R.I.P.

Today's Poetry Thread: TRUST "Just keep going." Today's thread starts with a poem by Rilke, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy. Feel free to add poems.

Yesterday, I entered church with two recent DJT "converts" I genuinely like. Afterward, a friend tearfully wondered, with my wife and me, how people in our church could support a divisive insurrectionist and felon. The family that frays together stays together?😬 Heaven help us.

If you like the novel 2024, just wait for 2025, the dystopian sequel! Which way is the plot is going to go? Vengeance tour? Denial and insurrection, part 2? Upon reflection, I think I prefer other genres. Contemplative poetry, anyone?

Off politics, this moved me: "I want to embrace a Christian holism, which sees all creation as good and purposeful...Because of the resurrection, death is not the ultimate tragedy, but it is still a grief, and human grief still matters." Beth Felker Jones open.substack.com/pub/bethfelker…

Arizona guy in the mold of Rusty Bowers. (Also, a BYU grad.) #integrity

There have been lots of things buzzing about the ether on this campus the past couple years. Now a major material development. Big in itself and seems connected to other tectonic shifts everyone here has felt.

The lineup is now set for the first issue of New Verse Review. Thanks again to all who shared their work. Look for a website and issue launch in the third week of August. Even online issues need a cover, imo. Here's ours. Photo compliments of Matthew King (Matthew King )

Got exciting news that, beginning in fall, I will be the editor of the journal LITERATURE AND BELIEF. A history of nearly 50 yrs; been getting a strong reboot by the current editor. Have some big ideas, would love to answer Qs, get MSS. Email or DM me! faithandimagination.byu.edu/submit/literat…

For today's feast, here's a poem I actually (as twee as it sounds) started drafting *in church, during the homily* on the same feast last year. Many thanks to Solum Literary Press for giving it a home. solumpress.com/contributors-s…

Reposted earlier, wanted to quote. I love how good religious poetry brings new light to familiar scriptural passages, this one of Luke 22:55: “The wrong firelight kept flickering through gardens, / This most wrong garden, filled with such wrong faces …” solumpress.com/contributors-s…

Weil: “Workers need … that their life should be a poem. They need some light from eternity. Religion alone can be the source of such poetry.” Had a religious lesson today on the power of words. Witnessed poetry, though, less in words than in work—in exhausted ward caregivers.

How you know you’re in the Amsterdam airport.

Episode 94 (!), the first up in Season 5 (!) of the Faith and Imagination podcast. (I never imagined those numbers when I started this podcast.) Abram Van Engen is so, so good at talking about the intersection of poetry and religious/spiritual life. faith-and-imagination.castos.com/episodes/ep-94…

Great conversation between Matthew Wickman and Abram Van Engen about poetry in churches (and beyond literary circles in general). humanitiescenter.byu.edu/podcast/ep-94-…

Such a great guest; such warmth of spirit to go with her exceptional creative work.

Great exhibit on ⁦Brian Kershisnik⁩ at BYU Museum of Art (⁦BYU Museum of Art⁩). Paintings on a wide variety of subjects; four I love here from the life of Christ.

I am honored and grateful to join Matthew Wickman on the Faith and Imagination podcast to talk William Desmond, wonder, and poetry! humanitiescenter.byu.edu/podcast/ep-97-…

Last week, we enjoyed the exquisite poetry, theology, and company of ⁦Laura Reece Hogan⁩ at BYU. She was great with my students and colleagues, and my wife and I now consider her a dear friend. She even recorded a podcast episode (her second with us): humanitiescenter.byu.edu/podcast/ep-98-…

It was such a joy to visit BYU —and one of my favorite moments was doing a Faith & Imagination podcast in person with the wonderful Matthew Wickman! We talked about nebulae, sea slugs, pain & consolation, and read poems! Here’s a link to our conversation: humanitiescenter.byu.edu/series/https-f…