Happy Easter! Today, we remember that Jesus rose from the dead and is the resurrection and the life for every person He indwells 😊 A well known hymn about Christ’s resurrection is “Christ Arose” by Robert Lowry. This is one of the hymns I wrote a poem based on and which will appear in myContinueContinue reading “Christ Arose”
Category Archives: Spiritual / religious poetry
Dies Irae (Day of Wrath)
Last year, I started a series of poems based on Mozart’s Requiem. I ended up writing 12 poems that correspond to the 14 movements of the Requiem (two of the poems combine movements of the Requiem). These poems will be part of a book I hope to release this year entitled Psalms, Hymns, and SpiritualContinueContinue reading “Dies Irae (Day of Wrath)”
All My Friends Are Finding New Beliefs
Recently, I discovered that a friend I thought was Catholic has embraced some other belief system. It made me think of a poem by Christian Wiman called, “All My Friends Are Finding New Beliefs.” Wiman is a poet my wife introduced me to a couple years ago, through this very poem. Whether they know orContinueContinue reading “All My Friends Are Finding New Beliefs”
Caverns
In other posts, I’ve mentioned I’m working on my fourth book, The Anonymity of Waiting. Well, at some point last year I started working on a fifth book at the same time. It started with poems based on the text of Mozart’s Requiem Mass. From there, I moved on to writing poems based on Psalms. I originally thought allContinueContinue reading “Caverns”
Yule-icide
How did it get to be the week before Christmas? This year, I feel like every holiday (not to mention birthdays) snuck up behind me in stocking feet and yelled, “BOO!” There wasn’t time to prepare, decorate, buy things…only time to be startled and jump. Below is a poem I wrote last year during Christmas andContinueContinue reading “Yule-icide”
At the Old Mission
My in-laws used to live in North Dakota. On our way to visit a couple times, we stopped at Old Mission State Park in Cataldo, Idaho. The mission (which was founded by Jesuits in the early 1850s) sits atop a beautiful, grassy hill. As a Christian, it is a testament to the sacrifices God’s peopleContinueContinue reading “At the Old Mission”
Bang Head Here
It’s official: This week, I beat my personal record for rewrites. I’ve been working on poems based on the Psalms, and got a nice draft of Psalm 137 going. Twenty versions of the poem later, I’m almost done. Most of those 20 versions were spent trying to get the first stanza to my liking. IContinueContinue reading “Bang Head Here”
Sun God
“Sun God” is the final poem in my new book, Shadow and Memory. It is a tanka, a Japanese poetic form of five lines. Similar to its three line cousin, haiku, each line has a set number of syllables. Before presenting this poem, I thought I’d say a few words about my approach to writingContinueContinue reading “Sun God”
Elements
When I was in college, I took a poetry class. Looking back, I learned so much in that class; my writing changed a lot afterward. That said, I was skeptical of many things at first. The professor’s philosophy about poetry differed from mine at the time. But as I tried the things I was hearing,ContinueContinue reading “Elements”
A Tongue
Spiritual experience can be hard to put into words because it’s often beyond words. This is probably why the Bible is full of visions, parables, dreams, and poetry. Imagery, metaphor, and symbolism are sometimes the best ways to express the inexpressible. Paradox can also be useful in understanding and communicating things of the spirit. ChristContinueContinue reading “A Tongue”
A Wandering Minstrel 