12 July, Cathedral of All Saints, 9:29 AM Thank you for the incense of earlier this morning. Whatever it is that is newly a-bloom this day is exquisite when carried in on a gentle cool bath of a breeze. Light and citrus-floral. There was a moment of simply drawing it in…or drawing it inward—not containing,…
Tag: writing
Of Late
I was sitting at the Farmer’s Market this past Saturday and someone said “Do people regularly stop and ask you stuff when you’re out and about? Directions, stuff like that?” “Um…Yes.” “I’m not surprised…” and off they walked. Sunday liturgy at the house where I live has stopped for the summer—a great opportunity to branch…
Acts of Love
Ada Limón came with me on retreat today. I read several of her pieces from the collection Startlement this morning while parked in an Adirondack chair outside an as yet closed Block Shop Books in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. While steeping in her verse, a handful of tourists who came by learned of the store’s hours…
You are Here
Ada Limón, 24th US Poet Laureate, edited and introduced a collection of poems called You are Here. All of them are on that same theme, though interpreted uniquely by each writer. It’s rather wild that I featured the phrase in the talk I just wrote for the Grade 12s next door without knowing about the…
From the Journal: Stories At the Market
At the Market, on this rainy autumn Saturday, wrapped in a shawl of warm sensory delight: The canopy of murmuration, the swirling soft-edged swell of voices, of vendors and wanderers engaged in exchanging a word before exchanging goods or services; the organic artistry of stacked colours, textures, and scents…a mosaic of inspiration and potential; the…
A Flat White and a Poem, Please
For No 9 Coffee Bar…And Those on the Stools I made the discoverythat there were stools rightthere, tucked into the side,right behind the espresso machine.Out of the way and somehowdeep in the heart of it all.Gritty and full of inner machinationsand steady service. My own heart, too, is like that.A few stools for thosegathered close—a…
Under the Influence of Emily
Under the Influence of Emily Lost to the blue of distance,I consider the spacemy words will rest—on the page before someone,known or not,or within the commons sharedbetween you, perhaps, and me—and recall a certain summer picnicby a riot of wildflowers lavishly decoratedwith a living garland of bumblebees. Kimberly M. King
Right book, right moment
As a librarian—and now as an occasional bookseller, I have said to the people who approached me with frustration at not liking the book they recently read— Before you dismiss it entirely, consider that it might not be about the book…it might be about the moment. Keep your mind, eyes, instinct, open for the book…
A.I ; B.Don’t know for sure
This past Saturday, I was at a talk by scientist, theologian, and Franciscan sister, Dr. Ilia Delio. She writes, speaks, and studies at the beautifully, mysteriously, adorned intersection of science and religion. Evolution, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, and the new Cosmology all factored into the presentation she offered. Entanglement was touched on; so too…
A Tendency toward Awe
A tendency toward awe. It is something I have known since childhood—and something I shared aloud before I had full grasp of both recording it on a page and how to moderate my offerings. My father regularly enjoyed recalling a family trip from Ohio to North Carolina where, apparently, I chattered nearly non-stop about everything…
Consider the Lilies 