Poetry at Work, Chapter 10: The Poetry of Beauty in the Workplace

The worst view I ever had from my assigned office at work was of the building’s designated smoking area. I had the most coveted type of office – a closed-door office, with a window. Except the window faced the smoking area outside the building, with its awning-like protection and clouds of smoke.

The best view I ever had from my assigned office at work was that same office – after smoking was banned entirely from the campus. No more plastic awning. No more clouds of smoke. Just an uninterrupted view of nearby woods.

If someone asked you to describe beauty at your workplace, you would likely think of architectural structures, window views, fountains, waterways, or woods. You might think of people, but today’s cultural and work environments require that great care be taken when talking about people. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Literary Life.

“City of a Million Dreams” by Jason Berry

New Orleans, the city where I was born and grew up in, turned 300 years old last year, rather old by American standards. Founded by the French, managed for a time by the Spanish, incorporated into the United States with the Louisiana Purchase, then a part of the Confederacy before it was dragged back into the Union with Reconstruction, the city has a history that’s colorful, turbulent, diverse, and still being lived.

These days, I usually approach books and articles about New Orleans with doubts. How much of what I read will be ideological? How much does political correctness seep in? Will I recognize my hometown in what I’m reading, or will it come across as some alien place, unrelated to anything I know?

City of a Million Dreams: A History of New Orleans at Year 300 by Jason Berry captures a considerable amount of the city’s color and turbulence. It’s an account of a city that’s includes usually forgotten elements and people but also manages to avoid the traps of ideology. In short, I recognize my city in this story of its history. The problem I have is that I don’t recognize enough of it. 

Berry is an investigative reporter who lives in New Orleans and who’s written some 10 books, including on subjects as diverse as the Catholic Church crisis, the power of money in the Catholic church, a history of New Orleans music, a novel about Louisiana politics, and others. He is a producing City of a Million Dreams as a documentary film, expected to be released this year. 

The book begins at the beginning, with the founding by the French in 1718, specifically by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, the man known for his snake-tattooed body that always impressed the native tribes. Berry tells a good story of Louisiana’s first 100 years, covering the French, Spanish, and early American periods, along with the powerful influences on the city by the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte, slave rebellions in the West Indies, yellow fever, and French national and colonial politics. 

Jason Berry

It was during the discussion of the period leading up to and including the Civil War and Reconstruction eras that I began to see the book’s strong point – the emphasis on the city’s musical history – was also its weak point. The emphasis on music allows an enhanced discussion of the history of the city’s African-American people, including both slaves and “free people of color.” But it also means that other elements are crowded out. The reader gets an extended discussion of specific musicians and a funeral home operator, but not a single reference to John McDonough, the philanthropist who shaped the lives of hundreds of thousands of people through the public schools, and few references to the importance played by city’s position as a leading seaport.

Aside from the discussion of colonial history, the book does provide solid background on how the city’s neighborhoods developed, where Congo Square came from, the original of "second-lining" funerals, and how New Orleans’ musicians, like Louis Armstrong, became part of the city’s musical diaspora across the United States and into Europe. But you will find very little on the city’s contribution to World War II and the space program, and the role of businesses and industry, including cotton. 

City of a Million Dreams is uneven, and its emphasis on music likely reflects the author’s previous work in that area. The music is a fascinating and important aspect of the city’s history. But other aspects are important as well, and Berry could have his excellent storytelling style to those as well. 

Top photograph by Robson Hatsukami Morgan via Unsplash. Used with permission

Hearing the call

After Luke 14:12-24

I heard the call

to the feast and wow

what an opportunity 

what a great opportunity

let me check my calendar

on my phone, oh no

it’s packed, I had no idea

how scheduled I was, 

with events, things, stuff,

responsibilities, appointments,

meetings, conferences, gatherings,

luncheons, dinners, filled

with all the important things,

the things signifying importance,

so I have to say sorry, things to do,

places to go, people to see,

maybe next year

in Jerusalem.

Photograph by Tom Plouff via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Saturday Good Reads

During my junior year in college, I took two semesters of Russian history. The second semester focused on the 19^th and 20^th centuries, and one of the books we read was a really, really bad 1863 novel called What Is to be Done? by Nikolai Chernyshevsky. It was a political novel, written by a member of the Russian intelligentsia (he was a literary critic, among other things), and it sought to explain why intellectuals needed to take the lead in the struggle between socialism and capitalism. Surprisingly for the time, its lead character, a woman, advocated free love, an end to marriage, an end to private property, and creation of socialist industrial communes.

In response, Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote Notes from the Underground, which ridiculed Chernyshevsky’s book. Later, Leo Tolstoy wrote a response as well. Intellectuals, however loved the book, not least for how it cast them as social and political heroes. One person completely impressed by the book was Vladimir Lenin, who went on to implement much of what What Is to be Done?advocated. And we know how well that worked out.

Two years ago, Northwestern University professor Gary Morson gave a lecture at the Heritage Foundation, speaking on this 19^thcentury “great authors versus intellectuals” battle. He likens it to contemporary American society, but he points out that we have no great authors – no Dostoevsky, no Tolstoy, no Anton Chekhov – to engage the battle today. What the lecture does tell us is that all this stuff flying around about socialism, green new deals, soaking the rich, and ending capitalism is nothing new. We’ve seen it before, and we know exactly where it will lead.

More Good Reads

Writing and Literature

Twelve Rules for the Bookish Life – Doug Sikkema at Comment Magazine.

Write to Discover New Skills and Techniques – Ann Kroeker.

We Write by Faith – Jennifer Oshman. 

Why Charles Dickens Makes Me Cry – Christine Norvell at The Imaginative Conservative.

New Media

Info-siloes and urban bubbles: What’s wrecking public discourse on religion and culture? – Terry Mattingly at Get Religion.

What the Washington Post Debacle Can Teach Christians – Zak Schmoll at Entering the Public Square.

What the Fall of the Newseum Says about News, and Museums – Kriston Capps at City Lab.

Life and Culture

The Equality Act Accelerates Anti-Christian Bias – Andrew Walker at The Gospel Coalition.

The Scandalous Academy: Social Science in the Service of Identity Politics – Scott Yenor at Public Discourse.

Bribe College Admissions Officers? My Parents Wouldn’t Pay for Driver’s Ed – John Zmirak at The Stream.

Poetry

Three Sonnets on the Temptations of Christ – Malcolm Guite at The Imaginative Conservative.

Why are we so worried about “Instapoetry”? – Anna Leszkiewicz at New Statesman.

James Tate’s Last, Last Poems – Matthew Zapruder at The Paris Review.

Leaf blowing – David Solway at New Criterion.

Faith

The Surprising Humanity of the Westminster Confession – Jake Meador at Mere Orthodoxy.

Farewell Francis – Jordan Standridge at The Cripplegate.

British Stuff

England and France: Sibling Rivalry – Erica Laine at English Historical Fiction Authors.

It is Well with My Soul – Audrey Assad

Painting: Woman Reading, oil on canvas by David Park (1911-1960).

RSVP no

After Luke 14:12-24

The feast prepared 

and ready, the call goes out 

to come to the beast, 

this would have been 

the second call, the first 

asking if people would come,

and this second call meets

excuses, no I’m too busy,

too many responsibilities,

too many things to take care of,

sorry my wife is calling

sorry I have other plans,

maybe next time. A third call

goes out, instead,

to the poor, the blind,

the crippled, the lame,

the sick, the dregs,

the ignored, the deplorables,

the pariahs, the uneducated,

t6he rubes, the rednecks,

and they come

and they feast.

Photograph by Ryoji Iwata via Unsplash. Used with permission. 

"The Division Bell Mystery" by Ellen Wilkinson

Ellen Wilkinson (1891-1947) was a Labour member of the British Parliament and, at the time of her death, Minister of Education in the Cabinet. She was associated with a number of worker, education, and women’s causes, including what became known as the Jarrow March, a demonstration by the unemployed that culminated in a march from the Manchester area to London. 

For a brief time in the late 1920s and early 1930s, she was out of office, and one of the things she did was to write a mystery novel, The Division Bell Mystery, published in 1932. The British Library recently republished the novel as part of its Crime Classis series. Wilkinson had been a fan of murder mysteries and especially those of Agatha Christie, and she tried her hand at writing one. It’s not a perfect mystery, but it an entertaining one, and it’s filled with details about the workings of Parliament.

Robert West is a young Member of Parliament who serves as Personal Private Secretary to the Home Office Secretary. He’s showing an old friend around Parliament, and they’re near the private dining rooms when the division bell rings, signifying the need for MPs to return to the House of Commons for a vote. It’s 9 p.m.; Big Ben begins to chime at the same time. And so does what clearly sounds like a gunshot.

Ellen Wilkinson

West and his friend discover the body of an American financier, who had been having dinner with the Home Secretary. At first, the death appears to be suicide, but the police come to realize that it’s murder. Then they learn that the dead man’s flat had been burglarized at the same time, and a security man killed there. 

Because of his position with the Home Secretary, West finds himself helping to investigate the murder and burglary and navigating romantic entanglements at the same time. And it’s through West’s eyes that we come to see not only a large number of suspects but also some of the inner workings of Parliament. (There’s even a character who’s an MP and has the same political inclinations as the author.)

The identification of the killer gets a little hurried at the end, but The Division Bell Mystery is still a worthwhile and rather fun read. This new edition by the British Library includes a preface by Rachel Reeves, MP for Leeds West, and a solid introduction on politics in Golden Age detective fiction by crime writer Martin Edwards.

Related: Red Ellen, a biography of Ellen Wilkinson, by Laura Beers (2016).

"More Than Friends" by Autumn Macarthur

Catriona Maclean is a nurse and the daughter of an Edinburgh pastor. She has a servant’s heart, and her role model is Martha, sister of Mary, of the Gospels. Catriona is almost obsessive in her desire to serve; she’s convinced herself that she will never marry, and it relates to a family situation from years before where, she believes, her selfishness cost her brother.

She’s organized a day at the beach for disabled children, and she has a problem. The man who had promised to help couldn’t go, and she needed a man for the boys, and specifically a man cleared to work with disabled children. The only man who fits the requirements is Alastair Murray, who works in the orthopedic unit at Catriona’s hospital. The problem with Alastair: he was the reason for her act of selfishness years ago; she had to go on a youth group trip because he would be there as well. He’s the best friend of one of her brothers, and Catriona knows she is still in love with him.

Alastair also catches the eyes of the other nurses and woman workers at the hospital. Catriona, who studiously avoids makeup and really caring about her appearance, is convinced he doesn’t think twice about her.

Autumn Macarthur

Except he does. Alastair has always been in love with Catriona, but he senses her desire for distance and non-involvement. He goes out of his way to protect himself as well. He agrees to be her last-minute substitute on the field trip. Complications ensue.

More Than Friends by Autumn Macarthur is the story of Catriona and Alastair, and if and how they will finally realize their mutual love. Told in alternating viewpoints, most of the short novel occurs in one day, the day of the field trip. It’s a lovely little story that focuses the reader on how these two people will come to recognize their feelings for each other.

Macarthur has written numerous books in the Christian inspirational romance genre and inspirational non-fiction. More Than Friends is book 2 in the Macleans Series. She lives in London.

The novel is a quick, easy-to-read romance that sounds all too real when two people go out of their way to ignore, excuse, and explain away their feelings.