Monthly Archives: July 2020

July 29  – “I too saw only the obstacles” Some friends have found summer times to notice poems that had been asking for attention. Today’s post took shape last evening while talking with a soul friend who is spending this week … Continue reading →

Friday, July 24 – “Nevertheless, God calls us and keeps us moving” Sixteen years ago last week, the university gathered  in Our Lady of Mercy Chapel on the campus of Mercy College of Detroit which had come to be called … Continue reading →

“Yet God (that hews mountain and continent, Earth, all, out: who, with trickling increment, Veins violets and tall trees makes more and more)” Alfonso Rodriquez, sj was a not-very-professionally-educated door-keeper who lived a barely-noticed life – – decades of simple employment welcoming visitors to … Continue reading →

Wednesday, July 15, 2020 “I knew too well what had befallen me, when one night . . . ” Denise Levertov died in her late 60s.  I miss her, a fiery advocate for global justice and a poet of the … Continue reading →

Friday, July 13  — Joy Harjo “She had some horses” I came across this essay about teaching young students to read, and fall in love with Joy Harjo’s poem, “She Had Some Horses.”   That makes today’s an unusual post, … Continue reading →

George Danko to John sj about two great poets, one mentoring the other  in George’s New Jersey home town. “It turns out that Williams, despite fragile health in his later years, mentored younger poets at his home.   One of them was … Continue reading →

Wednesday,  July 8, 2020 I began learning to teach as a 24-year-old kid at Holy Rosary Mission on Pine Ridge in South Dakota.  My life daunted me pretty much every day – so much I didn’t know about teaching, or about … Continue reading →

Monday,  July 6   {first posted August 14, 2017} “Unbeaten by the rain Unbeaten by the wind Bested by neither snow nor summer heat” Some years ago, browsing “A Week of Being Here,” Kenji Miyazawa met me for the first … Continue reading →

Monday, November 14   Shiraz, “the oldest sample of wine in the world” Poet Fatema Keshavarz reaches deep in time so she can lift up the beauty of Shiraz, her home city in Iran.   Shiraz has lived as a center … Continue reading →