The Christmas Solo – my new story at Cultivating Oaks Press

I have a new story at Cultivating Oaks Press. Entitled “The Christmas Solo,” it’s a tale of a man floundering after a marriage disaster who finds his way back with a Christmas song.  

It’s inspired by a song that has a short but strange history on YouTube, of all places. Early last October, a suggested video showed up on my YouTube page. Because it used a photo of the singer Josh Groban, I thought it was a new song by him. It was called “Light of Heaven,” and after listening to it a couple of times, I realized it sounded like Groban singing but wasn’t. Then I ask myself, what is this? Something done with an AI program? Identity theft? But if it was on YouTube, shouldn’t it have been vetted or approved with a new channel?

 

There were a number of similar videos, most using Groban’s picture and the voice sounding like Groban’s, but not quite his. A few other videos used other well-known singers like Rihanna. 

 

But I liked “Light of Heaven.” I’d listen to it while I did my periodic walks. Slowly, as I listened, a story began to shape itself in my mind. A song about the Nativity could become a way of redemption for a broken man. 

 

That’s the story I wrote for Cultivating Oaks Press. 

 

I had continued to listen to “Light of Heaven” on YouTube until this past weekend. It was still available on Saturday. On Sunday, clicking on the link brought this message: “Video unavailable. This video has been removed due to a contractual obligation with a music licensor.” Not only had the video vanished, but its channel, along with all the other songs, was gone as well.

 

It’s a story based on a song that became a ghost. All that’s really left of the song is this story. 

 

Photograph by Tom Allport via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Wisdom through the awful grace of God – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

The Adams Book Club: An Introduction – Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Archaeologists stunned to find Homer’s Iliad inside ancient Egyptian mummy – Vishwam Sankaran at The Independent. 

 

Vagabondia – Spitalfields Life.

Poets and Poems: Catherine Lawton and “Where All Things Meet, Mirror & Mingle”

Faith poetry has a long history, extending back at least to the Psalms of the Old Testament of the Bible and likely even earlier. What’s almost curious, but understandable, is how contemporary poetry has separated, largely if not entirely, into secular and religious streams. It’s a mirror of the culture at large, but not everyone mimics that mirror. 

But not every poet has followed that divergence. Some take a more holistic approach, integrating all of life in their poetry. One of those poets is Catherine Lawton. 

 

Lawton is an author, essayist, and a poet. She’s published numerous books, including fiction, memoirs, non-fiction works like Write and Publish Organically, and poetry collections such as Glimpses of Glory. Her newest poetry collection, Where All Things Meet, Mirror & Mingle, reinforce her recurring poetic theme of life and faith as a collective whole

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

Some Tuesday Readings

 

At the typewriter – poem by Amelia Friedline at Innocence Abroad.

 

“The Scholars,” poem by William Butler Yeats – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Hair on Fire at the Church Lady’s Brunch – Renee Emerson at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Ars Poetica – poem by Megan Willome at Every Day Poems.

Some Monday Readings - April 20, 2026

 

Reading is magic – Sam Kriss at Numb at the Lodge. 

Tales from the road: The dead of Falling Waters, a forgotten Gettysburg Campaign battle – John Banls’ Civil War Blog.

 

No, Books Are Note Remotely Too Expensive – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

A New Wild West in Jackson, Louisiana – James Taylor Foreman at The Dispatch.

 

A Week of Tears. A Week of Storms – Katie Andraskie at Katie’s Ground.

 

Publishing has an AI problem – Alexander Larman at The Critic Magazine.

 

Learn the Hard Way – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

How Big Pharma (Successfully) Targeted Women – Matt Bivens at Racket News.

 

A Christian Philosophy of Education – Howard Merken at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Photograph: The Falling Waters historical marker.

Listen and do

After James 1:22-25 

It is a process:

the word is designed

to be heard, planted

in your hearts,

sanctifying you

over time. You

can tell if it takes

root by what you

do. Faith is not

only what you say;

faith is also what

you do. It is both

hearing and doing.

It is both believing

and doing. Neither

believing nor doing

takes priority; both

must be done. That

brings the blessing.

Listen and do.

Do and listen.

 

Photograph by Anastasiya Badun via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

The Paradox of the Brightening Path – Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition.

 

The Day Death Tried to Swallow Life – Clinton Manley at Desiring God.

Saturday Good Reads - April 18, 2026

We’re seeing the beginning of a flood of articles, posts, reports, and television programs about the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The flood is going to continue rising until July 4, but it is, I think, a good thing. We can understand where we came from as a nation. Two examples: Kelt Holt at Just Enough History writes some wonderful articles about the revolution; this week she looks at what were the final steps to independence: Dunmore’s Proclamation, the Olive Branch Petition, and Common Sense. 

If you’re so inclined, you can actually follow in the footsteps of the founders and have a drink where they plotted the revolution over a few beers. 

 

And in the category of you can’t know too much about those who don’t particularly like you or your beliefs, Bradley Green at Crossway has penned “10 Things You Should Know About Critical Theory,” which is sometimes known as cultural Marxism and explains a lot about the crazy things we see in contemporary life in the West.

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

The American Revolution at 250 – review by Kevin Diestelow at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

The Men Who Bankrolled America – James Grant at The Free Press.

 

Britain in 1776 – Madsen Pirie at The Critic Magazine.

 

John Adams’s Rage Bait – Jonathan Horn at The Free Press.

 

Poetry

 

The Artist’s Pen Bodying Forth the Poet’s Imagination – Steven Searcy at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

“On the Death of Dr. Benjamin Franklin,” poem by Philip Freneau – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Writing and Literature

 

The Perils of Writing in an Age of Distraction – Adam Smith at Front Porch Republic.

 

Life and Culture

 

Why Avocations Matter – Brianna Lambert at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Defying decline – James Pierson at The New Criterion on What Really Matters: Restoring a Legacy of Faith, Freedom, and Family by Timothy Goeglein. 

 

Faith

 

4 Things We Added to the Bible – Christ at Homeward Bound.

 

The Watchmaker’s Wager – Joshua Budimlic at Iotas in Eternity.

 

Free Ex Q&A: Ryan Burge – Mary Julia Koch at The Wall Street Journal (story unlocked).

 

American Stuff

 

The Face of Rural America in 1976 – Yuri Bezmenov at How to Subvert Subversion.

 

Let It Be Jesus – We the Kingdom

 Painting: Old Fessli Reading a Newspaper, oil on canvas (1900) by Albert Anker (1831-1910).

Put it away

After James 1:19-21 

Put away 

filthiness,

all of it. 

Do the same

with wickedness, 

rampant as it is. 

Instead, receive

the word implanted

in you, and more 

than that, receive it

in meekness,

because that word 

can save your souls. 

Receive it as it’s 

intended to be

received: 

teaching you,

sanctifying you, 

edifying you, 

encouraging you,

transforming you.

 

Photograph by Ruchindra Gunasekara via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“From Canzoniere 264,” poem by Petrarch – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

Crumbs – poem by Seth Lewis.

 

Here I Raise My Ebenezer – Maribeth Barber Albritton at Letters from Crickhollow.

 

Poets and Poems: Emily Bright and “This Ground Beneath Our Feet”

As I read Emily Bright’s new collection of poetry, it was the word “ground” in the title that kept coming to mind. “Ground” has a double meaning. It can be the physical ground we stand and walk upon and that our homes occupy, and it can be the historical, genealogical, emotional, psychological, and social realities that gives shape to and hold our lives in place. While This Ground Beneath Our Feet includes both, it is the second kind that Bright really focuses on.  

The collection, appropriately enough, uses the metaphor of a growing tree to organize the poems into four sections. The poems of “Roots” draw from her family history – colonists traveling to a new land, the ocean passage itself, and clearing the land in their new homes. The poems of “Ground” move to both the physical landscape as well what the land produces. These are not confined solely to space; one poem describes interplanetary space travel but still manages to be about ground. The poems of “Branches” move closer to her own contemporary life, and “Seeds” describes not only scenes of childhood but also cultural seeds, like reading poetry in a prison environment.

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

Some Thursday Readings

 

The Puzzle of Minor Poetry – Robert Shaw at Portico Quarterly.

 

“Telling the Bees,” poem by Lizette Woodwoth Reese – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Spring-tine, night-time, rabbits and raccoons – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

“The King Wavers,” from Shakespeare’s Hamlet – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

“Clerihews,” poem by E.C. Bentley – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Happy Birthday Every Day Poems – Celebrating 15 Years! – L.L. Barkat at Tweetspeak Poetry.