Sunday, April 30, 2017

A strange home


After Psalm 91

This is a home, I’m told;
a dwelling, a place to live
and abide, and yet one
of the strangest houses
I’ve encountered.
No walls, no windows, no door,
roofless, no systems to heat
or cool, and yet I walk
room to room without
encountering a single wall
or divider, and yet I know
when rooms change. Perhaps
the oddest aspect of this
odd dwelling is the sense
of security provided
by a shadow.


Photograph by Karen Arnold via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

Saturday, April 29, 2017

Saturday Good Reads


A son writes in The New Yorker about a cruise with his father, to explore the sites associated with The Odyssey. James Somers at The Atlantic laments the end of Google’s program to digitize all printed books (regardless of copyright status). And if you’ve ever wondered by online is the way it is, Freddie DeBoer has an answer.

Karen Swallow Prior writes about the word all writers love and hate – platform. The Guardian showcases a decade of award-winning British landscape photography. Some cool poetry and articles about poetry. The actor David Suchet reads the Gospel of Mark at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

And a note on what is my very first NOT good read. If you haven’t seen the song by Rachel Bloom and friends on “Bill Nye Saves the World,” then you don’t know just how decadent American culture has become. Nye is the self-proclaimed savior and spokesperson for science, and marched for science last weekend. I’m embarrassed for him.

Life and Culture

A Father’s Final Odyssey – Daniel Mendelsohn at The New Yorker.

Where Human Beings Love to Live – Dr. Steven Garber at The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, & Culture.

Why is online the way it is? – Freddie deBoer.

Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria – James Somers at The Atlantic.

Writing

Only One Platform Will Last – Karen Swallow Prior at The Gospel Coalition.

Working at this desk: Happiness itself – David Murray at Writing Boots.

Art and Photography

iPhone Spring and Cold Fog at Dawn – Tim Good at Photography by Tiwago.



Poetry

Saving Place – Jerry Barrett at Gerald the Writer.


Monday Muse: Derek Walcott – Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

The Rapture – Reese Conner at The Missouri Review.

Review of “A Little Book on Form” by Robert Haas – Mary Harwell Sayler at The Poetry Editor.

Faith

The Cloud of Unknowing – Rick Wilcox at Literary Life.


British Stuff

How an Alcohol-Hating English Preacher Founded Global Tourism – Peter Schwartzstein at Smithsonian.

Music



Oldest Footage of London Ever – Yestervid



Painting: Man reading, oil on canvas (1904-1908) by John Singer Sargent.

Friday, April 28, 2017

This shelter business


After Psalm 91

This shelter business:
why, I don’t know, I see
the word shelter and I imagine
a desert of sand and searing heat
rocks burning at the touch
and heat of course the heat
a searing sun sucking coolness
from the ground
from my skin.

And yet this shelter, I find,
is a shadow arching over me
protecting me from heat
a refuge from dust and wind
a shield staring down the terror

a shadow
a cleft in the rock
sheltering me from enemies
sheltering me from others
from myself


Photograph by Rajesh Misra via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.