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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

July 2016

July 21, 2016

My Money, My Life

My money is the Tao te Ching, translated and introduced by David Hinton. My $12.87...

July 20, 2016

Why We Write

What is it about words that so moves those of us who are writers? We...

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 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 01, 2016

The Arab of the Future

I snuck into a chair while a friend was describing how growing up under a...

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...

May 13, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Middle Distance, Morning” by Margaret Gibson

I read this poem as a meditation on how one can relate to the outside...

May 05, 2016

Evil’s Share

It has been said that one of the most effective means by which evil can...

May 05, 2016

The Lone Ranger’s Easter Narrative

His back to us and to the camera, the hero walks silently away. His work...

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 27, 2016

Annie Spans the Gap, Part 2

This editorial statement from issue 88 is continued from yesterday. Read Part 1 here. In...

April 26, 2016

Annie Spans the Gap, Part 1

The following appears as the editorial statement in Image issue 88. There is no such...

April 15, 2016

Poetry Friday: “The Grackles” by Betsy Sholl

Here is a poem that silently enacts a conversion. The poem starts off with a...

April 12, 2016

Charles of the Desert

By Rebecca A. Spears One early June, traveling to a wedding in San Diego, I’d...

April 04, 2016

Choose Life, North Carolina

This day, I call upon the heaven and the earth as witnesses: I have set...

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...

March 11, 2016

Poetry Friday: “Meditation on the Evangelista” by Karen An-Hwei Lee

What if God turned up at your door in the form of a brush salesman?...

March 09, 2016

Finding My Inner Calamity Jane

Calamity Jane lumbered around Deadwood in fringed buckskins, spitting, cursing, and waving her whiskey flask...

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 19, 2016

Fiat Lux: Cathedral of the Pines

This summer in Paris, on the morning before we flew home, I took my husband...

February 18, 2016

Everyone’s Waiting for the Victory Song

Everyone knows what happened. Everyone lifts a steaming spoon of cinnamon oatmeal to their lips....

February 05, 2016

Brooklyn: A Drama of Discernment

One of the hardest things in life is having two good choices that are completely...

February 03, 2016

Creating Sacred Literature

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

February 02, 2016

The Erotic Powers of the Holy Spirit

My thirteen-year-old son had seen the Viagra commercials for years, but never understood what they...

January 2016

January 18, 2016

Poetry as a Weapon of Jihad

“Strap on a suicide vest? Join a global mission whose leaders preach hatred and acts...

January 07, 2016

My Luxury, My Privilege

Though the Dalai Lama has yet to use a computer, the 1990s “Think Different” ad...

December 2015

December 18, 2015

Poetry Friday: “Christmas Morning in a Hotel Room” by Carrie Fountain

Each Friday at Good Letters we feature a poem from the pages of Image, selected and...

November 2015

November 30, 2015

Saying the Name of God

Recently, I spent a good part of three weeks promoting an event that my parish...

November 17, 2015

Joining in Life and in Death

By Martyn Wendell Jones When I moved into this apartment with my wife after gaining...