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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

August 2018

August 28, 2018

Athlete: That’s Me!

When I bought the shirt, I didn’t think much of it. It was for workouts,...

May 2018

May 04, 2018

Poetry Friday: “Shortnin’ Bread”

We sang it, too. In 1961, Mr. D taught our fourth grade music class folk...

April 2018

April 23, 2018

A Sky of Parchment Made

Leaving work the other evening—a cold, blustery twilight that belied the spring it’s supposed to...

April 05, 2018

Poetry at the Goodwill

When I was a soccer-obsessed fifteen-year-old, I had no use for poetry. I endured my...

January 2018

January 23, 2018

The Love Song of Pepper Smith

The day of Pepper Smith’s funeral, it was a stiff fifteen degrees—ironic weather for a...

October 2017

October 20, 2017

Poetry Friday: “The Name of God”

In Scripture, “the name of God” equals “the power of God.” Think of Jesus saying,...

September 2017

September 11, 2017

Remembering 9/11 in Washington D.C.

Sixteen years later, 9/11 seems so distant that it is merely a touchstone for rhetoric....

September 07, 2017

Still on the Line

I will not claim credit for many things, but one virtue I own is that...

August 2017

August 29, 2017

An All Too Ghostly Ghost Story: Part 2

Continued from yesterday. Four years ago, my wife and I moved into our red brick...

August 18, 2017

Poetry Friday: “The Fire Tower”

This summer is marked by smoke, our town covered in an urgent haze from nearby...

August 03, 2017

Smelling A Rat

This post originally appeared on “Good Letters” on October 15, 2014. About a year ago...

June 2017

June 08, 2017

Thine is the Transkingdom

Jasmine Temple, laboratory technician at New York University Lagone Medical Center, Institute for Systems Genetics,...

June 05, 2017

On the 50th Anniversary of the Six-Day War

What I didn’t know in June of 1967 was that this month and year for...

May 2017

May 19, 2017

Poetry Friday: “The Spirit of Promise”

Memories can make good material for poetry. In “The Spirit of Promise,” Daniel Donaghy is...

April 2017

April 21, 2017

Poetry Friday: “Sewing Box”

We don’t think enough—or at least I don’t—about how objects can contain memory. But Murray...

April 20, 2017

The Eye Behind the Camera: Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson

When we first see the close-up of the dead bird on the ground, we wonder...

February 2017

February 16, 2017

Epiphany in the Memory Unit

By Cameron Dezen Hammon. The priest’s wife handed me her half full can of beer....

February 03, 2017

Poetry Friday: “Bewilder”

This is a poem about scale, about the awesome power of the Creator, who in...

January 2017

January 03, 2017

Transcendence: A Tribute to William Christenberry (1936-2016)

“The art of losing isn’t hard to master,” Elizabeth Bishop said, with irony. Still, it’s...

December 2016

December 07, 2016

The Patron Saint of Losers, Part 2

This post, which appears as the Editorial Statement in Image issue 90, is continued from...

December 06, 2016

The Patron Saint of Losers, Part 1

This post appears as the Editorial Statement in Image issue 90. One of the stranger conversations...

November 2016

November 30, 2016

The Ghosts of Home

When I visit my family in northern Minnesota, I find myself on the same roads...

November 25, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Poetry Is the Spirit of the Dead, Watching,” Part I, By Margaret Gibson

Where do our words come from? And our lives: how do they connect with those...

November 08, 2016

An Interview with Newbery Medal-Winning Author Clare Vanderpool, Part 1

Clare Vanderpool, Newbery-Medal winning author of the novels Moon over Manifest (Delacorte, 2010) and Navigating...

September 2016

September 14, 2016

What My Kid Knew about Kubo

[Spoiler alert: This post is about the end of the movie, Kubo and the Two...

August 2016

August 26, 2016

Poetry Friday: “The Embrace”

Poetry can recall us to the sensuousness of ordinary experience. Elizabeth Smither does this in...

July 2016

July 15, 2016

Poetry Friday: “I Am Poured Out Like Water”

What attracts me to this poem is something deliberately absent yet evocatively present: baptism in...

June 2016

June 30, 2016

The Dragon and the Yahrzeit Candle: On Forgetting and Remembering, Part 3

Continued from yesterday and Tuesday. In Hunger Mountain: A Field Guide to Mind and Landscape,...

June 29, 2016

The Dragon and the Yahrzeit Candle: On Forgetting and Remembering, Part 2

Continued from yesterday. I dive into the pool. My body remembers water. My body remembers...

June 28, 2016

The Dragon and the Yahrzeit Candle: On Forgetting and Remembering, Part 1

I remember my social security number. I remember the combination to a lock—13 right, 27...