Reading

Gailand MacQueen on the spirituality of mazes and labyrinths

The Spirituality Center at Saint Benedict’s monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota, has a labyrinth, which I am preparing to walk soon for personal and professional reasons. I suppose I could just drive over there tomorrow and walk it, but that’s not how I take journeys. I read up on the places I’m going because it …

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Susan Thurston's "Sister of Grendel": a cultural critique of the epic hero

“And I have at last accounted for this last part of my story.” Beowulf’s voice surrounds me, and his image again appears whole before me. Beowulf the warrior reaches out his hand as if to touch me. I extend mine toward him. “Which causes more pain, I wonder. The words unsaid or the words not …

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New Hampshire Poet Laureate Alice B. Fogel on How to Explore Poetry's Strange Terrain

“Language as a tool to manipulate both mind and heart…snapshot of the human condition; of our mortality reflected in nature; the staying of time.” Alice B. Fogel Why poetry matters “Poetry will bring you significant new interactions with the world around you, with ideas and sensations, with yourself and others,” poet Alice B. Fogel wrote …

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Marilynne Robinson on The Givenness of Things and Democracy

Did you ever try to write a poem attempting to capture a mind-to-mind, heart-to-heart encounter, sitting up half the night conversing with a brilliant person / kindred spirit, your heart bursting with a sensation of music, moonlight and the mystery of existence all mingled together? Don’t bother; it’s impossible to put into words. I’ve recently been savoring essays …

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