St. Paul writes mostly in prose, but once in a while…he gets so excited that he can’t restrain his inner poet and he launches into a poetic riff that knocks us off our feet.
A Space For Thought: A Podcast Review of Poetry Unbound
Poetry Unbound has been a delight to listen to. Engaging with the deep and wide variety of poems has been such a rich experience for me.
Two Books That Will Contribute to Your Happiness
When is the last time you bought a collection of poems—not because you were required to buy it for a class, but because you wanted it?
The Mars Rover, the Power of the Particular, and Love
“Poetry appeals to, and enlarges, our human capacity to know something deeply and, in that way, to love it.”
Poetry, Madness, and a Cat Named Jeoffry
“Finding time for poetry in the middle of our sometimes-frenzied lives can help us live more deliberately.”
A Walk Through the Poem: “Believing Green” by Christian Wiman
Poetry, to me, has always seemed like a second language. I can learn to read it, learn to interpret it, but though I enjoy finding and using creative turns of phrase and well-placed metaphors where I see them, I still naturally think of a table as a table first, rather than as, say, an “elevated platform for family gathering and nourishment.”
Haunted by the Father: The Poetry of Li-Young Lee
I’m haunted by the ghost of Li-Young Lee’s father. He’s there, in Lee’s poetry, tromping around upstairs or reading aloud so we can’t sleep. He lingers by the pear trees at the corner of our vision and in the stories we tell and the words we speak. Yes, I know I said “we.” Li-Young Lee’s poetry is intimate. It draws …
Stained Forever by a Sanguine Glow
It is National Poetry Month and I want to celebrate the month with a little essay about the poet Richard Wilbur and his poem “October Maples.” At ninety-six years of age, Wilbur is probably our oldest, living, major American poet, and in my opinion, he has been the pre-eminent Christian poet writing in English in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Praying Poetically
Daily Scripture Texts Psalm 148 Proverbs 8:22-31 1 John 5:1-12 This summer, I spent time sitting at a dog beach in western Michigan. I set up a comfortable spot for myself and watched as my housemates played fetch with their dog, Finley. The other dogs on the beach chased the waves of Lake Michigan up and down the shoreline. My …
Loving God by Making Poems
When we talk about loving God with our minds, I suspect that most of the time we think of academic work that is rational and analytical. But in making poems, the more mysterious subconscious mind is employed along with the analytical.
A Mathematician’s Apology
To a mathematician, mathematics is about solving problems. Mathematics is not just a collection of “facts” about the numerical and spatial aspects of the world, it is a process by which we use and develop them. The interesting part is in the reasoning, the justification, and the way different concepts are brought together to answer a question.