The wolf and the lamb

After Isaiah 11:1-11 

In the reign,

triumphant,

of the branch,

the shoot,

the wolf lives

with the lamb;

the calf and

the lion lie

down together;

a little child

shall lead.

The cow grazes

with the bear,

the lion eats

straw like an ox.

The child plays

by the snake.

And the reason

is the earth is

filled with

the knowledge 

of the Lord,

like the waters

cover the sea. 

 

Photograph by Gregoire Bertaud via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Fellow Father, You Are Not a Failure – Aaron Armstrong at Story Warren.

 

The Council of Nicaea and Christian Character – J.V. Fesko at The Gospel Coalition / Themelios 51:2

 

How to Gather Well: 5 Ways to Prepare for Corporate Worship – Rob Brockman at The Gospel Coalition.

Saturday Good Reads - Aug. 2, 2026

Benjamin Franklin is rightly considered to be one of America’s founding fathers. But there was also his son, William, who had an entirely different take on the American Revolution. Danica Kirka ar Associated Press explains: “Ben Franklin chose America. Son William chose the crown. This civil war is a microcosm of revolution.” 

Hadrian’s Wall was built during the reign of the Emperor Hadrain. It stretches across the narrowest part of England – 73 miles from Newcastle on the east to Solway Firth on the west. Its purpose: keep the barbarian Picts in the north, separating them from Roman Britain. Jonathan Thomas at Anglotopia is walking the wall, and he’s providing daily updates. (He’s actually walking 84 miles, starting at the seacoast on the east.) 

 

Therapy culture has been shaping America for decades, and it has not excluded the church. Amy Mantravadi at Mere Orthodoxy reviews a new book on the subject, Resisting Therapy Culture: The Dangers of Pop Psychology and How the Church Can Respond by Matthew Loftus.

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

The “Battle” of Fort Thicketty – Tom Elmore at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

This Connecticut Teenager Spied on the British During the American Revolution, Succeeding Where Nathan Hale Failed – Claire Bellerjeau and Tiffany Yecke Brooks at Smithsonian Magazine.

 

The Battle of Yorktown – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

Faith

 

Don’t Be Ashamed to Be Old – Tim Challies.

 

In Praise of My Youth Pastor – Derek Rishmawy at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Writing and Literature

 

That’s the Deal. What Rankles You Most About AI Prose? – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

‘A selfish, ignoble person’ – the dark side of the Nobel prize-winner Mario Vargas Llosa – Nicholas Shakespeare at The Spectator.

 

American Stuff

 

The Real Covid Scandal Is Bigger Than Fauci – Sigrid Bratlie at The Free Press.

 

Ernest Hamwi and the Ice Cream Cone – Jonathan Hickman at Missouri Historical Society.

 

Spinning in His Grave? TR, Fauci, & the Bureaucratic Beast – Chuck Chalberg at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

British Stuff

 

The English are best – James Price at The Critic Magazine.

How I Became the Jason Arday Affair Scapegoat - Nathan Cofnas at The Wall Street Journal (story unlocked). 

 

Life and Culture

 

The DSA Strategy to Build Power – David Duhalde at The American Prospect.

 

The Mission Medley – Ennio Morricone (Live in Venice 2007)

 Illustration: An Old Man Reading, etching and dry point on laid paper (1642) by Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680). 

The reign of the branch

After Isaiah 11:1-11 

The branch bursts

into view, soon

establishing itself,

establishing a reign,

a reign marked by

righteous judgment,

blessing the meek

of the earth, striking

the earth with words,

destroying the wicked

with his breath. He

uses a belt, a belt

of righteousness;

her wears a belt

of faithfulness.

Meekness is blessed,

belief is blessed,

faith a blessed,

wickedness is

destroyed.

 

Photograph by Nick via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“Faith Is a Radical Master,” poem by Walt McDonald – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

A Blessing for the School Books – Kelly Keller at Story Warren.

 

“There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” hymn by William Cowper – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Words Like Rain – poem by Seth Lewis.

Poets and Poems: Gabrielle Myers and “Go Forth: Lose Yourself into Life”

The end of a relationship with a spouse or partner is like a death – a death of familiarity, a death of structure, a death of how we live our lives and who we share that life with. I’ve never experienced that kind of loss, but I’ve seen it happen to close friends and family members.  

Gabrielle Myers experienced that kind of loss, a relationship she ended after “five years of verbal abuse.” She did what many poets do – she turned to writing poetry to understand it, assimilate it, and resolve it –if such a thing can ever truly be resolved. But she did it in a rather unique way, by using the natural landscape around her to structure and explain her poems. And her loss.

 

The result is Go Forth: Lose Yourself into Life, Myers’ fourth collection of poetry. It could also be subtitled with the words she uses to begin her introductory essay: “Begin to Know the World Again from Nothing.”

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

Some Thursday Readings

 

The Splendor of the Orient – K.S. Bernstein at Apple Blossoms in a Mournful Wood on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 17.

 

August, in Passing – poem by Riyanka Paul.

 

Sonnets in St. Louis: The Life of Sara Teasdale – Zoe Korte at Missouri Historical Society.

 

Some Wednesday Readings - Aug. 19, 2026

The Joy of Baseball – Daniel Darling at One Little Word. 

Know your rights as an author and don’t get scammed – Nathan Bransford.

 

Submerged memory: C.S. Lewis and the art of forgetting – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

Remembering Blaise Pascal’s Night of Fire – Emily Kleinhenz at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

On the third day: On the religious illiteracy of college students – The New Criterion. 

 

Child – poem by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Britain: How taboos have stifled truth – Guy Dampier at The Critic Magazine.

 

Short Story, Deep Treasures: Biblical Allusion in “The Gift of the Magi” – John Savoie at Literary Matters.

 

Flashback: The Uses of a Novella – my post at the American Christian Fiction Writers blog.

 

Painting: Blaise Pascal about 1691.

Jon Nappa Imagines the Life of Longfellow

When I was writing my historical novel Brookhaven, I almost stumbled into using the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as a literary device. I had recently read three of his epic poems – The Song of Hiawatha, Evangeline, and The Courtship of Miles Standish. As I child, like virtually every other schoolchild of my generation, I had memorized “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.”  

After reading and writing about the three epic poems, I read Cross of Snow, the 2020 biography of Longfellow by Nicholas Basbanes. Two years later, I saw the movie “I Heard the Bells,” the story behind Longfellow’s poem that eventually became a popular Christmas carol. And all this while, I kept looking for something that will help me unify a theme for this as-yet-unnamed novel. 

 

The movie might have been the clincher. And I thought, what about Longfellow’s poetry? If I had searched more or better than I did, I might have found the 2017 novel What Longfellow Heard by Jon Nappa. 

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

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Late summer – poem by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

The Nesting Ground – poem by Rachel Lyn Aldreick at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

The Pershing Hotel – poem by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell at Every Day Poems.

 

Discover Your Favorite: 15 Poems Every Kid Should Know – Jody Lee Collins.

 

Howard’s Trees – poem by Benjamin Myers.

Some Monday Readings - Aug. 17, 2026

 You Don’t Have to Use AI: The Case for the Bartleby Option – Brad East at The New Atlantis. 

NYQ Craft Interview (on poetry) with Joe Weil – Benjamin Myers at New York Quarterly.

 

AI Writing: The Day of Reckoning – Colin Hansen at The Gospel Coalition.

 

American Evangelicals Long for the Embrace of the Machine God – Christopher Jones at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

I Quit One of the World’s Greatest Novels – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

AI, Explained (By a Human) – The Pour Over.

 

A Time Capsule of Free-Range Childhood – Kat Rosenfeld at The Free Press.

 

After Editing Two AI-Assisted Manuscripts, I Rewrote My Client Agreement – Mary Kole at Jane Friedman.

 

Imagination and Myth in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Aimee Davis at Story Warren.

Photograph by Igor Omilaev via Unsplash. Used with permission.