Tongue as predator

After James 3:1-12 

The tongue is a restless

predator, wandering

the landscape, seeking

its food, the unsuspecting

and the nourishing; 

this predator is hungry

for nourishment. It is

an evil, restless; it is

full of poison, a toxic

instrument of destruction,

which can bless and curse

simultaneously. No salt

sea can produce fresh water;

no fig tree bears olives. 

No human can control

a tongue, especially

one’s own. It lashes,

it destroys, it demeans,

it insults, it undermines,

it reduces, it erodes,

it exhausts, it makes

its object less than it is

by elevating itself.

 

Photograph by Lukas Vanatko via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Turn the Other Cheek – Jason Clark at This is Jason.

 

Sundays for the Young Son of a Theologically Conservative Pastor – Jon Wildeman at Front Porch Republic.

 

“Ploughman,” poem by Patrick Kavanagh – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

One Day, God Will Wipe Away His People’s Tears – Randy Alcorn.

 

Feeding – poem by Seth Lewis.

Writing Poetry: "The Art of the Almost Said" by Robert Hudson

It’s one of the most intriguing definitions of Poetry that I’ve read. “Poetry,” writes Robert Hudson, “is for people who have something genuine, heartfelt, interesting, or quirky to say.” He goes on to say who the intended audience poetry is: “It should be written for people who ride the bus, work the late shift, bag the leaves, or play vide games … people who send birthday cards, struggle with their weight, forget to take their meds, tuck in the kids, check Facebook, and drive the dog to the vet.” 

And then he throws done the gauntlet: “…unless poetry makes sense to us ordinary folks, it’s not poetry. It’s just highbrow puzzle constructing.”

 

Hudson’s The Art of the Almost Said: The Christian Writer’s Guide to Writing Poetry may be aimed at Christians, but’s a poetry how-to guide for all of us. 

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

Some Thursday Readings

 

Something understood: How to read poetry – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

“Radio,” poem by Harriet Monroe – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

“On Shakespeare,” poem by John Milton – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

The Strangest Job Interview I Ever Had

I was cleaning out some old files when I came across a small blue address book – the kind we used before iPhones had contact lists, or even before we had iPhones. It dates from 2003. When I looked at the listings, I realized I was holding an artifact of my career. 

Between October of 2003 and May of 2004, I was Director of Communications for St. Louis Public Schools. The school district, with many of the problems of an urban school district, had been in upheaval since June. A reform board had been elected, and it had promptly hired an outside management firm from New York to design and implement a total overhaul. It wasn’t a simple reorganization; instead, think Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency without the charm.

 

On its first day, the outside firm discovered that the district wasn’t technically but actually bankrupt. Suddenly, change came. Schools were closed and consolidated. Hundreds of staff positions had been eliminated. Operations were outsourced. Chaos and protests were the watchwords. As in, daily chaos and protests.

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

Photograph by Chelaxy Designs via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Brutality & Compassion: Howard Pyle’s “Otto of the Silver Hand” – David Deavel at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

What If the World is Enchanted? – Zak Schmoll.

 

The Right Stuff: President Washington Needed a General in 1792 – Bradley Crytzer at Journal of the American Revolution.

Poets and Poems: Angela Alaimo O’Donnell and “The View from Childhood”

We all have childhood and family stories, good ones, bad ones, and usually some of each. Childhood shapes us, helping us be the adults we eventually become. We learn things, directly and indirectly, by living in the families we have. 

In The View from Childhood: Poems, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell takes both a candid and loving look at her Italian Catholic immigrant family. It’s a loving look, one that includes thankfulness to her elder siblings for introducing her to serious poetry (she says she originally wanted to be an opera singer). But like all families, there are things you don’t want to learn and prefer not to see. But they’re there, and you learn to come to terms with them. 

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

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Orthodoxy – poem by Scott Cairns at The Rabbit Room.

 

Praise Song for My Mother – Andrea Potos at Every Day Poems.

 

The Charge of the Light Brigade – poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson at Every Day Poems.

“A Summer Shadow” by H.L. Marsay

The summer is unusually and rather miserably hot for York in northern England. Detective Chief Inspector John Shadow of the York Police is attending a cricket game. Cricket happens to be about the only sport he enjoys watching. And being outside has the advantage of catching whatever cool breezes might unexpectedly arise. His detective sergeant, Jimmy Chang, is there as well. 

And the during a break in the game, the elderly man who’d been serving as scorekeeper is discovered dead in the scorekeeper’s shed. And rather gruesomely murdered, in fact. At first glance, Shadow wonders who could possibly have wanted to kill an elderly man who was simply keeping score.

 

 H L Marsay

As Shadow and Chang will learn in A Summer Shadow, the ninth DCI John Shadow mystery by H L Marsay, the list of suspects is longer than one might initially think. It turns out that the man, a retired city planning officer, had something of a habit of expecting bribes from developers, and then, after retirement, expecting payment from people he was blackmailing. It almost becomes a case of who isn’t on the list of suspects.

 

It’s a fast-paced, entertaining story, with enough twists and turns to keep a slalom skier on constant alert. The case takes on an entirely different turn when a skeleton is discovered in the basement of the former newspaper building – and it might possibly be related to the death of the cricket scorekeeper.

 

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. 

 

A Summer Shadow shares a number of characteristics with its eight predecessors – a DCI who is curmudgeonly on a good day, an irrepressible detective sergeant who keeps his bubbly charm intact no matter what his boss throws at him, and a stop at one if not several York restaurants. It’s great fun.

 

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.

A Saxon Shadow by H L Marsay.

Betrayal at the Old Hall by H L Marsay.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Calvin Coolidge, Christianity, & the American Founding – Nathaniel Urban at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Why did police handcuff Henry Nowak? – Andrew Tettenborn at The Spectator.

 

Soiled Work – Adam Gustine at Comment Magazine.

 

Ground Zero in the Reading Crisis – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Whistler in Wapping – Spitalfields Life.

The tongue as metaphor

After James 3:1-12 

Of all the works of man,

none is so powerful as

the tongue. It does

great good, and it does

great harm. If we teach,

we must remember

it is the tongue which

makes us stumble. It

guides the whole person,

like the bit in the horse’s

mouth, like the rudder

of a ship, like the fire

in the forest, the fire

that provides heat 

in the cold and destruction

among the trees and brush.

The tongue can be tamed,

but only as an act of God;

none of us can tame

our tongues.

 

Photograph by Izzy Park via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Our Mother-tongue is Live: A Sonnet for Pentecost – Malcolm Guite.

 

Steve McQueen, born again, set free – Patrick Luscri. 

 

Even Now, God Can Rescue Your Prodigal – Jill Noble at Desiring God.

Saturday Good Reads - May 23, 2026

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were political enemies, and often bitter ones at times. After Jefferson left the presidency in early 1809, he and Adams began a correspondence that, while it didn’t heal all the old political wounds, it did create a mutual respect. But as Marianne Holdzkom at the Conversation points out, they still disagreed about the American Revolution’s meaning even as they lay dying. And they both died on July 4, 1826, the 50^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which is usually connected to Jefferson, but which Adams played a hidden hand in.

Charles Dickens was famous for his “night walks,” in which he roamed the streets of London when he couldn’t sleep. He discovered that his own restlessness was mirrored in the restlessness of London, and he came upon scenes and people which inspired some of his stories. In 1860, in his magazine All the Year Round, he published an account of his might walks. It was later included in his collection The Uncommercial Traveler.

 

Speaking of Dickens, Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review – not the biggest fan of Dickens – gave another of the man’s works a go. He read A Tale of Two Cities, and he discovered a hidden architecture within the story.

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

Why Haldimand and Washington Fought Different Intelligence Wars – Ryan Wagner at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

The Preamble Before the Declaration – Jonathan Horn at The Free Press.

 

The People’s Declaration – Michael Auslin at The Patowmack Packet.

 

Captain James Wood, Diplomat – Eric Sterner at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

Benjamin Franklin and the Franco-American Alliance – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

Writing and Literature

 

To vex the world: Jonathan Swift’s Frustrated Humor – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

American Stuff

 

Battle of Antietam: Clash in the Cornfield – Michael Haskew at Warfare History Network.

 

News Media

 

A Miscarriage of Journalism at The New York Times – Roy Altman at The Free Press.

 

Faith

 

A Veil Before the Eyes of the Enemy: On Tolkien, Foolishness, and the Ordinary Means of Grace – Caleb Wait at Modern Reformation.

 

Life and Culture

 

Some Conservative Thoughts on the Left of Today – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

British Stuff

 

Museums in England largely oppose proposal to charge admission for foreign tourists – Gareth Harris at The Art Newspaper.

 

Poetry

 

“Ode to the Confederate Dead,” poem by Allen Tate – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

There Is a Fountain – The Village Chapel Worship

Painting: Reading Girl, oil on canvas by Franz Eybl (1806-1880).