First Things RSS Feed - Ben Myers https://www.firstthings.com/author/ben-myers en-us Copyright 2024 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Sat, 23 Nov 2024 05:19:34 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/ben-myers 60 Our Daughter Beside the Sea: Blue Hill, Maine https://www.firstthings.com/article/2024/06/our-daughter-beside-the-sea-blue-hill-maine https://www.firstthings.com/article/2024/06/our-daughter-beside-the-sea-blue-hill-maine Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0400 The seaside rock she sits on shines a blaze
   of purple shell and matte-glazed films of moss.
She perches there, bent knees to chest, to gaze
   the gray and frosty feathered sea across.
There, balanced on the edge of both the sea
   and sixteen, she can take some stock and stare
               out far into the undefined grayscape,
                             hoping for there to be
   a sail, a seal’s head, some ascending flare,
               a sign of motion out beyond the cape.

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]]> Ignatius to the Romans https://www.firstthings.com/article/2023/02/ignatius-to-the-romans https://www.firstthings.com/article/2023/02/ignatius-to-the-romans Wed, 01 Feb 2023 00:00:00 -0500 Be silent. Hush. Take up the sound of ooze
like oil from olives that the presses bruise.
Or be the sound of fresh baked loaves, the sound
of seeds beneath the stony, sun-packed ground.
I’ll be the noise of wheat beneath the stone,
or, caught jammed in the leopard’s throat, a bone
rattling jagged, heard as just a wheeze
the beast exhales into the copper breeze.
Or hush and let the leopard’s windpipe be
a tunnel I stumble through as best I can
in darkness which obscures but can’t consume,
from which I’ll come into the sun to see
the full-sized shadow of a full-grown man
thrown on the grass beside the empty tomb.

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