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Arnold Kenseth: A New England Poet of the Sacred
Arnold M. Kenseth, who died in 2003, was a Congregational minister and poet. He wrote in 1989, “Among the clergy, I’m known as a poet, and among the poets I’m clergy. But by being in New England,...
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>“A Word To The Calvinists” by Anne Brontë
> You may rejoice to think yourselves secure, You may be grateful for the gift divine, That grace unsought which made your black hearts pureAnd fits your earthborn souls in Heaven to shine.But is it...
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Gerard Manley Hopkins: Poet of A Vast Incarnation 2
> Back in October I posted one of my favorite poems by British poet and Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889). Here is another: The Windover To Christ our Lord I CAUGHT this morning...
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“On the Death of Karl Barth” by Jack Clemo
December 10, 1968 was a day of loss for the church of Jesus Christ, as two of her intellectual giants, Karl Barth and Thomas Merton, died within hours of each other. On this eve of the forty-first...
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A Blessed Christmas to All
“Welcome, all wonders in one sight! Eternity shut in a span; Summer in winter; day in night; Heaven in earth, and God in man. Great little one, whose all-embracing birth Lifts earth to heaven,...
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A Poem for Late Winter and Lent by Arnold Kenseth
My friend the late Arnold Kenseth was a Congregational minister and a first-rate New England poet with an eye for God’s presence in the world all around him. It’s late winter here in the Berkshires...
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The Preacher’s Burden: “Sunday’s Hour” by Arnold Kenseth
Arnold Kenseth wrote some wonderful poetry, but he never lost touch with the challenges of having to stand up on your hind legs each Sunday morning and try to make words become the Word for the...
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“The Stones Would Cry Out!” Palm Sunday Ruminations on the Cradle and the Cross
At which end of Jesus’ life should we look for the reason we call him “Lord and Savor?” My friends in the Mercersburg Society put heavy stress on the Incarnation. Others, such as P. T. Forsyth,...
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Spring comes late and slow to the Berkshires
We had a tough winter here in the Berkshire Hills, tons of snow and only now in May are we enjoying a brief and somewhat damp and cool Spring. Nonetheless, it is beautiful. I heard this poem of...
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Ruminations on the Perplexing Task of Ministry: Arnold Kenseth’s “Ordination”
I have been ordained now nearly thirty-six years, and although I can rattle off a pretty coherent explanation of the meaning of ordination my own has never entirely lost a sense of mystery and wonder...
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One of my favorites: “Easter” by Arnold Kenseth
An Easter offering by my late friend and colleague Arnold Kenseth: “Easter” On Easter the great tower of me falls. I had built it well; my mind had planned it After being schooled; my will had special...
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“The Day after Easter”
The Day after Easter Today the tomb is empty, the fridge full: Rare lamb, green beans, potatoes in plastic bags, The remains of yesterday’s moveable feast. When a gathered family, pilgrims and...
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More reflections on worry: “The Peace of Wild Things”
I recently posted “Are you choking? A reflection on worry” and a friend sent me this poem by Wendell Berry called “The Peace of Wild Things.” As always Berry is deeply insightful about the ways of the...
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“O Captain! My Captain!” Walt Whitman and Robin Williams
The Internet is full of kudos for the late great Robin Williams, many of them referencing the Walt Whitman poem “O Captain! My Captain!” (which is a line from William’s movie “The Dead Poets’...
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“He will come like child.” Rowan Williams’“Advent Calendar”
I have long been an admirer of the estimable Rowan Williams, the 104th archbishop of Canterbury, since the time I saw him give an awkward, brilliant, and humble paper in 1989 in Oxford. Since then I...
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Reflections on Living in a World with a Trump Presidency without Leonard Cohen
Since the numbing election I’ve been imbibing in the music and poetry of Leonard Cohen. I didn’t start out on this road as some sort of masochistic exercise. I just wanted to reacquaint myself with the...
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“Pity the Nation” A Poem for our Time by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
“PITY THE NATION”Lawrence Ferlinghetti (After Khalil Gibran) 2007 Pity the nation whose people are sheepAnd whose shepherds mislead them Pity the nation whose leaders are liarsWhose sages are...
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