Patricia Spears Jones: The Devil’s Wife looks at America to understand the necessity of wordsmiths
Yes, the Devil is making quite a mess of America,
and here I am swabbing yet another wound and offering up unanswered prayers.
Our names are on fire.
Charles Davidson: Are We Prepared for the Knock on the Door?
Brutality has become ICE’s signature policy. Trump’s “barbed-wire” signature has dictated the ungodly means and ungodly ends of what rapidly has become the Trumpian version of the Nazi Gestapo and the Communist NKVD.
Liz Theoharis, et al: The War on Trans People in the Age of Trump
This year, Pride Month arrives at an especially dire moment for the LGBTQ+ community. Under the second Trump administration, homophobic vitriol and violence are on the rise.
George Herbert: Love (III)
Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.
Stylianos Syropoulos, Gregg Sparkman: Most Christian religious leaders accept climate change but have never mentioned it to their congregations
If they vocalize their acceptance of human-made climate change, we believe they can correct widespread misperceptions, foster dialogue and encourage action in ways that secular authorities may struggle to achieve.
Minnita Daniel-Cox: The brief but shining life of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a poet who gave dignity to the Black experience
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Video: Grace
Sixteen-year-old Grace prepares for her baptism in the 1950’s South. When she learns she must repent before the ritual, Grace contemplates her budding romantic feelings toward her best friend, Louise.
St. John of the Cross: Dark Night of the Soul (English and Spanish)
That light guided me
More surely than the noonday sun
To the place where He was waiting for me
Hildegard von Bingen: Vision 7, The Devil
Then I saw a burning light, as large and as high as a mountain, divided at its summit as if into many tongues.
Abby Zimet: He Practiced the Good
We pay homage to Jimmy Carter, a profoundly decent man, who taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice, and service.
Linda Parsons: Two Poems for Christmas
the light hasn’t always been easy to find—
haloed fires of childhood, my walk
on coals to the marriage pyre, parents
passed to flame and ash. All have sparked
the change ahead, all have lit the way.
Adam Bittleston: September
Into the ripening
Of earth’s great gifts
The mists of autumn
Begin to be woven.
Charles Davidson: Donald Trump and an Insider’s View of Nazi Germany
IT WAS THE LATE 1930s IN GERMANY. Adolf Hitler had ascended to the chancellorship of the Third Reich in 1933.
Larry Levis: François Villon on the Condition of Pity in Our Time
We’re broken buttons, we’re blown dust.
There’s not one tear left in all of us.
I know, for I am François Villon, murderer
