The room is full of empty chairs.The gods above break down, distraught.We offer them our thoughts and prayers. Later that week, the Law declaresIn bullet-points we’ve learned a lot.The room is full of empty chairs Persuaded by these solemn airs—And those survivors? They are not.We offer them . . . . Continue Reading »
Long and lean and sharp of tooth comes winter in its chill,Deep and void the nights become, the wind grows fierce and shrill.Time seems slowed to crawl by all the darkness and the cold,Rights and feasts and vigils mark traditions from of old.Frosty air brings misery to those who walk abroad,Many sit . . . . Continue Reading »
Devotions by timothy murphy north dakota state, 192 pages, $24.95 Not a knee is padded in Timothy Murphy’s new collection. This is no minor point, considering that knee remains for the length of the volume perpetually bent and on the floor. Like the poet himself, these poems—religious . . . . Continue Reading »
One day I woke up and became a None;It gave me lots more time to think and pray.I’d think about bad things religion’s done,And pray that God would now see things my way.I wasn’t like those numskulls who believedAlmighty God did not per se exist.I mainly just preferred to be relievedFrom Sunday . . . . Continue Reading »
Saint Joseph’s Oratory, Montreal.Between the crypt and dark magmatic rockof the mountain’s flank, along a blue-domed hallone hundred four feet long, I slowly walk.Ex-votos hanging on the chapel wall—canes and crutches—testify en blocto gratitude and grace. This same motifrepeats in . . . . Continue Reading »
“Evil is ‘thought-defying,’ because thought tries to reach some depth, to go to the roots, and the moment it concerns itself with evil, it is frustrated because there is nothing. That is its ‘banality.’”—Hannah Arendt “That corpse you planted last year in your . . . . Continue Reading »
10:59. The seconds slowly trudgeOver the top of the eleventh hourWhen shells and whiz bangs cease their lethal shower;We hold our breath and watch the minute budge.The church bells peal in joy, but time will judgeIf this is lasting peace or brooding power.On monuments crepe paper poppies flower;What . . . . Continue Reading »
Wilson runs through one unpleasant experience and miserable person after another in his new collection The Hanging God. Continue Reading »
Education is genuinely liberal—education for freedom—only if it’s willing to conduct students away from self-love to proper objects of love. Continue Reading »
No American poet has ever matched the thorough understanding of Catholic history and doctrine that James Matthew Wilson possesses. Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
