Another Christmas song, “Home Again with You,”inspired by a beautiful poem by the (now) Rev. Katie Cooper Nix and by the Christmas recordings from pop-jazz heroes like Nat King Cole and Tony Bennett. Enjoy... …
Category: Poetry
The journey begins, not at Nazareth as Joseph and Mary prepare for their trip to the City of David, but at a time much earlier. …
For I am covered in grace, not sin. Enveloped in hope, not in my past. Secure in that gaze. Wrapped in that holy. Held in that love. Sanctus. Sanctus. Sanctus. …
When you think about it, there’s no reason for all this beauty, really, other than to amaze us, to make us a little weak in the knees and a little more aware of God’s grandeur and majesty. …
We all need that time once in a while to unplug (physically and metaphorically) and recharge our spiritual batteries. I came back refreshed and quieted and filled with a peace and contentment that I know comes from God alone. …
“Writing,” Henri Nouwen wrote, “can be a true spiritual discipline. Writing can help us to concentrate, to get in touch with the deeper stirrings of our hearts, to clarify our minds, to process confusing emotions, to reflect on our experiences, to give artistic expression to what we are living, and to store significant events in our memories. Writing can also be good for others who might read what we write.” …
This morning I came across a poem I wrote a few years ago in response to an act of friendship and concern on the part of a friend. I tweaked and tidied it up a bit (are poems ever really finished?) and maybe it will help someone today like his gesture helped me back then. Say thanks to a friend today for the small gifts of kind words and simple faith. …
I visited the churchyard in Stoke Poges occasionally to experience the peace, beauty and quiet of both the churchyard and St. Giles Church, part of which dates to the Saxon era. On one visit, this poem emerged, a reflection on the death of my father just a few years before. …
The truth is, there’s just no way to see everything, which is why I find it so easy and rewarding to walk these same paths over and over. For it is never the same experience twice. The camera helps me to see and remember (and to share with others what I have seen), but mostly it has taught me to slow down, to focus, to pay attention to movement and color and light. More than anything, to light. …
(for the 100th anniversary of Mark Twain’s death, April 21, 1910) This poem recently won first place in the Big River Writing Contest sponsored by Chesterfield Arts and Stages St. Louis. The contest celebrates Mark Twain & the Missouri River Valley region. It is you, the spinner and weaver, we see big and brash and full of life a painter with the finest and sharpest of tools a splendid fool squatting like a tired but ever-watchful sentry on the corner …