Deborah Bogen: Bashō
Sweet friend, hear me. There will always be trouble.
Sunnivie Brydum: 11 Better Ideas for a Country in Need of Social Change
Even nations with long histories of inequality and violence carry lessons for how to move toward what might be called a more perfect union.
W.S. Merwin: To the New Year
our hopes such as they are
invisible before us
untouched and still possible
Judith Sanders: First Lesson
…assess this particular pebble’s
cool weight in your palm,
the diameter of its smoothness,
the course it traveled over the seabed
Majid Naficy: Seven Sacred Songs
There is a footstep
And the light of a lantern.
I hide myself beneath an old blanket
And become filled with the aroma of wheat.
Charles Davidson: Bannocks (Loaves) of Bread
Fifty-five years ago, I spent a memorable week on the tiny island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland, the site to which St. Columba came from Ireland in A.D. 563, to inaugurate the Christian mission to northern Britain.
Anna Swartwood House: The long history of how Jesus came to resemble a white European
The portrayal of Jesus as a white, European man has come under renewed scrutiny during this period of introspection over the legacy of racism in society.
BJ Ward: Christmas Eve
Along the cold streets, my townsfolk ignite
their faith. Each states that heaven’s gate’s a star
brighter than its neighbors. I’m in a car
with a coughing carburetor. Big night
for our Lord.
Jena Schwartz: Day 209
God pulls into a run-down motel and pays in cash. God wears a mask and walks slowly down the hallway and the one light bulb is flickering as he turns the key in the door.
Christine Fair: The Revenge of Farkhunda
The mullah falsely accused Farkhunda of burning a Quran. Those who overheard the allegation immediately decided that she must be killed. She was beaten with bats, stomped upon, and driven over by a car after which her body was dragged by a car and then immolated. Her real crime? She had the temerity as a woman to challenge superstitious practices propounded by ignorant male clerics.
Robert Gibb: Angels in Homestead
Pale, sentinel, their stone wings
Open behind them, they stood about
As though the afterlife meant
To impress itself upon us
Stephen Muecke: What Aboriginal people know about the pathways of knowledge
What can living in one place for 60,000 years teach a people?
John Samuel Tieman: Lauds
the Templar strolled the cloister
after the dawn office
the sky was a sort of orange
like he had seen in the East
