Thursday Recently Sewanee asked me to cover for an ailing professor and teach a section of English 101 (Composition and Literature), one of my favorite courses. I’m therefore suspending my retirement, at least partially. I love this course, which functions in some ways as an “Intro to College” course. For many students, the first semester […]
Tag Archives: Mary Oliver
Diving into May’s Spiritual Honey
Monday I was traveling yesterday so here’s a Mary Oliver poem I’ve shared before, once in connection with Pentecost (here). Note how Oliver derives spiritual sustenance from nature, even as she simultaneously emphasizes “the flourishing of the physical body.” For Oliver, there is no separation between the physical and the spiritual realms. May May, and […]
Frogs Everywhere Shouting Their Desire
Friday Warm weather looks like it is finally here for good in southern Tennessee, and the frogs are out in force. My biology students inform me, whenever I teach Mary Oliver’s “Blossom,” that all the peeping and croaking is designed to attract a mate. Well aware of this, Oliver appears to have written her poem […]
Lent: The Air Heavy and Thick
Spiritual Sunday I share today a good Lenten poem by Denise Levertov where the poet finds herself in a funk, albeit not a dramatic funk. She’s experiencing neither a “dark night of the soul” nor a scorching wasteland desert, those extreme moments of crisis that have pushed people to revelation. (Today’s Gospel reading is Jesus’s […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Hound of Heaven", "Oblique Prayer", Denise Levertov, Francis Thompson, Lent, T. S. Eliot, Waste Land Comments closed
Lessons from Being Cold & Depressed
Thursday The polar vortex that is freezing America’s northern states gives me an excuse to rerun a post I wrote on Mary Oliver’s “Cold Poem.” If you want a silver lining for extreme cold, Oliver has one. Reprinted from January 8, 2014 Much of the United States is caught in extremely cold temperatures at the […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Cold Poem", Care of the Soul, cold snap, Depression, polar vortex, Thomas Moore Comments closed
Mary Oliver’s Christian Vision
Spiritual Sunday It has become a tradition with this blog to share a Mary Oliver poem every Easter. Although the poet, who died this past Thursday, wasn’t overtly religious, many of her poems are dramas of grace intervening in a fallen world. She strikes me as the kind of Christian that Emily Dickinson was, finding […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Egrets", "Fawn", "How I Go to the Woods", Christianity Comments closed
Finding God in Nature
John Gatta’s book “Making Nature Sacred” explores how nature spirituality entered into America’s religions and was noted by its creative writers.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged C. S. Lewis, ecospirituality, Emily Dickinson, John Gatta, Nature Comments closed
Jesus as a Gardener
Sunday Perhaps I should have saved today’s joyous poem by Andrew Hudgins for the spring growing season since it associates Easter with new growth, but you’re getting it today because I enjoy it so much. To set it up, I’m also posting a poem by Lucille Clifton, which also focuses on Easter fertility imagery. “Christ […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Ascension", "Christ the Gardener", "Kitten", "spring song", Andrew Hudgins, Easter, fertility, gardening, Lucille Clifton Comments closed
