Poets and Poems: Christy Lee Barnes and “Commodore Rookery”

We just finished watching our youngest son’s wife navigate the first two stages of motherhood – pregnancy and childhood. She was a trooper, and I spent a lot of time in simple, quiet awe. And now our and her families have been blessed with fraternal twin boys. 

Poets have addressed motherhood probably ever since poetry first existed. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (”Mother and Poet”) and Christina Rossetti (“To My Mother”) come to mind, but even Edgar Allen Poe wrote “To My Mother.” Other poets who’ve written about mothers or motherhood include Gwendolyn Brooks, Sylvia Plath, Nikki Giovanni, Sharon Olds, Louisa May Alcott, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, William Blake, and Sara Teasdale.

 

Christy Lee Barnes navigates the territory of motherhood in her 16-poem chapbook, Commodore Rookery.

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

Some Tuesday Readings

 

10 Things Poets & Writers Can Do with the Small Moments – L.L. Barkat at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

Always, there is this fear of others falling – poem by Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

“I Felt a Funeral in My Brain,” poem by Emily Dickinson – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The Book – poem by Robert Cording at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Gleanings – poem by Scott Edward Anderson at Every Day Poems.

Some Monday Readings - July 6, 2026

The ex-Dominion – David Warren at Essays in Idleness. 

The untold story of Brexit – David Shipley at The Critic Magazine.

 

No Faith Worth Defending – Carl Trueman at First Things Magazine.

 

Where Did Lincoln Deliver the Gettysburg Address – Allen Guelzo at The Golden Thread. 

 

Fake World: Everything You Think Is a Lie – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review on Philip K. Dick’s The Penultimate Truth.

 

Journey’s Jonathan Cain releases patriotic rock anthem, reveals meaning of ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ – Leah MarieAnn Klett at The Christian Post.

 

“We Always Leave Things Unfinished” – Alexander Sorondo at Big Reader Bad Grades.

 

St Bartholomew the Less, the Chapel and Parish Church of St Barts – A London Inheritance.

 

The age of Friedman – James Piereson at The New Criterion.

 

Photograph: Author Philip K. Dick (1928-1982).

Swearing is out

After James 5:7-12 

I don’t know how

to say it any plainer.

Don’t swear. Above

all else, don’t swear.

Don’t swear by heaven,

don’t swear by earth.

Don’t swear in any

other way. Do

something novel;

do something that’s

revolutionary. Let

your yes be yes; let

your no be no. In

that way, you will 

avoid condemnation.

Do the righteous thing,

now. Do the Godly

thing, now. Don’t swear.

 

Photograph by Usman Yousaf at Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

If God Meant Everybody, Why Did He Say Neighbour? – Seth Lewis.

 

Choose Better Words – Melissa Edgington at Your Mom Has a Blog.

 

The Presbyterian Revolution: The Faith That Founded America – Rob Pacienza at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

Saturday Good Reads – July 4, 2026 – America 250

Fifty years ago, my wife and I were living in Houston when the Bicentennial celebration occurred. The memories that lasted are the tall ships sailing into New York City, the fireworks at Houston’s Northwest Plaza on July 4 (the the resulting traffic jam when it was over), and Bicentennial Minutes.  

Bicentennial Minutes were hosted by CBS. As the name implied, they were one-minute history lessons, each with a different celebrity narrator. Speakers included movie stars like Paul Newman, Kirk Douglas, and Ed Asner; Alfred Hitchcock; Kukla, Fran, & Ollie; Walter Cronkite; and scores more. Reportedly, CBS initially hated the idea, but it turned into one of the most popular events during the Bicentennial.

 

Somewhat controversial was the sponsor, Shell Oil Company. First, it was an oil company, when many were howling for oil companies to be broken up. Second, it was owned by the Royal Dutch Group, a foreign company, no less, half-owned by British interests. Ultimately, people decided to sit back and enjoy the minutes.

 

I was working at Shell Oil at the time. And my job was reading, researching, and writing about the effort to “break up Big Oil.” Eventually, the issue died, and I moved into the speechwriting group. But I think I’ll always connect those Bicentennial memories with “breaking up Big Oil.”

 

And now, it’s 50 years later, and it’s the 250^th birthday. Happy birthday to all of us! And to the men and women of 1776 who had the courage to make it happen!

 

The Declaration of Independence in its moment

 

The Anticipation of Late June 1776 – Chris Mackowski at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Declaration of Independence: A Transcription – National Archives.

 

Declarations Before THE Declaration of Independence – Ray Rphaeol at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

The Viking word hidden in the Declaration of Independence – Sophie Hardach at BBC.

 

The Man Who Argued Against Independence – Jonathan Horn at The Free Press.

 

July 2, 1776: “the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America: – Kevin Pawlak at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

The Inner American Revolution – Stephen Mansfield at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

 

Scotland and the Birth of the United States – S. Donald Fortson at Ligonier.

 

On the Semiquincentennial – Spitalfields Life.

 

The War for Independence

 

Monmouth: Longest Battle of the American Revolution – Eric Niderost at Warfare History Network.

 

The Britons who supported the War of Independence – Tom Cutterham at The Conversation.

 

How a tiny Caribbean island made American independence possible – R. Grant Gilmore III at The Conversation.

 

General Washington and the Other Declaration of 1776 – Charlton Allen at American Thinker.

 

The America 250 Celebration

 

Congress dedicates national time capsule ahead of America’s 250^th anniversary – Associated Press via PBS.

 

World Monuments Fund spotlights ten heritage sites for the US’ 250^th – Elena Goukassoan at The Art Newspaper.

 

A History of America’s Milestones: Celebrating Independence – Ron Faucheux at Real Clear History.

 

The Declaration in American History

 

Why Americans Once Held Separate Fourth of July Celebrations – Tim Ott at History.

 

At America 250, Remember the 2 Presidents Who Saved the Declaration – Janice Rogers Brown at Coolidge Review.

 

When Independence Hall Was Almost Demolished – Elizabeth Yuko at History.

 

Assessments of the Declaration

 

Liberty, War, and Sovereignty in American States System: The Declaration of Independence at 250 – Robbie Totten at Isonomia Quarterly.

 

America 250 Forum, Day 1: The Idea of America, Day 2: The Weight of History; Day 3: Giving Thanks as American Christians – Mere Orthodoxy.

 

250 Years of Faith: The Story of Christianity in America – Thomas Kidd at Desiring God.

 

The Radical, Conservative Experiment That Is America – David Deavel at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Our Inalienable Declaration – Jack Butler at The Wall Street Journal (story unlocked). 

 

The Heroes of 1776 – Neil Gorsuch and Janet Nitze at The Free Press.

 

The Declaration of Independence: A Radical Experiment in Liberty by Bradley Birzer – Faith, Fiction, Friends.

 

Why I Wrote Finding the Founding – Casey Spinks at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

The Declaration at 250 – 28 thinkers at Modern Age.

 

Music of the Declaration – Henry Long at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

People Speak

 

The Country I Would Still Die For – Ncholas Dockery at The Free Press.

 

The Summer I Turned Patriot – Josh Kaplan at The Free Press.

 

If Jesus Founded a Nation – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

 

America 250 and Poetry

 

Bradford Skow and American Independence in Verse – Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

What America Was Meant to Be – poem by Mike Johansson at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Philip Freneau: Poet of the American Revolution – Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

The First of Modern Nations and An Errand into the Wilderness – poems by James Matthew Wilson at Word on Fire.

 

“Old Ironsides,” poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Paul Revere’s Ride – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

 

The Declaration of Independence – read by Max McLean

Painting: The Signing of the Declaration of Independence, oil on canvas (1818)  by John Trumbull (1756-1843), U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

No grumbling!

After James 5:7-12 

No grumbling against

one another; grumbling

implies you’re judging

one another, and you,

too, will be judged;

the Judge is standing

at the door. Consider

the prophets. They were

patient on their suffering,

and they suffered 

for how they served

the Lord. Be patient

and steadfast in your

patience. Job remained

patient and steadfast

in the face of terrible

trials and ordeals.

And Job received

compassion and mercy.

So, cut the grumbling.

 

Photograph by Engin Akyurt via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“Concerning a Nightingale,” poem by Alcuin – D.S. Matin at Kingdom Poets.

 

“He Leadeth Me,” hymn by Joseph Henry Gilmore – Anthony Esoloen at Word & Song.

 

The Secret Place – Daniel Kunkel t Mere Orthodoxy.

Philip Freneau: Poet of the American Revolution

We learned this back in elementary school. If one poet’s name sits atop the poetry of the American Revolution, that name is Philip Freneau (1752-1832). And like the new nation he was part of, he kept re-inventing himself.  

The Freneau family came from La Chappelle, France, in the Ardennes Forst and near the current Belgian border. The family was Huguenot, not exactly the best faith option in Catholic France. In 1707, Andre Freneau emigrated to New York in America and became part of the Huguenot colony there. He married and had five children. One of his sons, Pierre, became part of the family business married in 1748. His oldest child was born in 1752 and named Philip. Ten years later, the well-to-do family moved to New Jersey, although Philip remained in boarding school in New York. In 1768, aged 16, the boy entered Princeton University, set upon becoming a minister.

 

At Princeton, however, Pilip discovered writing. He’d read widely in the English poets and Latin classics, and he was already composing poetry. In his class at Princeton was a young man who became a lifelong friend – James Madison. Freneau, Madison, and others were beginning to get up in the spirit of the times, and it was an anti-British, increasingly independent spirit. (In 1770, the senior class voted to wear only clothes of American manufacture for commencement.)

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

Illustration: Philip Freneau.

Some Thursday Readings

 

Dust – poem by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Metastatic – poem by Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

 

Orphan Lamb – poem by David Whyte.

 

Kurt Vonnegut’s Ambivalent War on AI – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

“Chicago,” poem by Carl Sandburg – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

“The Battle of Blenheim,” poem by Robert Southey – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Reading Moby Dick – Chris Arnade Walks the World.

The Job in Which No Day Was Like Any Other

I worked as director of Communications for St. Louis Public Schools for seven months. I’d gone through the strangest job interview I’d ever had, and I had a first day on the job unlike any other I had had or anyone I knew had had. But I figured that, after that tumultuous first day, things would settle down. 

I figured wrong. 

 

Things would never settle down. Every day would be unlike every other day. 

 

One ongoing source of turmoil was the Board of Education itself, the seven people elected by voters to oversee the district’s operations. Four had been elected on a reform slate. Three had not. Most of the turmoil generated by the Board came from those three. 

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

Photograph of the Headquarters building by St. Louis Public Schools.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Advice for Older Writers – Nathan Bransford.

 

“On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic,” sonnet by Charlotte Turner Smith – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.