Paris Review – This Is a Bookstore, Sadie Stein

Paris Review – This Is a Bookstore, Sadie Stein


I would really like to buy and shop books here. The words must be blessed.

"Luke 24:36–42," a poem by Carol L. Gloor | The Christian Century

"Luke 24:36–42," a poem by Carol L. Gloor | The Christian Century

is there anything for breakfast?

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

A different way of learning and thinking. Thank you Ken Robinson.

memorization begins in earnest

For some time I have been coming to grips with the hard truth that memorizing poetry is a task setting me free, taking me across a new border, as a thinker, a preacher, and a man. It is quite remarkable that it took the completion of my own book of poetry to make the necessary space to start memorizing others' poems and occasionally my own. I am stubborn, and a procrastinator, but I knew I would give in.

My first set of tasks: four poems in the Irish flow by David Whyte. I have one down: The Seven Streams. I recited it at church and had it pretty much at my disposal. Several phrases are coming alive for me in ways they had not previously, even having read and heard this poem maybe fifty times. Memorization is an altogether different muscle and it lends itself to creativity of the mind that is quite unexpected.

Next will be Tobar Phadraic, Mameen, and Coleman's Bed. There are many others by Whyte that I am anxious to commit to memory, but I need to make patient space for some of my own, including Border Ways, and poems by Gerard Manly Hopkins, Robert Frost, William Blake, and Mary Oliver. Somehow the moment that I am calling myself a poet, I feel a need to protect and foster the craft for those who have come before me. This is great work and no waste of time for everything else I am about. I am coming into a generosity I have not previously known. Spring is four days away and the season seems fitting for new discovery.

I must give thanks to finally finding the method that works for me and the credit goes to J.J. Hayes. Read about his simple memorization process.

The Great Carl Sandburg of Flat Rock, NC

I left the church. Don’t hate me

I left the church. Don’t hate me

Elizabeth does a great job of explaining a love of God, yet a change in one's flow or call. This happens to us all, many times throughout life and we should never hear that we are letting down a call or our gender, or an institution. Those commentaries are all about fear. Men go on, women go on, the church goes on, businesses go on. Don't be afraid to ask the question: what is God doing, now, in my life? Then really don't be afraid to respond, patiently, to the answer you receive. Good on you, Elizabeth.

Church planting: time for new terminology?

Church planting: time for new terminology?

'Fresh expressions’ of church in NC

'Fresh expressions’ of church in NC

Read about a great day exploring A Changing Church in a Changing World in article at the link above.

Below is a poem that expresses my view of realizing a Fresh Expression:

NOW AND THEN

At the border
Just shy of the edge
Of here and there

we have come to a cross

and one of us must sit

and one of us must stand

contemplating the necessary posture

accepting that we must take the position we can and no other

not now

for now we can play but one part

in the drama

At the precipice
Between living now
And dying then

from one to the next is but a passing

through to a wonderful new world

The flap of light shimmers as it closes over her
Shelling her in like a pearl
Inside the oyster

she can see partially dimly barely

through to the source of the illumination

outside the protected hide

a kind of borderland

cloaked inside this tomb

but able to see out

to yearn for the other side

while dangerously safe and protected within

outside is everything

but here, close in

right next to her heart

is most of the work

the abundance

fecundity fertility fruit bearing possibility

but she must venture out to partner

and risk everything

everything held dear

crossing the border

stepping across the cliff

the ceiling must erupt

momentarily

and then the opportunity

to revert to home