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poetry

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January 2017

January 30, 2017

The Next Abraham

A few days ago, I was blessed to be present at my grandson Abraham’s bris,...

December 2016

December 30, 2016

Poetry Friday: “New Year, Good Work”

A delightful scene is set in this poem. At the start of the new year,...

December 27, 2016

ImageUpdate’s Top Ten of 2016

Every week, the Image staff curates a digital dispatch of compelling new books, music, artwork,...

December 23, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Carol of the Infuriated Hour”

Christmas carols: we love their joyous celebration of the birth of Christ. In “Carol of...

December 20, 2016

Kathleen Wakefield’s Invisible Stenographer

You’ve got to meet this character. She’s a stenographer by trade: From the outset she...

December 16, 2016

Poetry Friday: “A Christmas Story”

In “A Christmas Story,” Robert Cording evokes Aleksander Wat (1900-1967), a Polish poet that converted...

December 09, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Advent” by Bruce Bond

I’ve heard many people say we’ve never needed poetry more than we do now, but...

November 2016

November 28, 2016

Saying Yes to the Annunciation

Of all the Gospel episodes, the Annunciation has long been one of the favorites of...

November 11, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Plowboy’s Bible” by Austin Segrest

When I read Austin Segrest’s “Plowboy’s Bible,” I began to realize that the entire poem...

November 03, 2016

Twitter #Micropoetry

Tootling around on Twitter, I’ve come upon a delightful community of poets. Their hashtag is...

November 02, 2016

The Best Words: Selections from the Sex Tapes of Tremendous Male Poets

I knew a woman, lovely in her bones, When small birds sighed, she would sigh...

October 2016

October 20, 2016

A Conversation with John Terpstra

This interview originally appeared as a web-exclusive feature for Image issue 63. John Terpstra has...

October 14, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Nothing More” by Todd Davis

Whenever I first meet a long skinny poem, I ask myself: Why has the poet...

October 13, 2016

A Conversation with Scott Cairns

This post originally appeared as web-exclusive content in Image issue 68. Scott Cairns, the author...

October 07, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Intercession: For My Daughter” by Brett Foster

We pass into this world at birth. We pass out of it at death. And...

September 2016

September 16, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Homily”

Last Sunday I was trying to decide whether to go church or take a walk...

August 2016

August 26, 2016

Poetry Friday: “The Embrace”

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

August 19, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Recovery”

What I like about this poem is how it slides almost unnoticeably from a simple,...

August 12, 2016

Poetry Friday: “More Strange”

This poem coaxes me to inhabit a story I’ve heard many times, and makes it...

August 05, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Onesimus”

In this month of painful national and international news, Tania Runyan’s poem “Onesimus” offers a...

July 2016

July 29, 2016

Poetry Friday: Four Sonnets

Sonnets meditating on illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages may sound a bit sanctimonious, even...

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...

July 08, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Again to Port Soderick”

To behold God’s creation and to praise it with language is this poem—and it is...

July 05, 2016

Adam Zagajewski’s Trench Warfare

“Writing poems is a duel / that no one wins…” As I’m reading the poem...

June 2016

June 24, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Daybreak, Winter” by Betsy Sholl

I have a complicated relationship with the sun, having grown up in southern California and...

June 17, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Tenebrae” by Anya Krugovoy Silver

This is a dark poem, raising a profound question about suffering. Its title, “Tenebrae,” is...

June 10, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Quantum Theory” by Victoria Kelly

A friend said to me once, if time were flat, if everything were always happening...

June 03, 2016

“Translation Back into Native Tongues” by Nicholas Samaras

There’s a sub-genre of poetry in which the speaker’s persona is a long-ago figure or...

May 2016

May 31, 2016

Richard Wilbur’s Poetry Captures Our Days

Last night I read a poem that showed me in a flash why I save...

May 27, 2016

Poetry Friday: “The Manifestation” by Richard Jones

I’m a poet and believer. If anyone should spend an evening gazing at a meteor...