Poetic Creation: Illuminating the Mystery of Divine Love

Love is the colossal mystery at the heart of the universe—a mystery that haunts every corner of our lives as we ponder what we see around us. It is the light illuminating the nothingness within the atom and the chorus singing through the darkness between the stars. We often have a utilitarian view of nature, with horses for riding, trees for building and burning, and … Continue reading Poetic Creation: Illuminating the Mystery of Divine Love

Hillsdale ForumOctober 17, 2023January 11, 2024Leave a comment

ISSUE #41 | MAY 2023, Poetry

Cowboy Poetry

Have you ever heard of Henry Herbert Knibbs? Or cowboy poetry? Or a chuckwagon cook? I hadn’t either. At least not until I met John and Randy, who are cowboys. Actual cowboys, as in leather chaps, frisky horses, and open spaces. The marvelous thing about poetry is that it bursts out of every seam of human experience. Look to the Wild West. Their poetic tradition—heart-wrenching, … Continue reading Cowboy Poetry

Hillsdale ForumJuly 20, 2023January 11, 2024Leave a comment

ISSUE #41 | MAY 2023, Poetry

Poetic Ethics

We are listening creatures; whence else our speaking? And whence are we? So there is a Word that precedes us. We are spoken creatures. What constitutes this speech constitutes us in some way. And listening to this speech and speaking it are the acts of discernment and virtue. Words have many meanings. Mutatis mutandis, listening carefully to this word detects several valances. General listening is … Continue reading Poetic Ethics

Hillsdale ForumJuly 20, 2023January 11, 2024Leave a comment

ISSUE #39 | DEC 2022, Poetry

What is Poetry?

We are listening creatures; whence else our speaking? Scripture speaks speech as God’s first act. God said, “let there be light,” and there was light. The Father simultaneously names and creates in speaking. The first act of Man, then, created in the image of God, is to name the animals. We image Him. Yet we must know how to listen from somewhere, too. So God … Continue reading What is Poetry?

Hillsdale ForumNovember 6, 2022January 11, 20241 Comment

ISSUE #35 | DEC 2021, Poetry

Waiting to Remember

To remember is to restore. To return to one’s memories, particularly the painful ones, is to revisit a place of holy ground. It is to return to the breaking ground and the winnowing field. In drear nighted December John Keats, 1817 In drear nighted December, Too happy, happy tree, Thy branches ne’er remember Their green felicity— The north cannot undo them With a sleety whistle … Continue reading Waiting to Remember

Hillsdale ForumDecember 14, 2021January 11, 2024Leave a comment

ISSUE #33 | MAY 2021, literature

Gregory Alan Isakov and Rainer Maria Rilke on the Quiet Things of Life

“ Oh blessed rage for order…The maker’s rage to order words of the sea…” ~ Wallace Stevens One of Augustine of Hippo’s ways of understanding the human heart sounds paradoxical at first: a man can walk around the earth, but he cannot ever circumscribe his own heart. Rather than debate whether or not this is the case, I am going to take this as … Continue reading Gregory Alan Isakov and Rainer Maria Rilke on the Quiet Things of Life

Hillsdale ForumJune 27, 2021January 11, 2024Leave a comment

ISSUE #27 | DEC 2019, Poetry

Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads: Keeping Poetry Honest

“Fair is foul and foul is fair,” sing the witches in Macbeth as they toss toads and newts and thumbs into the pot to make “double, double, toil and trouble.” Despite the appearance of sorcery, they do not supernaturally bewitch Macbeth. All they do is speak. Macbeth destroys himself of his own free will. It’s a subtle boast from Shakespeare: by giving the witches the … Continue reading Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads: Keeping Poetry Honest

Hillsdale ForumDecember 11, 2019January 12, 2024

ISSUE #27 | DEC 2019, literature

“Milestones of Earth Residence”: On Poetry of Place

When I drive home from Hillsdale, I turn the radio to 93.9 as I pass Ann Arbor. It’s just close enough for the signal to come through, and for the rest of the way back to Detroit, I listen to the sound of my teenage years and my college summer commutes. Broadcasting from across the river, the Canadian station plays alt-rock hits until they wear … Continue reading “Milestones of Earth Residence”: On Poetry of Place