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Articles
An Iconoclastic Inferno
The Divine Comedy: InfernoBy Dante Alighieri, Translated by Jason M. BaxterAngelico, 260 pages, $19.95 Jason M. Baxter, author of A Beginner’s Guide to Dante’s Divine Comedy, Introduction to Christian Mysticism, and The...
In the Present Age But Not Of It
John Stuart Mill once proclaimed that the modern world exemplified an “age of discussion.” The public square, open to all and free of coercion, would serve as a forum...
Late April Snow Storm
The land is all alight with Easter colors,Tulips in pink and orange bending overThe clumps of daffodils just past first flowering.Even the tips of lilacs, rough and brittle,Begin to...
October 7, 2023
Silent, the loft of desert air That bears the first invaders in Thinks nothing of those sleeping where The daily slaughter will begin,Nor of the rifle-bursts of prayer. ...
Sweet Land of Michigan
When my wife and I moved away from the Midwest some fifteen years ago, we began an age of perpetual homesickness. I’d tear up at the sight of Notre...
Eros
It seems a silly thing, an object ratherFor study by the great pathologists,That anyone should live in fear of Eros;But just think how their names have swelled to lists:...
The Poetry of Autumn
A number of years ago, I published a poem in First Things called “Autumn Road.” Although the brilliant and changing colors of the leaves begin the poem, the explicit subject...
For Martha
Busy with many things, I know you are,And watch you turn away and close the door.I see it in the way you drive your car,In how things clutter on...
Atmosphere
The snow this morning falls on brook and rushIn great flakes wending slantwise without purpose,The sky above a wakening tent of grey.So does my daughter wake, and say she’s...
The Mystery of Litanies
When we encounter the beautiful, it always surprises us; it overtakes us and turns us around. So it was with me, as a boy, sitting in the pews for...
Not Talkin’ About My Generation
Helen Andrews’s insightful and hilarious Boomers has gotten me thinking about the whole idea of generations. For as long as I can remember, I have been averse to the...
On a Statue of the Blessed Virgin
This woman, cast in bronze,Lowers her eyes uponAn infant on her lap,His naked bulk enfoldedWithin her draping mantle. She cradles him, at rest,While fold on fold descends,Concealing grace with...
By That Heart Known
The young man in his cell Receives his guestWho all his heart should tell And leave there blest.In quiet companyWe shall a marvel seeAs every thought shall...
An Accident
The road flares burning where the truck swerved off Just before midnight show the streaks in gravelAnd banged-up tailgate slanted in its trough. Those passing—weary, wondering—slow their...
Elizabeth to Her Cousin
After Jacob of Serug Blessed are you, O Maiden; blest The fruit which dwells within your womb,Beloved in that holy rest Whose secret comes to sacred bloom.And...
