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 […]
Tag Archives: Mary Oliver
Lent: The Air Heavy and Thick
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
Sleeping Outdoors
Poetry adds an extra dimension to sleeping outdoors.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Adam's Curse", "Fern Hill", "Poem in October", "Sleeping in the Forest", "Song of the Open Road", "Stopping by the Woods on a Showy Evening", After Apple-Picking, Anam Cara, Dylan Thomas, John O'Donohue, Nature, Robert Frost, sleep, Walt Whitman, William Butler Yeats Comments closed
How To Cross Trump’s Swamp
Trump promised to “drain the swamp” but is proving to be perhaps our most corrupt president. Mary Oliver’s “Crossing the Swamp” captures the feelings of many.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Crossing the Swamp", corruption, Donald Trump, draining the swamp Comments closed
A Time To Gather Spiritual Honey
Mary Oliver love flowers because of their origins in dark places and for their ability to make luminous our own dark places.
