Okay, a weird thing happened. I will try to talk about it without naming names. I submitted a two-book review to a magazine I respect. The authors of both books have been published in the magazine in the past. The magazine has recently had a change of editor. Within days of the submission I got ...

My convalescing better half is getting better, slowly. Here's a poem that does a good job of explaining the complicated physics of getting out of bed when your abdominal muscles have been messed with. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/153655...

The patient didn't sleep well but is somewhat more comfortable than yesterday. We are still rather medicine minded, so here is a poem by physician-poet Rafael Campo, one that's relevant to the present social situation as well. www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...

My better half had abdominal surgery, and I'm too busy taking care of him to think of poems. But a big thank-you to @rattlepoetry.bsky.social for making one of mine the poem of the day two days ago! rattle.com/prayer-conce...

Someday I'm going to remember to research this: Why is it that "withhold" is spelled with two Hs, which "threshold" is spelled with one? At least for me, the H in the "hold" syllable is sounded in both.

Amid other struggles, ours and the country's, the household battle with the mice continues, so I offer this mousy poem by #CharlesMartin. It's written from the point of view of the mice, and though I don't sympathize with mice, I think it's a superb poem.

And here we are at All Souls Day, so here's the In Paradisum from the Fauré Requiem. We plan on going to the cathedral to hear the whole thing at the 10 o'clock mass this morning. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPca...

Requiem countdown: All Souls minus one, which means it's All Saints Day, and we need music in a more joyful vein. So here, from the Requiem of Andrew Lloyd Weber, is the Hosanna in excelsis. We don't actually have choirs of angels, but we have got Placido Domingo. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuex...

Requiem countdown: All Souls minus 2 and counting, otherwise known as Halloween. Here's the scariest bit of the most dramatic of requiems, the Dies Irae of the Verdi. Mwahaha! www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6co...

Requiem countdown: All Souls minus three and counting. Today we have a bit of the Berlioz Requiem, the Rex tremendae movement. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR4y...

Requiem countdown: All Souls minus 4 and counting, so today's entry is the Mozart, one I'm very glad to have sung. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp2S...

We continue the Requiem countdown to All Souls with the Requiem of Jean Gilles. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljq0...

Continuing the Requiem Rundown, as we count down the days toward Halloween / All Saints / All Souls: Here's Tomas Luis de Victoria's Office of the Dead. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI_U...

Let's have another helping of #Requiem, this time the #Brahms. Can I keep this up until #AllSouls'? We'll see. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DKI...

Spotter Observations All morning the news goes south, geese mobilizing abaft a leader's bluster. The sky rumpled camouflage. No clear outlook for these days. (A poem so old I've forgotten which book it's in, but it first appeared in Innisfree Poetry Journal.)

It's that time. I've swapped the summer clothes for the woolens, closed the combination windows, and disconnected the hoses. Time to start listening to Requiems. Let's begin with Requiem and Kyrie from the Rutter Requiem.

Distracted and empty of brain, I'm going to post a poem I've posted before: R.Wilbur's translation of Francis Jammes' "Prayer to Go to Heaven with the Donkeys." www.ronnowpoetry.com/contents/jam...

Depressing news for people who write and want to be read (though my state comes off better than many). usafacts.org/articles/whi...

When I don't know what to post, I grab a book from the shelf. Today it's #CliveJames and his metered, rhymed, and often hilarious anger. The official referenced in this poem is Donald Rumsfeld, but the notion of military unknowing seems pertinent just now. www.clivejames.com/statement-fr...

Feeling extremely dated and behind the curve today, I found a relevant poem by #MichaelBlumenthal: "Back from the Word Processing Course, I Say to My Old Typewriter" -- www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...

A kick in the teeth this morning: #ThomasMore's prayer, from his book of hours. Praying "To abstain from vain confabulations" sounds challenging just now, though maybe we all need it. Dealing with Henry VIII must have been similar to our present situation. beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/...

Some calming and peaceful music, because I certainly need it and maybe you do, too: #JakeRunestad's "I Will Lift Mine Eyes."

Add your name: Standing up to ICE is a Christ-like action. Once again, Christian clergy and lay leaders are showing moral leadership by resisting Trump's cruel attacks on immigrants and people of color. ICE and its allies are attacking them for it. act.faithfulamerica.org/sign/clergy-...

Thanks again to Form in Formless Times and editor Robin Helweg-Larsen for featuring my poem "October" and finding a nicely atmosphere photo to go with it. formalverse.com/2025/10/15/m...

We've been here before with anti-immigrant animus. It didn't go well. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/o...

it's the birthday of #eecummings. We love his love poems, but he did bitter and angry well, too: my specialty is living said a man (who could not earn his bread because he would not sell his head) squads right impatiently replied two billion pubic lice inside one pair of trousers (which had died)

I hope everyone here is already following @npr.org, but just in case . . .

A short poem of mine about the horrors in the Middle East was accepted last week and probably won't appear until next year. I can only be grateful that my timing is so bad. May the cease fire hold!

I read a lot of detective fiction while the brain tries to stir up the muse. Recently I tried Sue Grafton: too relentlessly colloquial, Californian, anti-intellectual, fond of the violent underworld. I'm back to #PDJames, with her Dalgliesh reading himself to sleep with the Heaney *Beowulf.*

I could brag, I suppose, about how little time I spend on my phone. But that's because my eyes are so bad that I need the big screen of my desktop machine. So much for statistics.

I’ve been reading the Summer/Fall issue of THINK, and it’s excellent, with great work by @maryanncorbett.bsky.social, Dan Campion, Steven Knepper, Jesse Keith Butler, and others. Here’s one of mine:

Minnesotans: You know public radio is now without federal funding. If you're a listener and not yet a contributor--even if you're not, but you want an unbiased news source to continue to exist--take note: today's the last day of MPR's fall member drive. Give. www.mpr.org

It's right there in the Gospels.

I think it's fair to say that poets would like their work to be read. So it's reasonable to ask: Where / how should one publish in order to be read? What form of publication is most likely to get a poem read? Granted, we try to put our eggs in multiple baskets. But where do we find the most readers?

Here's something I posted seven years ago, relevant again. I wish more people could be persuaded to study medieval history.

Finally, seasonable temperatures and a bit of red on the maples. Time for an old poem of mine. (I think this was in *Credo for the Checkout Line in Winter.*)

Tell Congress: Christians want our government funding to care for all us, not terrorize our neighbors. act.faithfulamerica.org/sign/goverme...

I've pulled a muscle in my back by bending over while doing dishes. So I'm feeling decrepit and identifying with the old guys in B.H. Fairchild's poem "Old Men Playing Basketball," #GeorgeBilgere's daily poem (which you should subscribe to if you don't already). georgebilgere.com/so/4bPcWFrm_...

I've just now noticed that our friend, NVR editor @StevenKnepper, is published at Commonweal. www.commonwealmagazine.org/more-gore

Happy feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. If there was ever a year when we needed his prayer for peace, this one is it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hdW...

I'm often so slow to get around to reading new books by poets I like that when I do, that book is no longer the newest one! I've finally gotten to Mary Jo Salter's *Zoom Rooms* and am especially enjoying the ekphrastic poems, like this one: www.literarymatters.org/13-3-carlo-c...

fwiw, the Catholic Church considers medical care a human right, which means it’s not accorded to persons due to citizenship but because they exist, which in turns means societies that desire to seek the good must offer such care.

Happy discovery this morning: #PatrickKurp uses my poem "Ice Dam" as a prompt for some snowy-and-icy memories. (The poem, by the way, is in my most recent book, *The O in the Air.*) evidenceanecdotal.blogspot.com/2025/09/flui...

Happy International Translation Day! The UN is concerned with "bringing nations together" via living languages. But the country of the past is important, too. www.un.org/en/observanc...

The numbers in this Guardian subhead--ALL the numbers--should be getting much more attention. Focus on them: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The current poem is still kinda half-baked, but my first-ever challah has turned out pretty well. (Don't look too closely at the six-strand braid. Form is challenging in all sorts of media.)

I see that my UK friends are mourning the passing of #TonyHarrison, so here *in memoriam* is a video of his realization of the medieval mystery plays. May he rest in peace. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzIr...

It is very creepy to Google one of your own fairly new poems and get, at the top of the result set, a very earnest and literate AI analysis of a work that surely no human has yet written about. Shudder.

I'm a bit late, but Shana Tovah to all who celebrate. Here's a link to an appropriate poem, John Hollander's "At the New Year." ccl.northwestern.edu/curriculum/p...

Here's some Yeats set to music this morning, because we could use a dose of calm: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOkK...