The glory, sorrow and unquestionable beauty of life are encapsulated in Catherine Lawton’s Remembering Softly. Lawton’s prose gently captures, like coaxing a firefly into the palm, the indescribable joy of simply seeing nature and the world in action. Sure, there are vile things out there, but there are precious things which overcome them and are…
The voices of immigrants, who continue to choose to come to “America the Beautiful” to seek life and opportunity and freedom, are voices we need to hear and heed, if we want to “trade our hubris for humility.” Listen, then, to the voice and the words of Scottish immigrant Alice Scott-Ferguson.
We look down on Agate Beach before descending the steep, winding trail at Patrick’s Point in Northern California. On the pebbly-sand beach as the fog clears and tide ebbs. Larry searches for agates in the sand. One of my happy places, finding semi-precious, polished-by-the-waves agates glowing in the sand. See any agates among these pebbles?…
May Day Baskets Not as many May first flowers here— Not as many kind words and smiles— as times and places I lived as a child. Then, roses burst, clambered, and climbed already, enough garden posies to revel in—make chains for garlands and necklaces, plenty to fill baskets to take and surprise the neighbors. Now…
Easter Sunday As we say, as we sing, Glory to the King Almighty. Glory, Let us sing, let us say Christ has risen from the grave! The Lord is great, the Lord is good! He forgave us of our sins!! —Written by one of my granddaughters (age 10 or 11 at the time) during…
For Writers: Ten Ways Poetry Can Improve Your Prose Writing poetry develops skills of concise wording (something we editors like!). The writing (and reading) of poetry can sharpen your observation skills. Because syntax matters in poetry, you will improve in your understanding of syntax matters. Figures of speech used in poetry teach you finer subtleties…
I want to see the rainbow clouds when they appear so briefly in the sky. I want to see and wonder at a little bird that surprisingly shows up in cold Colorado in February to forage along a tiny, protected, flowing stream full of watercress and fallen cottonwood leaves before flying on to its faraway spring destination.
Contemplation of our ease versus dis-ease, our lives versus death, our love versus bigotry, bias, boredom, and indifference gives us the stuff of which poetry and Lent are made. But the greatest of these is God’s Word of love.
A poem I wrote after reading and editing the book, BRAVE, and finding I could relate to some of Janyne’s story: Child In Me You waited while I caught up with you, child in me; Till I could see what you could see and set you free. You waited with courage and watched with…
Reds and oranges, greens and yellows,
all the crispy, crunchy fellows
in soft piles under the big
Mulberry trees.