Blood Libel

A Quick Word on Anti-Semitism and Biblical Interpretation Because my friend, Biblical Scholar Par Excellence Eric Smith mentioned it, I found and read the “Manifesto” currently being attributed to John Earnest, the man accused of opening fire at Poway Chabad Synagogue in San Diego yesterday, killing one and injuring several others, including the congregation’s rabbi. […]

Holy Saturday

A right holiday only for a pagan heathen or heretic. A day set aside for the silence of God. silence or death, depending. Either way, a day for the old man to leave you the hell alone. Not even a real rain shower, just fits and starts The rending done, the watch abandoned, it’s quiet […]

Invocation

Voice 1: We come together tonight because the city where we live matters. We love this city. We love its people. And we come together tonight because our words matter. Our shared moral traditions And our particular stories and teachings Teach us that words are powerful while offering such words to affirm the unique beauty […]

Holy Iowa

You came up behind me as quiet as death, Iowa. White-haired pilgrim Chrysler death with your hanging clothes stretched across your backseat because who likes wrinkled button-up shirts with button-down collars; who wants to iron blouses on the road, Snow bird? Who wants anything to stand in the way of getting to grandkids, granddogs, the […]

An Ash Wednesday Prayer 2019

Holy One You breathe life into us Whispering it, a holy wish that births us into reality. the words we speak and lives we build reminding us We are not made only of holy breath, but of dust of the same grit that you turn into pottery of the same grit we scrub off our […]

For Mary Oliver

I put my trust in cities Brick and glass and window washer, each climbing like a sort of secular ivy aching angularly, always arcing heavenward. Tonight I am wearing boots my wife bought for me, on a train quiet enough for me to hear my own whispers because everyone who is usually here has […]

Dumpster Fire: A Parable

This will not be the year I thought last year shouldn’t have been he said he could hear the heart-ruminations beating against her temple from the inside out. I will walk more, march more, sell more, buy less, build more, meme less, write more. I will tear down, build up, use up, reduce, reuse, resist, […]