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Morgan Meis

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Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2008

October 2018

October 15, 2018

Morning in a Forgotten Neighborhood

The other day it was raining. The clouds were impossibly low, skimming the tops of...

August 2018

August 22, 2018

The Modern Predicament

You might stumble into a lengthy life through no particular fault of your own. You...

June 2018

June 20, 2018

An Italian Journey with Auden, Goethe, Sex, and God

Recently, I was wandering around some of the less travelled corners of Tuscany with a...

May 2017

May 31, 2017

The Beauty Dialogues, Part 5

Today Morgan Meis continues his periodic exchanges on the nature of beauty with Image founder...

April 2017

April 04, 2017

The Beauty Dialogues, Part 3

Today Morgan Meis continues his periodic exchanges with Image founder Gregory Wolfe. Dear Greg, Thanks...

March 2017

March 15, 2017

The Beauty Dialogues, Part 1

Today Morgan Meis continues his periodic exchanges with Image founder Gregory Wolfe. Dear Greg, When...

November 2016

November 16, 2016

What We Talk About When We Talk About Beauty

I have beauty on the mind. No doubt a result of my ongoing debate with...

October 2016

October 26, 2016

The Debate About Beauty

I’ve been engaged in an ongoing wrangle with Gregory Wolfe about the status of Christian...

October 03, 2016

T.S. Eliot, Agent of His Own Demise

In my last post for Good Letters, I took minor issue with a point my...

September 2016

September 08, 2016

The New Critics and the Barbarians

The poet and writer Dana Gioia penned an essay for the December 2013 issue of...

July 2016

July 27, 2016

Dispatch from Detroit

We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through...

June 2016

June 27, 2016

Dead People: Leszek Kolakowski (1927-2009)

For Gregory Wolfe The following is an excerpt from Meis’s new book Dead People, published...

May 2016

May 26, 2016

Odd Northern Indiana

Route 41 takes you along the coast of Lake Michigan out of Chicago. If you...

May 03, 2016

Canada: Detroit’s Southerly Neighbor

Detroit is the only major city in America, people will tell you (even if you...

April 2016

April 06, 2016

James Tate: Finding the Ultimate in the Ordinary

The poet James Tate died last year. It happened in July. He was seventy-one years...

March 2016

March 15, 2016

Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry

The Detroit Institute of Art (DIA) is obviously not a religious institution. But damn if...

February 2016

February 25, 2016

Detroit: The Reality of Death and the Reality of Life

At night, through the mottled glass of a door that leads out onto the roof...

February 03, 2016

Creating Sacred Literature

“We are just at the beginning,” Charles Taylor wrote in his lumpy but essential tome, A...

January 2016

January 08, 2016

George Scialabba and the Problem of Critical Distance

George Scialabba retired from his job this October. He had worked at Harvard University for...

December 2015

December 23, 2015

Repression, Oppression, Suppression: A Life of Domestic Routine

Somewhere in the middle of Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, the eponymous...

November 2015

November 03, 2015

Henry David Thoreau: Hopelessly Discontent

The following is an indirect response to Kathryn Schulz’s article “Pond Scum: Henry David Thoreau’s...

October 2015

October 15, 2015

The Art of the Realist Crime Novel: From Dashiell Hammett to Henning Mankell

The Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell died October 5, 2015. He was sixty-seven years old....

September 2015

September 23, 2015

The Holy Wafer on the Floor

Sometimes I take the Host in the mouth, other times I take it in the...

August 2015

August 31, 2015

The Fear of God, Texas-Style

Recently, I found myself in Texas. Driving mostly. Stopping here and there to eat, put...

July 2015

July 14, 2015

Beauty, Christian Love, and Gay Marriage

Justice Anthony Kennedy, in the recent Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, wrote the following...

June 2015

June 24, 2015

Franz Wright: Solving the Problems of Poetry

Maybe all poets are unhinged. There is historical evidence for this going back to ancient...

June 01, 2015

Charlie Hebdo and the Inner Soul of Humor

My friend Justin Smith recently wrote a piece for Harper’s Magazine. Justin is a brilliant...

May 2015

May 11, 2015

Finding God in Updike Country

It took me more than a year of living out here to realize I am...

April 2015

April 27, 2015

Jesus: Here, There, and Everywhere

Gertrude Stein once said of her hometown, Oakland, California, where she was raised after having...

April 13, 2015

No Glory in Jericho

I was standing with a Palestinian Muslim and three Jews. Jericho. The ancient city. Some...