – Hillfort, Castle, Cathedral to Rotten Borough – 1949 to 2026 – A London Inheritance.

 

Photograph: A view of Old Sarum by John H. Rhodes via Unsplash. Used with permission.

The greatest from the least

After Micah 5:2-5 

A backwater, a place

so small as to be

melded into another,

a place no one would

expect a king to be born.

 

Yet.

 

It is the birthplace

of David, and it is

from the line of David

that the king will come,

the one to rule,

the one to be great

to the ends of the earth.

 

The flock will return, and

he will shepherd them,

his flock, and they

shall dwell secure

as he rules in the name

of the Lord, as he rules

in the strength of the Lord,

as he rules in the majesty

of the Lord.

 

He is the greatest,

raised up from the least.

 

Photograph by Carlos N. Cuatzo Meza via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Fear That Sings and Dances: Basking in the Majesty of God – David Mathis at Desiring God.

 

The Porn Buster – Barry York at Gentle Reformation.

 

Love God with All Your Imagination: A Call for Christian Storytelling – Kahryn Butler at Desiring God.

 

Bells & Pomegranates: An Early Warning System – Andrew Kerr at Gentle Reformation.