By force of her imagination and skill, Emily Dickinson could take the measure of solitude, opprobrium and even damnation.
Poetry
Posted inArts & Culture, Music
Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and the Communion of Saints
Bob Dylan, more than anyone, fused the pop cultural and the religious experience into one.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Michael Longley’s poetry perfectly blends Irish political and pastoral themes
Michael Longley, the Irish poet whose long career included more than 40 books, died last week. He was lauded by literary, social and political figures alike for his many contributions to Irish literature and to the cause of social reconciliation.
Posted inArts & Culture, Poetry
Joy of My Youth
To God, who gives joy to my youth. Say it! Say it now…
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Joyelle McSweeney mourns in verse
Joyelle McSweeney’s ‘Death Styles’—her 10th book across creative and critical genres—rewards our attention.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Poetry of the seeking soul
A tourist who is out of time approaches the end of his or her trip and must return home soon. This is how the Rev. David May describes himself through his poems.
Posted inArts & Culture, Poetry
Why you should read Richard Wilbur’s ‘Love Calls Us to the Things of This World’
A hymn to mercy and love, “Love Calls Us to the Things of This World” springs to my lips when my heart is quiet. I teach it as often as I can for my introductory poetry students.
Posted inArts & Culture, Poetry
Washing windows at the Catholic Worker
Because this house is a dandelion gone to seed. Fragile and full of possibility.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Movie Club
Lessons from ‘Lady Bird’: Angst, love and the prayerful art of paying attention
We often don’t recognize our influences until much later. It’s the things we’re closest to that we have the most trouble seeing clearly.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Amy Clampitt, the ‘late bloomer’ of poetry
Willard Spiegelman’s probing biography, ‘Nothing Stays Put: The Life and Poetry of Amy Clampitt,’ describes how she rose to meteoric heights in the poetry world relatively late in life.