Author Archives: poetry

I wrote most of this post in Washington DC while attending the American Catholic Colleges and Universities annual meeting. I grieved Stock’s absence just days after he died.  One of the Province Jesuits came to pack his final effects and … Continue reading →

Monday, February 22 I read Judith Viorst’s poem late last night and, rare for me, wrote 3 poetic lines that the poet’s cadence teased out of some wellspring in my memory. “Sometimes a poet has to cut the reader loose … Continue reading →

“Lent” – –  originally the word simply meant “Spring” (as in the German language “Lenz” and Dutch “lente”).  It derives from the Germanic root for “long” because in the spring the days visibly lengthen. The English spoken in the United States originated in England as a blend of … Continue reading →

Monday,  February 15,   “I used to want to be this bad at a job.” I hadn’t posted a poem from Detroit poet Jamaal May in a while.  He writes “Shift” with the subtle density of language that characterizes his poetry.   … Continue reading →

Tom Florek, s.j. has long served as a rich source of powerful poetry, primarily from Central American and Mexican poets; he sent this to me over the weekend.   Exquisite, as I read it.  I am inclined to run Tom’s cover paragraph … Continue reading →

We usually save this space for what we call “contextual paragraphs”  —  short essays which we try to connect with something from the day that “wants our attention”  – –  e.g., the weather, some striking crisis, the season of the year, … Continue reading →

“The Murder of Emmett Till”   (PBS Feb 2, 2021)  Last night I stayed up late to watch the PBS documentary account of the torture and murder of the now-infamous young black boy, Emmett Till and his white killers in … Continue reading →

Monday,  February 1  –  Jane Kenyon I first learned of Jane Kenyon’s “Happiness” from my favorite “American Experience” historical film producer, David Grubin, some years ago.  On this snow-covered Monday in February with its off-tune noises of intemperate, clashing political … Continue reading →

In 2018 for The Climate Reality Project and riffing off of the iconic photo of the Earth rising over the surface of the Moon (taken by Apollo 8 astronauts), Gorman wrote a poem called “Earthrise” about the climate emergency and the action we … Continue reading →

Amanda Gorman’s inauguration poem, read from the steps of the White House (cf. Washington Post) For a poetry post, “the hill we climb” runs longer than most of our offerings.   Still, as I read and listened to what she … Continue reading →