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.

 

The Inspirations That Led to "Brookhaven"

Brookhaven has made its historical novel debut. Publication happened faster than I anticipated; I thought maybe by sometime in late January. It was a surprise to receive a message from the publisher last Thursday with the link to Amazon Kindle, followed by the paperback on Friday. 

Like all stories, Brookhaven has its seeds, some going back more than 60 years. Some of those seeds are movies.

 

The children in our family are spread widely apart; my older brother is eight years older, and my younger brother is 10 years younger. For a decade, I was the little kid in the family. And because my father wasn’t a fan of movies, and my mother was a Hollywood director’s dream of a fan, I became my mother’s movie partner. We saw the Disney movies, of course, but we also saw a lot of others, including some that weren’t exactly the best viewing for a child.

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

Some Monday Readings

 

Saints Alive in Books and Memory – A.C.S. Bird at Story Warren.

 

Italo Calvino and Magic Books – Barb Drummond, Curious Historian. 

 

What happened to relics of Syria’s Jewish history? Assad’s collapse suprs efforts to assess damage – Shira Li Bartov/JTA at The Jerusalem Post. 

 

What I See: Go on Shepherd & Lamb – Sam Kee at The Color of Dust.

 

Pause – poem by Kelly Belmonte at Kelly’s Scribbles.

The taste of the Lord

After I Peter 2:1-3

 

An odd thing, isn’t it,

that the Lord can be

tasted, yet that’s

what the man writes

in his letter, that 

the taste of the Lord

is good. It is the taste

of spiritual milk, 

milk that is pure.

Drink it, and grow up

into salvation. You 

will know and we will

know, because you will

set aside all malice,

and deceit, and hypocrisy,

and envy, and slander.

All of it, put way.

So, taste, and drink up.

 

Photograph by Kim Leary via Unsplash. Used with permission. 

Some Sunday Readings

 

Wendell Berry and Forgiveness – Byron Kuhner at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

“Autumn,” poem by David Baird – Malcolm Guite.

 

The Weary World Rejoices – Cheryl Balcom.

 

Against Christian Civilization – Paul Kingsnorth at First Things Magazine.

 

Family Matters – Alan Jacobs at The Homebound Symphony.

 

Nigeria Is Still the Deadliest Country in the World for Christians – Samuel Sey at Slow to Write.

Saturday Good Reads - Dec. 14, 2024

The 24-hour news cycle seems like it’s in overdrive, more like 36 hours of news crammed into 24. The Assad regime fell in Syria. The man sought in the murder of the United Healthcare CEO was spotted, arrested, charged, and is still fighting extradition to New York. Pardons proliferated like topsy in Washington, along with speculation that all kinds of people would be pardoned.  

Daniel Penny, the Marine who stopped a mentally deranged man in a subway train, was acquitted in New York City. And the vibe is shifting, writes historian Niall Ferguson at The Free Press, and it’s going global. The vibe shift is now favoring a championing of reality and a rejection of the bureaucratic (aka managerial elites). Guilt is out, and courage is in.

 

Much has been said and written about Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Everyone’s writing because everyone’s trying to understand it. One of the best discussions I’ve heard or read is Christopher Rufo’s on Mangione and left-wing nihilism. 

 

Almost 40 years ago, I spent considerable time in Canada, attending government hearings in Ottawa and Toronto. It was one of the best work experiences I could have had, and I loved the Canadians that I met, talked with, and worked with. Forty years later, I read stories like this one, and I wonder what’s happened; it’s as if Canada looked at protests on Ivy League campuses in the U.S. and said hold my beer.

 

More Good Reads

 

Writing and Literature

 

Coriolanus’ Sea of Bloody Fists – Henry Oliver at Liberties.

 

The Allure of a Novella: Why Writers (and Readers) Should Indulge – Tara Deal at Writer’s Digest.

 

Let’s Not Forget Charles Dickens’s Other Christmas Ghost Stories! – Olivia Rutigliano at CrimeReads.

 

The Ultimate Journey in Two Novels by Walker Percy – David Leigh at Church Life Journal.

 

Life and Culture

 

A Measure of Gratitude – Meera Subramanian at VQR (Hat tip: Patton Dodd).

 

American Stuff

 

The poor health of America – Ben Domenech at The Spectator.

 

Lincoln’s Rise to Eloquence: How He Gained the Presidential Nomination by D. Leigh Henson –  review by Kevin Donovan at Emerging Civil War.

 

Russiagate Remnants – Michael Caputo at Racket News.

 

Poetry

 

Created – Annie Nardone at Calla Press.

 

“A Prayer for the Past,” poem by George MacDonald – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

British Stuff

 

Conservatives can no longer trust institutions – Niall Gooch at The Critic Magazine. 

 

The reason Americans fear for Britain – Roger Kimball at The Spectator.

 

Faith

 

My Top 10 Theology Stories of 2024 – Collin Hansen at The Gospel Coalition.

 

Art

 

White – Sonja Benskin Mesher.

O Holy Night – Life in 3D

 

Painting: Young Woman Reading, oil on panel (1875) by Lucius Rossi (1846-1913).

"Brookhaven" is Published!

It’s always a milestone in a life when a new book is published. Brookhaven, a historical novel about the Civil War and what happened after, has made its appearance in the world. 

It’s not a novel about battles and military strategy. Instead, it’s about the people who were involved, some directly and some indirectly (and virtually every American alive at the time was affected). 

 

This is the summary:

 

“In 1915, young reporter Elizabeth Putnam of the New York World is assigned a story on the Gray Wisp. New information has come to light about this Confederate spy in the Civil War, a figure of legend, myth, and wildly competing claims. What no knows is the man’s identity. The reporter follows leads which eventually bring her to the small Mississippi town of Brookhaven. He agrees to tell his story, a tale of North and South, loss in wartime, narrow escapes from death in battles, family survival, the poetry of Longfellow, and love. And Elizabeth soon finds her own story has forever become part of the Gray Wisp’s.”

 

Brookhaven is essentially two stories – that of Sam McClure, who enlisted young and finds himself enrolled as a spy, and that of Elizabeth Putnam, a young reporter trying to make her way and her name in what was a very male world of journalism.

 

The book includes a character list (my wife insisted I include one) and a bibliography (I read more books and did more research than I can remember). 

 

I’ll write more about the inspiration for the book (a movie I saw in 1959 and a family story that turned out to be more legend than fact. For now, it’s feelings of relief, satisfaction, and no-small amount of joy I’m experiencing. And if you want more information, just ask.

 

Brookhaven is available here on Amazon in both print and Kindle versions. 

 

Related:

 

A note from T.S. Poetry Press on the release of Brookhaven (including the author’s note).

 

“Christmas Oranges,” a short story – Cultivating Oaks Press.

 

There is a cost

After I Peter 1:13-21

To believe, and to follow,

may impart a cost.

To deny what the word

says is right may require

a cost. To answer the call

to be holy means you are

different, you will be

different, and the difference

becomes sharper, more

distinctive, separating you

even more as each day

passes. You are being 

prepared for something

far better, far greater,

far more beautiful than 

what the world has to offer, 

what the world is able 

to offer.

 

Photograph by Random Thinking via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Mary’s Song – poem by Charles Causley at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

Those Who Sing Songs in the Night – Tim Challies.

 

Advent I – poem by Andrew Peterson at The Rabbit Room. 

 

In Advent Stillness – poem by Jeffrey Essman at Society of Classical Poets. 

 

Silent Night – poem by Kelly Belmonte at Kell’s Scribbles.

Poets and Poems: Gillian Allnutt and "wake"

Gillian Allnutt is one of those presences in British poetry. Since 1973, she’s taught English and creative writing, and through her career as a teacher added performing, newswriting, publishing, freelancing, and editing. I suspect her first love is poetry, though. She’s published several collections, served as the poetry editor for City Lights Magazine, and received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2016 for meritorious achievement in the field. 

I recently read her 2018 collection wake. (That’s not a typo; the “w” in the title is lower-cased.) 

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

Some Thursday Readings

 

How to Fix the NIH – Joseph Marine at The Free Press.

 

Beloved Mystery Series, and Why They Are Successful – Lyn Squire at CrimeReads.

 

Fallow – poem by Seth Lewis.

 

Ukrainians Are Sick of the War. But We’re Not Allowed to Say It – Dmytro Filimonov at The Free Press. 

 

Lincoln’s Conservative Advisor: Attorney General Edward Bates by Mark A. Neels – Civil War Books and Authors.

"The Canteen" by Trevor Tipton

Family memories passed down through the generations can create fascinating stories. 

Eighteen-year-old Travis Tipton and his Indiana unit find themselves lost in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. It’s late 1863; the men are cold and they’re increasingly tired of the war. They’ve become separated from the main body of Union General Burnside’s army and need to find their way back. Travis has just gone off guard duty when the Confederates attack. The few Union soldiers are killed; Travis himself is shot directly in the heart and tumbles into the nearby stream.

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

Some Wednesday Readings

 

5 Questions to Answer Before Writing a Book – Charlie Wetzel at Dan Reiland. 

 

Repeated Exposure is Important – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

“In Drear-Nighted December” by John Keats – Malcolm Guite.

 

Dana Gioia on Stephen Sondheim – Ted Gioia at The Honest Broker.

Poets and Poems: Claude Wilkinson and "Soon Done with the Crosses"

In his fourth collection of poetry, World Without End, Claude Wilkinson considered the wonder of everyday objects and events, finding meaning in the things we see and often look right past because, well, they’re so common and expected. Wilkinson stopped, looked, and considered whether he had missing something. And he had. 

In his 2023 collection, Soon Done with the Crosses, Wilkinson retains that idea of finding meaning in the everyday but applies it to the questions that seem to be increasingly haunting us. Why is there so much growing anger and hate? Why is there a growing intolerance for others’ opinions and beliefs? How have we come to objectifying people we disagree with, considering them “the other”?

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

Some Tuesday Readings

 

To a Friend Estranged from Me – poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Tolkien the Timekeeper – Henry Oliver at Prospect Magazine.

 

To touch – poem and artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher. 

 

“Kenosis,” poem by Luci Shaw – Malcolm Guite.

 

Travelers – poem by Robert McDowell at Every Day Poems.