Today is the anniversary of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s death in 1889. The poet died of typhoid fever while in Ireland. 127 years ago, the “blue-bleak ember” of Fr. Gerard’s life fell and broke and revealed an “immortal diamond.” The following post was originally posted here on June 11th, 2015. I was on a plane holding … More “I am Happy, so Happy”: Remembering Father Gerard
This Wednesday will mark the 127th year after Gerard Manley Hopkins’s death. His final poem, “To R.B.” was written in the last few months of his life and sent to his friend, the Poet Laureate, Robert Bridges. Taking up Horace’s pregnancy metaphor of a poet holding a poem back for nine years, Hopkins’s final apology … More Hopkins’s Final Poem
What is a poet? There are the laureates recognized by the crown. The few who gather a community or a following around them. Or at least those who have been published. But what about the poets who had nothing? What about the opium addicts, the unpublished, and the unread? What about all those musty manuscripts … More 5 Poetic Failures Part 1
‘No Worst’ No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief, More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring. Comforter, where, where is your comforting? Mary, mother of us, where is your relief? My cries heave, herds-long; huddle in a main, a chief- Woe, wórld-sorrow; on an áge-old ánvil wínce and síng– Then lull, … More A Retreat with Hopkins: Good Friday
Any criticism at all which depresses you to the extent that you feel you cannot ever write anything worth anything is from the Devil and to subject yourself to it is for you an occasion of sin. In you the talent is there and you are expected to use it. Whether the work itself is … More Writing Tip from Flannery O’Connor
How often do you think about Luke Skywalker? Maybe just when a new rumor comes out along with a picture of a bearded Mark Hamill. Or only when you brush past that dusty box of the unaltered trilogy on VHS that you still have even though you don’t have a player. Or maybe you just … More Heroism of the Little Moments
I was on a plane holding back tears. I came to Ron Hansen’s Exiles knowing every character would die. It is a book about a shipwreck, a book about a famous poem memorializing the deaths of five nuns in that shipwreck. I knew Hopkins would die. But in that moment when the first nun was … More “I am Happy, so Happy”: Remembering Father Gerard
