Railyard

A blaze of activity, once,

trains rumbling, tucks arriving, 

unloading, loading, departing,

men shouting, arguing, laughing.

now a few train cars slumber

on rusting tracks, vines

illustrating security gates, 

walkways now paths

through weeds. But

the same clouds slide

overhead, sometimes

offering rain, sometimes

not.

 

This poem began its life as a comment on a photo posted to Facebook by Tom Darin Liskey. You can see Tom’s photo here.

 

Photograph by Fabian Kleiser via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Threshold – poem by David Whyte.

 

Moth – poem and artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio – W.H. Auden at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

Names across Water – poem by Catherine Abbey Hodges at Every Day Poems. 

 

“On the Harp Song of the Dane Women,” poem by Rudyard Kipling – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

"Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart" by Russ Ramsey

Every so often I read a book about which I can only say good things. Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart by Russ Ramsey is such a book. 

And this is after his previous book, Rembrandt Is in the Wind, which I thought might be difficult to top. Ramsey proved me wrong. That book looked at how to love and appreciate art through the eyes of faith. His latest does the next step – what art teaches us about being alive, with all the sorrow, tragedy, change, and upheaval we experience. 

 

Every chapter is gem, filled with insights about the featured artist and artworks.

 

Rough Sea with Wreckage by N.M.W. Turner

He starts with Gustave Dore and da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (which only achieved its worldwide renown because it was stolen and hidden for two years), Rembrandt can teach us about the power of suffering. J.M.W. Turner speaks to abrupt change in one’s life; his art changed dramatically after a trip to Italy and both revolutionized British painting and anticipated Impressionism. Albert Bierstadt of the Hudson River School spoke to the beautiful and the sublime in his art. Van Gogh stewarded both his pain and that of others (and it’s not just about his ear). Edgar Degas suffered with macular degeneration throughout his painting career (and he knew it). Norman Rockwell not only chronicled traditional American values; he also demonstrated how racism and violence were part of those values. 

 

The chapter on Van Gogh mentions the room the artist prepared at the Yellow House for his friend Gauguin and the two paintings of sunflowers on the wall. I saw those two paintings hung together as Gauguin would have seen them this past September at the Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers exhibition at the National Gallery in London.

 

Each chapter offers wisdom and understanding. Two in particular spoke to the general subject of art and art criticism.

 

First, Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656) was a woman working in the virtually all-man’s world of painting. In the last 30 years, she’s become a feminist icon, with lots of books and exhibitions about the artist herself and what she painted. But as Ramsey points out, interpreting Gentileschi by the standards and needs of our own time diminishes her as both a woman and an artist. In effect, she becomes something of a one-dimensional political cartoon. Ramsey explores what she achieved in her own time, despite setbacks, betrayals, and disparagement – and that’s far more important than what she’s reduced to today.

 

Russ Ramsey

Second, the book’s concluding chapter is the most personal, a moving tribute to the place of art in Ramsey’s own life. He and his daughter too a trip to Amsterdam in 2023 to see the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Rembrandt House. At the Rijksmuseum, he heads straight to the Hall of Honor, which contains some of the museum’s highlights, including The Night Watch by Rembrandt (I saw it in 1999; it’s an astonishing painting). But his daughter finds the painting that was so influential in Ramsey’s becoming a minister (and he tells the story of how). And he didn’t know the painting was there. 

 

Ramsey is a pastor, author, and speaker. He’s previously published Struck: One Christian’s Reflections on Encountering Death, The Advent of the Lamb of God, The Passion of the King of Glory, The Mission of the Body of Christ, and Rembrandt Is in the Wind.  A native of Indiana, he is a graduate of Taylor University and received his M.Div. and Th.M. degrees from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis. He lives in Nashville with his family.

 

I loved Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart. It’s written by someone with a lifelong love affair with art (except for Donatello; you have to read the first appendix to find out why). He sees art through the eyes of his Christian faith, and he understands how art can illuminate his faith. It’s a wonderful book.

 

Related:

 

Rembrandt Is in the Wind by Russ Ramsey.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Silence of the labs: How a censorship campaign failed to kill a COVID origin story – Jonathan Turley at The Hill. 

 

London Films – Capturing 100 Years of Change – A London Inheritance.

 

Basic Principles of Pitching – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

From the Top of the Hill – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

We are still at war

After I Peter 2:9-12

We are a priesthood, yes,

called and chosen to proclaim

and live in the light, but we

are still at war with the passions

of the flesh. The struggle

is common to all of us, so while

we struggle individually we 

also struggle collectively. But

we know we are to keep

ourselves free from the passions

which seem to tear at us

with the talons of a hawk. We

are to keep our conduct

honorable, so when we are

called evildoers, when we

are criticized and condemned

for what is right, our conduct

and deeds are plain to see

and speak of the one who

chose us. The war continues.

 

Photograph by the British Library via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Holy Bravery: How Christian Men Act Like Men – Greg Morse at Desiring God.

 

How Intellectuals Found God – Peter Savodnik at The Free Press.

Saturday Good Reads - Dec. 28, 2024

Just when you think you’ve heard or read just about every story you could about the U.S. Civil War (seven years of reading does that to you), along comes a story you haven’t heard before. I did a double take when I saw the headline; this sounded like “fake news.” But it’s a true story, and Eli Wizewich at Smithsonian Magazine has the details: “Why General Ulysses S. Grant Issued an Order to Expel Jews from Certain Confederate States During the Civil War.” 

Earlier this week, I posted a review of Once Upon a Wardrobe by Pati Callahan. Yesterday, she posted a reflection about writing and learning the big secret of writing (The secret is, “There is no secret”). See “Twenty Years of Searching for Stories.”

 

We love visiting London and England, and we love visiting English churches large and small. My favorite is a tossup between Southwark Cathedral (a human-sized church) and the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London. You will always find crowds at the big two – Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral, and I’m certain both depend mightily upon tourists for financial sustenance. But I read about the troubles of the Church of England (and wrote about them in both Dancing King and Dancing Prophet), and my heart grows heavy: silent discos at Canterbury Cathedral; the Archbishop of Canterbury resigns over an abuse scandal; major changes in theology; and now questioning whether Jesus is the “true Messiah.”

 

More Good Reads

 

Writing and Literature

 

Why Take a Crazy Deadline? – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

The Longevity of A Christmas Carol – Joshua Young at The Spectator.

 

The Oldest Languages in the World and the Origins of Writing – Alexander Gale at Greek Reporter.

 

Disrupting Your Author Website – Lisa Norman at Writers in the Storm.

 

The Mideast

 

“The New Europe?” European Diplomatic History and the Future of the Middle East – essay by Jay Mens and Niall Ferguson at The Hoover Institution.

 

News Media

 

Don’t Expect Media Apologies – Ever – for the Duke Lacrosse Case – Harry Stein at City Journal.

 

College Radio – Matt Waldron at Front Porch Republic.

 

Life and Culture

 

Europe is Canceling Christmas – Itxu Diaz at Tablet Magazine.

 

Poetry

 

“The House of Christmas” by G.K. Chesterton – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Reed – Don Paterson at Literary Matters.

 

Faith

 

Tom Holland on How Christianity Remade the World – Bari Weiss at The Free Press.

 

The Miracle of the Light – Meir Soloveichik at The Free Press.

 

The Mystery and Miracle of the Incarnation – Robb Brunansky at The Cripplegate.

 

British Stuff

 

An awful year for the British royals draws to an end – Alexander Larman at The Spectator.

 

We Are Messengers – Thorn and Thistle featuring Keith & Kristyn Getty

 Painting: Woman Reading at the Window, oil on canvas by Harold Knight (1874-1961).

Paupers to princes

After I Peter 2:9-12

We are paupers, mired

in our poverty, 

in our emptiness,

in our lack of purpose,

floundering in darkness.

And yet we are paupers

chosen, called to something

higher, far higher, called

to royalty, to holiness,

called to leave the darkness

and embrace the light, 

the marvelous light. And 

the emphasis is on “we;”

we are not alone, called

together with the others

chosen for the priesthood,

priests who have received

mercy.

 

Photograph by Annie Spratt via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Christmas Poem – e.e. cummings at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin)

 

“The Burning Babe,” poem by Robert Southwell – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The Thief’s Good Works – Jackson Gravitt at The Gospel Coalition.

 

Some Thursday Readings

One of the main characters of my new novel Brookhaven has been a major admirer of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow since he was a child. It’s unusual, because the character is born and raised in Mississippi, and abolitionist Mr. Longfellow was not a popular poet. And Longfellow’s poems, in fact, play a not insignificant role throughout the entire book. 

We recently rewatched the Angel Films movie “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” which tells the story of Longfellow and his family during the Civil War, and how he came to write the poem that became the Christmas carol. The movie takes only minor liberties with the real story. Some years back, Meg Groeling at Emerging Civil War told that story, and it’s every bit as fascinating as the movie.

 

The Other Christmas Truce – Joanna Guldin at Military.com.

 

The Cross and the Machine – Paul Kingsnorth at The Free Press.

 

York Buildings Stairs and the Watergate – A London Inheritance.

 

The Bard at Christmas – Jaspreet Singh Boparai at The Critic Magazine.

 

Boat Prayer – Karla Van Vliet at Every Day Poems.

 

“In the Bleak Midwinter,” poem by Christina Rossetti – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The First Noel – poem by Seth Lewis. 

 

Hell by the Acre: A Narrative History of the Stones River Campaign, November 1862-January1863 by Daniel Masters – review at Civil War Books and Authors.

 

Photograph: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about 1860.

Some Christmas Readings – Dec. 25, 2024

The Darkness Does Not Win – Kevin DeYoung at Clearly Reformed. 

The Last Silent Night and the Silver-Haired Saints – Doug Spurling.

 

“Christ’s Nativity,” poem by Henry Vaughn – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Christmas Carol – poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

We Three Kings – Warren Peel at Gentle Reformation.

 

Centerpoint Poetry and Music for Christmas, via Jeff Johnson. 

 

Seven Surprises of the First Christmas – David Mathis at Desiring God. 

 

Are the Origins of Christmas Really Pagan? – Kenneth Calvert at Hillsdale College.

 

A Leprechaun for Christmas (Short Story) – Dancing Priest.

 

Christmas Oranges (Short Story) – Cultivating Oaks Press.

 

Three Christmas Sonnets – Phillip Whidden at Society of Classical Poets.

Jupiter Harmon's Christmas Poem - essay by Michael Curtis at Society of Classical Poets.

The Shop of Ghosts - short story by G.K. Chesterton at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

When All the Earth in Darkness Sleeps – Frank LaRocca & James Matthew Wilson

 Artwork: Star of the Night, etching (circa 1651) by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669); St. Louis Art Museum.

Some Christmas Eve Readings – Dec. 24, 2024

A Little Mischief Poem and Best Wishes for the Holidays – Tweetspeak Poetry. 

The Body in Advent – poem by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Timeless Magic: How Dickens Created a Christmas Classic – Jason Clark at This Is the Day.

 

“A Visit from St. Nicholas,” poem by Clement Clark Moore – Joseph Bottum at Pomes Ancient and Modern.

 

A Historic Christmas Message from the Moon – Hugh Whechel at the Institute of Faith, Work, & Economics. (Eve)

 

Think You Know the Christmas Story? – Michael Kruger at Canon Fodder.

 

Father Christmas Belongs in Narnia – Aaron Earls at The Wardrobe Door.

 

Advent IV – Andrew Peterson at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Things Worth Remembering: Winston Churchill’s Christmas Message to America – Douglas Murray at The Free Press.

 

At Smithfield on Christmas Eve – Spitalfields Life.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, Luke 2:14 - Doug Spurling.

 

Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” (1966)

Painting: St. Joseph Seeks Lodging in Bethlehem, oil on canvas by James Tissot (1836-1902).

"Once Upon a Wardrobe" by Patti Callahan

Once upon a wardrobe, not very long ago and not very far away… 

That phrase, which sounds like the beginning of a fairy tale, is the centering theme of Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan. It’s a wonderful story, about legend and myth, about fairy tales, about C.S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia. And it’s about story, and the role story plays in our lives. 

 

It’s 1950. Margaret “Megs” Devonshire is studying mathematics at Somerville College at Oxford. She’s into everything logical, precise, and measurable, because that’s how she makes sense of the world.

 

She has a brother, George, 10 years her junior, a brother she loves dearly and who is not likely to see his next birthday. He’s seriously ill with what sounds like a worsening heart condition. When she visits home, she learns that George has been reading a just published book called The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by Oxford’s own C.S. Lewis. And George wants to know if she’s met Lewis or talked with him, because he has an important question: where did Narnia come from?

 

Because she loves her brother, Megs is determined to find out. She starts by making an unannounced visit to The Kilns, the house where Lewis and his brother Warnie live. Warnie finds her in the garden and invites her to have tea.

 

Patti Callahan

That invitation will send Megs on a journey into fairy tales, legends, myths, and stories. After each meeting with the Lewis brothers, and she has several, they will explain where Narnia came from – by not explaining any such thing. “Here is the thing, Miss Devonshire,” Lewis says, “you must not believe all that authors tell you about how they write their stories. When the story is finished, he has forgotten a good deal of what writing it was like.”

 

(Speaking from my own experience, that is absolutely true.)

 

Megs’ journey into the imagination will lead her to romance – and to an unexpected journey for her and George.

 

Patti Callahan Henry is the bestselling author of 17 novels, including Becoming Mrs. Lewis, the story of Lewis’s wife Joy Davidman. She’s also published in numerous anthologies and short story collections. She is the co-host and co-creator of the weekly podcast Friends and Fiction. She received degrees from Auburn University and Georgia State University. Trained as a pediatric clinical nurse, she now writes full-time. Callahan lives in Alabama. 

 

Once Upon a Wardrobe will have you nodding at its wisdom, smiling, laughing, and often in tears. Not every story has a happy ending, but the true stories have the right ending. And Once Upon a Wardrobe is a true story.

 

(And a big hat tip to my wife Janet, who recommended I read it.)

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Why the Progress Debate Goes Nowhere – Samuel Matlock at The New Atlantis. 

 

Tyson Foods cut contracts with Missouri farmers and is working to silence their legal fight – Egan Ward at Missouri Independent.

 

Winter Apple – poem by David Whyte.

 

Royal slush – Gary Saul Morson at The New Criterion on The Last Tsar: The Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa,

Building his house

After I Peter 2:4-8 

The builder is constructing

his house, laid upon

the cornerstone, the foundation

upon which all settles, all

depends, all has meaning,

for without it, nothing lasts,

nothing survives. This house,

because the cornerstone is

living, is constructed with

living stones, stones rejected

and abused and derided

by the world, but placed

upon the foundation,

to build the house of God.

 

Photograph by Dakota Roos via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Solstice Poem – Angela Alaimo O’Donnell at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Sensing Magic and Mystery: Countdown – poem by Joy Lenton at Poetry Joy.

 

Be Still and Know – poem by Peter Venable at Society of Classical Poets.

 

O Oriens: A fifth Advent reflection with music – Malcom Guite.

 

Saturday Good Reads - Dec. 21, 2024

You may have seen his name in small, italicized print underneath a hymn in your church hymnal. But who was he? Stephen Steele at Gentle Reformation has a reflection on Isaac Watts at 350 years old. 

Idaho isn’t just about ski resorts. Sandra Heska King at Tweetspeak Poetry takes a look at Idaho and its rich literary tradition, cultural history, and geographic beauty. See her entry in 50 States of Generosity. 

 

Free speech has been under attack in the United States for some time, and in recent years the attacks have taken the form of “anti-disinformation” efforts, which seem more about censoring everything but your own particular view of the world. But this isn’t a recent phenomenon. More than 150 years ago, even the abolitionists had to defend free speech. (Small consolation: it’s even worse in Britain, which has a tradition of free speech but no First Amendment protection.)

 

More Good Reads

 

Faith

 

12 Fresh Ways to Read Your Bible in 2025 – Tim Challies.

 

A Hollow in the Mystery – Greg Doles at Chasing Light.

 

Why We Need Beautiful Churches – Phil Cotnoir at The Gospel Coalition.

 

Lead Kindly Light – Mark Clavier at Front Porch Republic.

 

Life and Culture

 

Columbia professor who called Oct 7 attacks ‘awesome’ to teach course on Zionism – Greg Norman at Fox News.

 

Abigail Shrier was Vilified. Now She’s Been Vindicated – Editorial at The Free Press.

 

‘The public sector is the illness’: Meet Javier Milei – Kate Andrews at The Spectator.

 

Poetry

 

The Joy of Writing – poem by Wisława Szymborska at Poetic Outlaws.

 

Carrying Our Sheaves – poem by Cody Ilardo at Power & Glory.

 

An Old Man’s Winter Night – Robert Frost at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

News Media

 

Bluesky Has a Death Threat Problem – Jesse Singal at The Free Press.

 

American Stuff

 

A ‘Loco Gringo’ Takes on the Mexican Cartels – Madeleine Rowley at The Free Press.

 

Writing and Literature

Getting to Know the "Literature": Finding out what's been written on your subject doesn't have to be overwhelming – Thomas Kidd.

Cormac McCarthy’s secret muse, the internet, and me – Vincenzo Barney at Substack Reads.

Art

Once the most expensive painting ever auctioned, has a long hidden Van Gogh portrait been rediscovered? – Martin Bailey at The Art Newspaper.

 

The Sanctuary – Chevrolet Christmas 2024 Commercial 

 Painting: Man Reading at a Window, oil on canvas by Francois-Marius Granet (1775-1849). 

A living stone

After I Peter 2:4-8

We come to him,

rejected by the world

but chosen and 

precious. He calls us

living stones,

memorials, signposts,

markers, temples,

a spiritual house,

a holy priesthood

offering spiritual

sacrifices, resting

upon the cornerstone

sacrificed for us.

Our lives become

an act of worship.

 

Photograph by Ardhy Sapanca via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Poets and Poems: Andrew Calis and "Which Seeds Will Grow?"

A friend recommend I read the poetry of Andrew Calis, and I soon discovered I was gingerly wading into one of the most contentious realities imaginable – the Mideast. 

Andrew Calis is a poet whose work has been featured in Dappled Things, The Atlantic, and several other literary publications.  He’s published two poetry collections, Pilgrimages in 2020 and Which Seeds Will Grow? just last month. He has a Ph.D. degree in English Literature from the Catholic University of America. He’s a high school English teacher and lives with his family in Maryland. 

 

He’s also a member of a family that belongs to what is the most overlooked group in conflict in the Mideast – Palestinian Christians.

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

Some Thursday Readings

 

The artist bringing Van Gogh’s paintings to life – without the use of AI – Aimee Dawson at The Art Newspaper. 

 

Have You Lost the Ability to Think Deeply? – Lydia Kinne at The Gospel Coalition.

 

The Deep Roots of Irish Anti-Semitism – Simon Sebag Montefiore at The Free Press.

An Inspiration for "Brookhaven" - The Family Bible

In the early 1980s, the Young family Bible was passed down to me from my father. We had looked at it together much earlier, especially the family records it contained. All of the entries for births and deaths, beginning in 1802 and ending in 1890, were in the same hand, presumably my great-grandfather’s.  

For years after I received it, I did the time-honored family thing: kept it wrapped in brown paper and twine and on a closet shelf. I did eventually buy an acid-free box to store it in, but it was fragile. The binding was coming apart, the ink on the family records was fading, and some of the pages were loose.

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

Photograph: a page of records in the family Bible, before restoration.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

World War II, Remembered Rightly – Philip Jenkins at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

A Gathering of Old Men – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

 

Family Matters –Alan Jacobs at The Homebound Symphony.

 

Political Violence Happens Because We Let It – Charles Fain Lehman at The Free Press.

 

“Snow-Bound,” poem by John Greenleaf Whittier – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

The Paperback Arrived!

The paperback edition of Brookhaven just arrived. I downloaded the Kindle version last Thursday, but it is something else to hold the physical book in my hands. Behind it are a few of the books (but only a few) I used for research.

Holiday Gifts for the Poet in Your Life (or the Poet in You)

I’m usually reluctant to buy books as gifts for friends and family members. I’ve always thought of books as something personal, chosen after deep consideration at the bookstore or spontaneously when I see something on Amazon. (It also works the other way – spontaneously at the bookstore or after deep consideration at Amazon.) Exceptions exist: our oldest son loves reading Calvin & Hobbes collections; as a child, he saw the cartoon strip as a how-to manual. And a grandson did specifically ask his parents for some Harry Potter books. I’m always ready to indulge a request for books in this age of screens. 

If you have a poet in your life, or if you have a poet in your own heart, I have a few suggestions for holiday gifts. My perspective is personal – I would be thrilled to have received any of these as a gift. I’ll be writing about some of them here early next year. 

 

My suggestions also reflect my Anglophilia. 

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

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Letters from Father Christmas: A Review for the Advent Season – Sarah Dixon Young at Story Warren. 

 

Rembrandt in Vienna: Notes on the Exhibition – Rod Dreher at Rod Dreher’s Diary.

 

To See It – poem by Laura Foley at Every Day Poems. 

 

50 States of Generosity: Idaho – Sandra Heska King at Tweetspeak Poetry.