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reflection

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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

May 2018

May 18, 2018

Poetry Friday: “Salt Wife”

Lot’s wife, or what’s left of her, stands in the barren wilderness outside Sodom waiting...

May 10, 2018

In the Presence of My Enemies

I eat a pretzel in the presence of my enemies. (They have assembled in Charlottesville.)...

April 2018

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...

March 2018

March 14, 2018

I Will Sing Your Praise

For a few years in the late 1990s, early 2000s, I brought a book of...

March 05, 2018

Holy Snow

When we first decided to move to Minnesota, there were plenty of opinions. “You know...

March 02, 2018

Poetry Friday: “Salt Wife”

On a tactile level, we are reminded of the common experience of salt in this...

March 01, 2018

The Spirituality of Sestinas

Several months ago, I found myself struggling with my hair—namely, snapping off my split ends...

February 2018

February 21, 2018

Dissolving the Borders Between Self and Other

The Buddhists have four stations of the heart: Metta (kindness), Mudita (compassion), Karuna (joy in...

January 2018

January 26, 2018

Poetry Friday: “Graveyard Prayer”

Robert Cording’s prose poem reminds me of my late Aunt Mary, who, at roughly the...

January 19, 2018

Poetry Friday: “The Music before the Music”

It is often hard to find the language to describe the sounds and impact of...

January 15, 2018

Race Relations: A Personal History

It is Martin Luther King Day, and I muse about how my relation to African-Americans...

December 2017

December 08, 2017

Poetry Friday: “Self Portrait as a Lighthouse”

Thomas Merton wrote, “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same...

November 2017

November 21, 2017

The Night I Read Flannery O’Connor’s College Journal

I am. This is not pure conceit. My tea (Irish Breakfast, decaf, as it’s nearly...

October 2017

October 23, 2017

The Best in Bedtime Reading

A therapist I once went to for help with insomnia advised me: “Stop reading a...

September 2017

September 08, 2017

Poetry Friday: “Russian Bell”

In this stirring poem by Anya Silver, the bell becomes a blueprint. First, the bell...

July 2017

July 19, 2017

Summer’s Heartbeat

On some summer nights, it seems the world is brighter, more visible in a quiet...

July 07, 2017

Poetry Friday: “The Field”

I find solace in the natural world, in those precious moments alone, outside, away from...

July 06, 2017

How To Intuit a Book Title

How do poets and writers choose their book titles? I didn’t have a good answer...

June 2017

June 29, 2017

My Own Desert (Tortoise) Father

This post originally appeared on “Good Letters” on July 21, 2014. I didn’t spend enough...

June 08, 2017

Thine is the Transkingdom

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

June 07, 2017

Cutting Down the Butterfly Garden

When we bought our new house, a jungle of weeds marked the front yard. I...

February 2017

February 10, 2017

Poetry Friday: “Erasure”

Have you ever felt that your own existence is being called into question? That you...

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...

December 05, 2016

The Nightingale Floors

In Kyoto, Japan, seventeenth-century Nijo Castle contains an architectural feature meant to protect the ruling...

November 2016

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 22, 2016

Lashing Out at Myself

I was born with a certain level of anxiety in my blood—an electric edge that...

July 2016

July 27, 2016

Dispatch from Detroit

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

July 26, 2016

From the Engine Room, Part II: Mountains of Time

By Mary Kenagy Mitchell Continued from yesterday. Up until this point, in describing what it’s...

July 25, 2016

From the Engine Room, Part I: The Problem with Efficiency

By Mary Kenagy Mitchell About a year ago we at Image dragged ourselves into the...