Religion

Worn-out cotton sacks

At that time, my dad had bought an old truck. He said to my mother, “Prissy, we are going to load all these kids in the…

“The hall is blue sky…”

16

Cold Mountain is a house
Without beams or walls.
The six doors left and right are open…

800 years of Article 29

XXIX. NO Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be…

The act of creation takes devotion and patience

Listening at the keyhole

Every writer is a man with one deaf ear and one blind eye, who is possessed by a demon and unteachable by anybody…

Herding the sinners: Dore

Gustave Doré’s illustration to Dante’s Inferno. Plate X: Canto III: Charon herds the sinners onto his boat. “Charon the demon, with eyes of glede, / Beckoning to them, collects them all together, / Beats with his oar whoever lags behind.’” (Longfellow’s translation, which isn’t…

Big ideas, my personal zeitgeist and the erosive power of Ego

Communion #3

D’s Communion

One time when I was a young man
I caught the scent of the priest
Through the tannins of the communion wine.

Communion #2

A’s Communion

Through him
With him
In him
In the unity of the holy spirit
Unto the hour of death,
And the echo of a long valley

Communion #1

T’s communion

When I go to communion hold my hand.

The change in the air,
The rustle of the heavy clothes,
The scuff of shoes against the polished slate,
The solitary cough,
The clap of the wood boards against metal stays,
The mumuring up ahead…