Some Wednesday Readings - Sept. 23, 2026

 

How I Accidentally Became a Church Librarian – Carolyn Leiloglou at Story Warren.

 

The Joy of Unexpected Books – K.E. Colombini at Front Porch Republic.

 

Nathan Hale Gave His Life for America. We Should Honor That – Michael Freund at Real Clear History.

 

The Painter of the Night: Gerard van Honthorst – Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

10 things that don’t belong in a query letter – Nathan Bransford.

 

The Challenge of Wendell Berry: A Personal Assessment – Brian Volck at Church Life Journal.

 

Samuel Johnson: A Great Thinker and a Great Man – Karen Swallow Prior at The Priory.

 

The Rabbit Room Community’s Top 50 Books – The Rabbit Room.

 

Painting: Christ Crowned with Thorns, oil on canvas (circa 1620) by Gerard van Honthurst (1590-1656). 

Poets and Poems: Jessica Covil-Manset and "To Sing You, and to Shout"

You don’t understand the title of the chapbook To Sing You. and to Shout until you finish reading all its 17 poems. Poet Jessica Covil-Manset packs powerful emotion, reflections on a family, and eventual resolution into those few poems in a way that leaves you impressed with the impact and reflecting on your own family dynamics. 

Much of the focus is on the mother of the family, the one who leaves length voicemails, sings out of tune (and knows it), whose messages are sometimes, but not always spiteful, the one who is “my heartache / My biggest fan.” It’s not a flattering portrait, but it is also not entirely critical. 

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

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Farewell Letter – poem by David Whyte.

 

Poetry Club Tea Date: Daily Practices – Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

Neruda’s Updated Edition Totals 3,522 Pages – poem by L.L. Barkat at Every Day Poems.

 

Annunciation – poem by Alex Mouw at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

“The Day is Done,” poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

Some Monday Readings - Sept. 21, 2026

 

Great Books and the Good Life – Peter Sikkema at Comment.

 

My plea to English students: Read the canon – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

My Books Needed a House of Their Own – Karen Swallow Prior at Miller’s Book Review.

 

A Friend for Life – Peter Mommsen at Plough.

 

Bury St. Edmunds, 1952 and 2026 – A London Inheritance.

 

Fit as a philologist – Joshua Katz at The New Criterion.

 

The Ivory Tower Is Falling – R.R. Reno at First Things Magazine. 

 

The Art of Friendship – Tara Isabella Burton at Plough.

 

Photograph: The cathedral at Bury St. Edmunds by Karen Cann via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Dumbfounded

After Luke 2:41-52 

His parents stare, almost

in shock. Their 12-year-old

son, their young son, this boy,

is teaching the teachers,

astonishing the teachers

in the temple of the most

high God. Searching for

this boy for three days,

fearing the worst, anxiety

almost out of control,

his parents are almost 

in shock. They say what

any parents would say:

“Where were you? We

looked everywhere! We

though the worst, we

feared the worst. How 

could you do this to us?”

The boy looks calmly

at them, as if surprised. 

“Why were you looking

for me? Didn’t you know

where I was, the only place

I could be and would be,

here, where I belong,

in my father’s house? Why

would I be anywhere else?"

 

Photograph by Toa Heftiba via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Hildegard of Bingen: A Sonnet – Malcolm Guite.

 

Even as the Soul Prospers – Kyle Borg at Gentle Reformation.

 

Missionary, Your Life Makes Sense – Seth Porch at Desiring God.

 

A Theology of Music – Griffin Gooch at Reality Theology.

 

Canada’s MAiD Regime: How We Became a World Leader in Assisted Death: And How Christians Should Respond – Ray Pennings at The Gospel Coalition Canada.

Saturday Good Reads – September 19, 2026

My wife and I have joke about PBS: When all else fails, do Downton Abbey or some variation on the theme. Reruns, fundraisers – it seems at times it all turns to Downton Abbey and the Crawley family. And now, for the true fan of the famed British television series, comes the spinoff to end all spinoffs – the 4,711-piece Official Downtown Abbey LEGO set, complete with 13 minifigures! And it’s only $349.99! 

Most of what we read about the Declaration of Independence focuses on the events leading up to it, the writing of it, or what it still means. Emily Sneff took a different approach and looked at how the Declaration was disseminated in the six months after its adoption by the Continental Congress.

 

What do you do when your entire life seems to have hit a wall, and you simply don’t have the will to go on? Marc Sims at Et Cetera takes that familiar experience and sets it in the context of Christianity.

 

More Good Reads

 

Faith

 

A Murderer Like Me – Missy Roepnack.

 

“Rise Up, O Men of God,” Hymn by William Pearson Merrill – Anthony Esolen at Word & Wong.

 

You Are Not Your Trials – Michael Kelley at Forward Progress.

 

America 250

 

Washington Resigns His Commission and Foreign Threats to the Republic – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

Benjamin Rush – The Revolution’s Indispensable Doctor – Joseph Loconte at Acton Institute.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Samuel Johnson: “A Writer for Us All” – Henry Oliver at The Priory.

 

Belloc’s “Belinda” – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

British Stuff

 

Where have all the vicars gone? – A.N. Wilson.

 

In Search of Roman London – Spitalfields Life.

 

American Stuff

 

American Malls Were Once Packed – So What Killed Them? – Secret State Files (video).

 

Art

 

Art imitating life: Artist self-portraits in the SLAM collection – Emily Wasserman at St. Louis Art Museum.

 

Life and Culture

 

The Making of Roger Scruton – Dan Hitchens at First Things Magazine.

 

The death of biblical literacy – Gwion Wyn Jones at The Spectator.

 

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Artificial Intelligence – Teddy Macker at Front Porch Republic.

 

Poetry

 

“At Melville’s Tomb,” poem by Hart Crane – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Inside the once-hidden workshop of ‘The Muppets’ creator Jim Henson – Associated Press

 Painting: Man with a Book, oil on canvas by Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680), The Leiden Collection.

Found

After Luke 2:41-52 

The boy they’d lost,

the boy they feared

was dead, is found,

and found in the most

unlikely of places,

the temple of God;

doing the most unlikely

of things, teaching

the teachers, questioning

the teachers of the law,

amazing the teachers

with his understanding

and his answers. Who is

this 12-year-old from

Nazareth; can any good

come from that place?

And a boy, astonishing

the teachers, the old men,

the wise men, the sages,

with his understanding

and insight of God’s word.

 

Photograph by Jean Valjean via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“All Bright Things,” poem by Steven Peterson – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

Defending the Faith Like the Apostle Paul – J.V. Fesko at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Britain just proved that assisted suicide is not inevitable – Jonathon Van Maren at The Bridgehead.

A Facebook Memory and the Origin of Tweetspeak Poetry

It’s difficult for me to imagine that I’ve had a Facebook account for at least 17 years, but a Facebook memory popped up this week to prove it. It caught my attention became of the title: “Who Were You in My Dream?” 

I thought, why does that sound like a poem?

 

Probably because it was. But not just any poem.

 

One Saturday afternoon in the summer of 2009, back when Twitter was called Twitter, three people were having a Twitter conversation – L.L. Barkat, Jim Woods, and myself. Somehow, the subject turned to poetry (well. L.L. Barkat was involved, so that was probably inevitable), and we began tweeting poetic lines at each other. And an idea was born. What about doing a poetry jam on Twitter?

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

Photograph by Melpo Tsiliaki via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Thursday Readings

 

“The Silver Swan, Who Living Had No Note,” poem by Orlando Gibbons and “Out Upon It,” poem by Sir John Suckling– Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Those Constant Stars, Thine Eyes: A reading of Shakespeare’s fourteenth sonnet – K.S. Bernstein at Apple Blossoms in a Mournful Wood.