At This Still Point of the Turning World

The winter poplars stand
Strange masts with spars
Under cold stars.
I shall wait a myriad sail of leaves
In spring rains and winds.
I shall bend in starboards and lees
Still riddling the pilgrim signs
Toward the always mysterious ends.

Dear Reader,

Can I be direct with you?

War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.

First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.

But we can’t do it without readers like you.

Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.


Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.

Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.

GIVE NOW

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

A Muslim Answer to Muslim Immigration

James Hankins

Modern America worships at the altar of youth and eagerly tracks in polls and market research its…

New Founders Wanted

R. R. Reno

It’s now 250 years since America declared her independence and embarked on the experiment of fashioning a…

Forget Odysseus. Aeneas Is the True American Hero.

Martin Gramling

Who is our Odysseus? Or more precisely, who is the most ­Odyssean hero of American film? Matt…