As I walked through the path to Calvary, the stench of grubby sand lingered in the air
Poetry
Posted inArts & Culture, Poetry
from “Strange City,” a manuscript in progress
These poems come from a developing collection about concurrent cancer diagnoses for poet Dan O’Brien and his wife.
Posted inArts & Culture, Poetry
Embracing the Homeless Woman Selling Papers
her gloveless hands presenting dusty news her crisp brown eyes rising and quickly plummeting to her graying sneakers with each squeaky swipe of the automatic doors as shoppers exit, heavy bags swinging from their elbows this word in front of that word that you hear yourself say to her we suffer when we believe in […]
Posted inArts & Culture, Poetry
Al Kiddush Hashem
Al Kiddush Hashem (to sanctify His name) We will climb this last cold hillside where morning leaves its breath upon the uncomplaining stones, its voice of light come just beneath the sky’s grey arch and arbor. You will carry my wood to your altar. Your back is broad, bronzed; I have come old—have grown tired […]
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For Leila Means Night and Night Is Beautiful to the Desert Mind—for my daughter
today I learn
for the first time the inside
of a girl’s hair, to brush the hair
beneath the hair.
Posted inArts & Culture, Poetry
Poem Ending With a Sentence from Jacques Maritain
It was the flash of black among/the yellow billion.
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Adoration of the Christ Child: Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, c. 1515
Sometimes it’s not the infant’s holy face that awes us
Posted inArts & Culture, Poetry
Not Jumping
The honest power of a winter-shocked sun is doing its best but it still looks like the scarce light is coming from the blue. The sky among the clouds is like chipped paint— nothing is falling, though. Face your fears, they said. I remember trying to forget all about that […]