Some Wednesday Readings – Sept. 30, 2026

Of Star Wars and Finnegan’s Wake – Andrew Klavan at The New Jerusalem.

 

The Ethics of Socrates – Bradley Birzer.

 

Silence in Ruins – Geoffrey Kurtz at Front Porch Republic.

 

Do You Hand Down or Melt the Family Silver? – John Horvat at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Richard Jeffries in the City of London – Spitalfields Life.

 

Michaelmas: a sonnet for St. Michael the Archangel – Malcolm Guite.

 

Murders for September – Jerey Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

The long peace: On American military power and technology – Nicholas Zamiska at The New Criterion.

 

From six years ago: Dancing Prince: Anticipating a DNA Study of Vikings? – at Dancing Priest.

 

Photograph by Steinar Engeland via Unsplash. Used with permission.

  

Poets and Poems: Christian Wiman and "The Dance"

I hesitated before deciding whether to write about The Dance, the new collection of poetry by Christian Wiman. It wasn’t because I didn’t like; I did, enormously. It was more like the experience of entering the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, or the little chapel in the crypt of St. Bride’s Church in London. You feel the weight of the experience and the inevitable silence, even in a crowded room.  

With The Dance, you’ve stepped into a quiet that demands you listen without speaking. 

 

I’ve had this experience before with Wiman’s writing, both his poetry and his memoir, My Bright Abyss. That memoir was so intense that I needed three months to read it, sometimes only a paragraph or a page a day. I was reading it when I took an overseas trip, and I deliberately left it home because I knew it would overshadow everything I was about to see. 

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

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Finding & Singing: Ten Things to Notice When You Read a Poem – Scott Crider at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

“Youth and Age on Beaulieu River,” poem by John Betjeman – Alexander Fayne.

 

Brink – poem by Andrew Roycroft.

 

Joseph’s Amazement: Reconciling Suspense in St. Robert Southwell’s Poetry – Emily Ransom at Church Life Journal.

 

“I Read My Sentence Steadily,” poem by Emily Dickinson – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

A Reading in Emily’s House – poem by Andrea Potos at Every Day Poems.

 

On repentance – poem by Sarah Spradlin at Rabbit Room Poetry.

Some Monday Readings – Sept. 28, 2026

 

Treasuring the Process: On the Hard Work of Human Creation – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street. 

 

A focus for our writing – Lancia Smith at Cultivating a Writer’s Life.

 

The Doors of Old London – Spitalfields Life.

 

Hope in an Age of Enclosure – Joe Knight at Plough.

 

The One, the Many, and the In-Between – Luke Sheahan at Law & Liberty.

 

Remembering Wendell Berry – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

 

30 Years Ago I published Wendell Berry – by Hand – Alan Cornett at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Avoid This Common Writing Flaw – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

Photograph: A doorway in London by Isaac via Unsplash. Used with permission.

The voice in the wilderness

After Luke 3:1-22 

The prophet appears

in the wilderness,

crying in the wilderness,

his message simple:

Prepare.

Prepare the way

of the Lord. 

The salvation

of the Lord

is at hand.

 

The crowds heard,

they came, bringing

themselves to be

baptized, like

Gentiles becoming

Jews. Did they expect

to hear themselves

called a vipers’ brood,

hypocrites, incompetent,

objects of wrath?

 

Bear fruit, he says.

Heritage and blood

mean nothing. Taking

refuge in Abraham

is futile. Repent,

you brood of vipers.

Repent!

 

Photograph by Annie Spratt via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Perfect Sabbath --- poem by Cody Ilardo at Power & Glory.

 

Christ Delights in Work Well Done – Ryan Dembeck at Desiring God.

Saturday Good Reads – Sept. 26, 2026

My first novel, Dancing Priest, begins at the University of Edinburgh with a conversation between a theology student, Michael Kent, and his roommate and best friend, Tommy McFarland. Michael will earn his theology degree and move to San Francisco. More adventures await in the next four books in the series. But if I was writing that novel today, I’d have to do something different – the University of Edinburgh, after 440 years, is dropping its divinity program.  

If you wander around Poet’s Corner in London’s Westminster Abbey, you’ll find an amazing array of tombs and memorial stones – Charles dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, the World War I poets, Samuel Johnson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, W.H. Auden, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, and so many more. And now joining them with a memorial plaque will be J.R.R. Tolkien.

 

It was a big week for people reading and writing about classic novels. Richard Rensch at City Journal considered Walker Percy and his novels’ prophetic vision.  Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft read Don Quixote. Henry Oliver at The Common Read delved into Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. And Fiona Macdonald at the BBC found a program in which J.R. R. Tolkien talked about the most tragic moment in The Lord of the Rings. 

 

More Good Reads

 

Television

 

The making of a masterpiece – John MacLeod at The Critic Magazine.

 

America 250

 

The Battles of Saratoga – Chris Farmer at Old Dominion Post.

 

What the Revolution Can Teach Us About Liberty: Conversation Starters with…Wilfred M. McClay – Anthony Sacramone at Acton Institute.

 

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

Life and Culture

 

We know what kind of society we are. We’re just haggling over the price – Stephen McAlpine.

 

Narnia Among the Deathworks – Tim Challies.

 

The Illiterati – Mark Malvasi at Th Imaginative Conservative.

 

10 Reasons Why Marxism is Bad for Humanity – Patricia Engler at Answers in Genesis.

 

What Nikole Hannah-Jones Wouldn’t Let Herself See – Jennifer Weber at City Journal.

 

The Homes That Stick With Us – Gracy Olmstead at Granola.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Books Will Never Die – if Publishers Remember What Books do and How They Do It – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Literary Landscapes: Justin Hamm – Tom Darin Liskey t the New Territory.

 

J.R.R. Tolkien on ‘the most tragic moment in The Lord of the Rings’ – Fiona Macdonald at BBC.

 

Faith

 

The Repeating of Christian History – Shannon Holzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

The Coming Tsunami – Scot McKnight.

 

The Lost Art of Manners and Why Children Still Need Them – Brenden Bott at The Gospel Coalition / Canada.

 

News Media

 

The New York Times Sued by Shareholders Over Biased Israel Coverage – Maya Sulkin at The Fre Press (story unlocked).

 

Poetry

 

“Spring and Fall,” poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Our Grieving and Our Staying – David Bannon at Front Porch Republic on Wendell Berry’s poetry.

 

“Recessional,” poem by Rudyard Kiplung – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient & Modern.

 

Abide with Me – King Harald of Norway Funeral

 Painting: A Girl Reading, oil on canvas (1932) by Vanessa Bell (1879-1961).

Setting the scene

After Luke 3:1-22 

To introduce the prophet,

who in turn introduces

the One, the scene is set,

to place these arrivals

in the historical context

of man:

 

First, the fifteenth year of

Tiberius, emperor of Rome;

next, the Roman governor

of Judea, Pontius Pilate;

next, the tetrarchs 

of the region: Herod,

Philip, Lysanius;

next, and last,

the high priests, Annas

and Caiaphas.

 

It is a list of rulers.

the political,

the regional,

the religious.

 

It is a setting 

of the scene, but

it is also the prelude

to the prophet and

the one to be heralded,

 

a descending earthly order,

an ascending heavenly order.

 

Photograph by Elijah Ekdahl via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“Why so many forms,” poem by Annie Dillard – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

“All People That on Earth Do Dwell,” hymn by William Kethe – Athony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Bearing Good Fruit in Season – Lancia Smith at Cultivating a Writer’s Life.

 

Trust and Obey – poem by Megan Willome at Poetry for Life.

 

Ubi Vut Spirat – poem by Cody Ilardo at Power & Glory.

Poets and Poems: James Tweedie and “Love Found, Yearned For, and Lost”

I’m a sucker for a good love poem. Apparently, I’m not the only one. Poetry about the subject of love is as old as poetry itself. Some of the most famous poems in literature are about love. 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Shakespeare’s “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Lord Byron’s “She walks in beauty.” “Endymion” by John Keats. Robert Burns’ red, red rose. William Butler Yeats’ “When You Are Old.” Virtually every poet has written about love. And it’s no wonder. Love may be the emotion, the feeling, the condition, and the presence we experience across languages, culture, histories, and geographies. 

 

As poet James Tweedie demonstrates in his new collection, Love: Found, Yearned For, and Lost, love is a big topic, not only covering a range of conditions and realities but also poetic forms. 

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

Some Thursday Readings

 

Bird Lands – poem by Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

 

“Heredity,” poem by Thomas Hardy – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The Tomb of Poetry: A reading of Shakespeare’s 15^th, 16^th, and 17^th sonnets – K.S. Bernstein at Apple Blossoms in a Mournful Wood.

 

“Little Orphant Annie,” poem by James Whitcomb Riley – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

“To a Louse,” poem by Robert Burns – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

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.

Some Wednesday Readings - Sept. 16, 2026

 

A Return to Earnestness – Kelly Keller at Story Warren.

 

Francis Scott Key and the Making of a New American Anthem – Jason Clark at This is the Day.

 

You Are Not the Only – Peter Tonguette at Portico on the writing of Anne Tyler.

 

Ave, Patrick Deneen! and Ave, Patrick Deneen: The Conservative American Revolution – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

How Artists Communication: A Look at J.M.W. Turner – Sara Swacina at Faith on View.

 

Processing: How Nicholas Russell Wrote Observer – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.

 

On Binning Books and Buying Revolvers – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

10 Million Readers, Not 10 Million Copies – Travis Thrasher at Patches of Sunlight.

 

Historians, please stop using CE and BCE – Kevin Clark at Not that you asked, but.

 

Painting: Francis Scott Key, about 1825, attributed to Joseph Wood (1778-1830).