Poems Category
Crushed For a Season [New Poem]
Posted on October 28, 2021 Leave a Comment
Background In this poem I connect the image of winemaking with that of suffering, grief, and growth. The winepress is a symbol both of judgment and discipline as well as celebratory rejoicing. Wine resembles and signifies blood, but it is also a sign of the coming kingdom of God. Suffering and death precede resurrection. A […]
A Poem for Fall: Stillness Moving
Posted on September 9, 2021 Leave a Comment
Background Fall is the best season. Hands down. As the first hint of the changing leaves appear (and college football season gets going) I instinctively rejoice and relish the stretch from Labor Day to Thanksgiving. It doesn’t hurt that this time of year reminds me of when Mary Jane and I fell in love and […]
One Winds the Spiral Down
Posted on April 28, 2021 Leave a Comment
Background I wrote this poem during this past season of Lent. I was inspired by Malcolm Guite’s reflections on different selections of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. In particular, my inspiration came from Guite’s poem “Through the Gate” and the selection of Dante he entitles “Towards a Shining World” from Inferno (lines 133-end) and Purgatory (lines […]
Banish the Brute
Posted on April 22, 2021 Leave a Comment
Background I wrote this poem a year ago. It came out of a time of wrestling with sorrow and grief — some of which was tinged with frustration with my own sin. I had been reflecting on Psalm 73 (Brian Habig’s sermon on this from a few years ago has continued to stick with me) […]
Springtime’s Dance
Posted on April 12, 2021 Leave a Comment
I wrote this poem last Spring as an exercise in the art of noticing. It’s happy and short — capturing a brief scene of Spring’s green beauty. There is always much to be noticed and enjoyed all around us in the simple nature of things. This is particularly so when the earth returns to life […]
Ambition
Posted on March 27, 2021 Leave a Comment
This is a poem that I originally wrote in November 2019 as a companion to an article I had written for Rooted. I had recently finished reading Jamie Smith’s book On the Road with St. Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts and was particularly inspired by his chapter on ambition — how Augustine’s ambition […]
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