Reformissionary

NPM '08: Ted Kooser @ UC Davis

One of my favorite poets, Ted Kooser, reads his poetry and speaks about poetry at UC Davis...

Lots-o-Links 4.9.08

I have now won the second blog voting contest!  That has picked me up, between the two contests, $175 in online bookstore gift certificates: $50 for Westminster Seminary bookstore, $50 for Amazon, and $75 for Eisenbrauns.  Woohoo!  I will order The Reason for God copies from Westminster and Amazon.  Eisenbrauns was a late addition to the first place prize and doesn't carry Keller's book, so I will be picking up some books for my personal library.   Thanks for all your effort!  And thanks to Scot McKnight for his effort to find some votes for me.

On a side note, the total official vote count for all blogs was "666" as you can see by the screen capture.  While some might find that a bit off-puttin', I think it's awesomely hilarious.

O Lord, let there be a blog contest for the cost of hotel, airfare and conference fee for the Total Church North America Conference.  I WANT TO GO!!!

Carolyn Mahaney: How to Help Your Husband When He is Criticized

John Piper on C.S. Lewis on writing.

Al Hsu on "The New Suburbanists."

Scott Hodge has some advice for those who are thinking about change.

Makoto Fujimura: A Wedding and the City.

10 Questions Every Leader Should Ask

Growing Sustainable Suburbs

Top 10 Myths About Networking

Joe Thorn is now making my voicemails on his cell a matter of public consumption.  I want to be upset, but it represents such a positive side of me that I can't help but propagate it...

NPM: 22 Contemporary Poets

Karsten Piper has listed 22 contemporary poets worth reading, via Abraham Piper.  Well worth checking out.

NPM '08: Remembering Mom

Anyone who has been reading my blog for the last year year may remember the poem I read at my Mom's funeral.  Mom died a year ago today, April 3rd, 2007.  Here is "The Lanyard" by Billy Collins...

"The Lanyard" by Billy Collins (NPR)

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.        

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

NPM '08: Fire and Ice

"Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

It's National Poetry Month!

Throw some confetti and blow a shofar...it's National Poetry Month!  Love this time of year, when all things are becoming new again, when the doldrums of winter are washed away by April showers, and when poetry is in the air.

Far too many of us weren't raised on a steady diet of poetry, except maybe in the form of popular music.  But that isn't usually very good poetry.  Some of us have been introduced to poetry by an artsy parent, a literature teacher in High School, or maybe we discovered it much on our own.  Regardless, poetry is a powerful and beautiful thing to discover and something we should continue to rediscover for the rest of our lives. 

Over the next month I'm going to post poems, info on poets, poetry websites, thoughts on writing poetry, and more. Whether you are a poetry lover or not, this month is for you.  Let's begin by watching a video from a prominent U.S. poet, Dana Gioia as he gives a commencement speech at Stanford last spring.  He speaks of the loss of recognition of art and artists in our culture...

Lots-o-Links 3.21.08

I'm trying to make time to blog on the changes coming in my local church, and especially focus on some evangelism stuff I'm working to begin soon.  Sorry it's taking so long, but it's been a nutty last few weeks.  Maybe I'll blog on the nuttiness as well.  Might be therapeutic for me.

"Alcohol, Acts 29 and the Missouri Baptist Convention" is a bunch of information put out by some Missouri Baptists that has finally proven, without question, that some people will never get it because they spend all their time trying to get worked up over extra-biblical issues.  It's actually a very funny read for those of us who see how ridiculous it all is.

In Timothy Keller news, the Washington Post's Michael Gerson has a review of The Reason for God.  It's a good one.  USA Today quotes Keller, Driscoll and others on "Has the 'Notion of Sin' Been Lost?" (via Stet)

"Parks and squares aren't a luxury, but an essential feature of the urban infrastructure."

Bob Franquiz is looking to only work 4 hours a week.  I've perused the book, and it looks interesting enough.

Speaking of books, how about the 2008 Christianity Today Book Awards.  I picked up the "The Church/Pastoral Leadership" category winner The Call to Joy & Pain by Ajith Fernando at last year's Desiring God Conference.  I like Ajith's writings and the topic was intriguing.  It got buried in a stack of books, but is back on my "to read" shelf.

This looks VERY interesting to me: The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas With Pictures.

The top 80 church websites (because 80 is a nice round number). :)

Oh that more of us would do what they are doing in Austin for city-wide church planting.

It won't be Longfellow until National Poetry Month.  It's my Gioia to blog on poetry every April.  Keats your eyes open for more very soon.

Lots-o-Links 3.2.08

Quick God Story: My family is still sick, sick, sick.  Unbelievable virus we are dealing with.  We were all feeling better and now most of us are getting symptoms back.  Our youngest now has 103+ temp again.  Ugh.  But all praise to God for this story.  Saturday afternoon my debilitating fever and aches stopped and I had tons of energy Saturday night and plenty for the task this morning.  I mean I went from the worst day so far on Saturday morning, and then full of energy and vigor Saturday evening.  Then soon after gathered worship today my fever came back as did my aches and terrible cough (I didn't cough once during the sermon).  There may be some medical explanation for why I had such a dramatic health hiccup, but I know WHO is getting the credit.  I was truly singing this morning, "How Great is Our God."

Speaking of how sick I am, it would really help me turn this frown upside-down if someone would present me something this awesome with Joe Thorn's likeness on it.  It would make my year! (HT)

When was the last time you wondered how Michael Foster would approach church planting differently?  Exactly.  And he promises to elaborate.  I'm demanding he gets on it asap.

You need to make your way to the Vintage Jesus Newsroom, where Steve Camp goes for his devotional time.

Poythress, The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses, online free.

PastorHacks is into Jott (and Pinger).  I've been using Jott for a while now with great success and productivity.  I think Joe Thorn told me about Jott (I had to say that because he will speak harshly to me this week if I don't mention it.  I don't like it when Hobbits get mean, especially when I'm sick.).

I may have mentioned this before, but Piper/Bethlehem's accountability stuff is worth checking out. 

You should check out Abraham Piper's crazy little experiment of a blog.  Alas, he is his father's son.  (Only four more words.)

Speaking of numbers, Baptist Reformed types will probably not like Scot McKnight's new article, "The 8 Marks of a Robust Gospel."  Why?  It's one short.  I actually haven't read it yet, but McKnight is always worth reading (even when tragically wrong!).  No heckling me please.  I'm sick.

Here's Eugene Peterson at the 2007 Writer's Symposium by the Sea (isn't that where George McFly first kissed that chick from Howard the Duck?).  The story he tells about Bono is worth the whole thing.  (HT)

Lots-o-Links 1.31.08

Doug Wilson on how friendship evangelism is really about your money and material possessions...

Friendship evangelism rests upon generosity, sacrifice, kindness, openness, hospitality, goodness, and open-handedness. That is to be the texture of your life, and non-believers are welcome to come along with you. In short, is your evangelism giving or taking? Are you a benefactor or a salesman?

Alex Chediak is working through a pre-publication copy of Tim Keller's new book, The Reason for God.  (Amazon)

Steve Ogne on mobilizing leaders (from GCA conference).

Whiteboard Sessions website is up.

Mike Cosper is Worship and Arts Pastor at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY.  In 2006 Mike gave Acts 29 talks on "Missional Strategies for the Arts."  Both messages are here.

Mark Batterson - Four Dimensions of Courage.

Timmy Brister interviews Mark Dever on Richard Sibbs.

I've been looking forward to Son of Rambow for over a year now.  It's finally coming out in May.  Here's the trailer...

Lots-o-Links 11.15.07

Me and a certain pastor friend are going to see this tomorrow.  I'm pumped! 

-Bob Hyatt is good reading, as usual.  80-20 and the Organic Church Part 1 and Part 2
-Harry Potter as "Shared Text"
-Seth Godin's "Unleashing Your Ideavirus" (Part 1 and Part 2) was an excellent and thought-provoking read.  It's not very new (2000), but it was good.  More Godin here.
-I really dig this creative photography of kids.
-Must reading for those mashing the Thanksgiving potatoes.

Challenging Pleasures vs Easy Comforts

Dana Gioia, American poet and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, delivered the commencement address at Stanford in June.  Here's an excerpt, but you should read the whole thing...

Marcus Aurelius believed that the course of wisdom consisted of learning to trade easy pleasures for more complex and challenging ones. I worry about a culture that bit by bit trades off the challenging pleasures of art for the easy comforts of entertainment. And that is exactly what is happening—not just in the media, but in our schools and civic life.

Entertainment promises us a predictable pleasure—humor, thrills, emotional titillation, or even the odd delight of being vicariously terrified. It exploits and manipulates who we are rather than challenges us with a vision of who we might become. A child who spends a month mastering Halo or NBA Live on Xbox has not been awakened and transformed the way that child would be spending the time rehearsing a play or learning to draw.

[...]

Art is an irreplaceable way of understanding and expressing the world—equal to but distinct from scientific and conceptual methods. Art addresses us in the fullness of our being—simultaneously speaking to our intellect, emotions, intuition, imagination, memory, and physical senses. There are some truths about life that can be expressed only as stories, or songs, or images.

Art delights, instructs, consoles. It educates our emotions. And it remembers. As Robert Frost once said about poetry, "It is a way of remembering that which it would impoverish us to forget." Art awakens, enlarges, refines, and restores our humanity. You don't outgrow art. The same work can mean something different at each stage of your life. A good book changes as you change.

(HT: BHT)

New Billy Collins Animated Poetry

Good news.  I've just heard that some new Billy Collins Animated Poetry (older stuff linked here) should be online in the next month. You should subscribe to JWTNY at YouTube in order to get an update when the new stuff goes up.

Here's the newest put up last week, "The Country."

National Poetry Month Posts

Since April is over I thought it might be helpful to list all of my National Poetry Month posts for your convenience.

It's National Poetry Month!
Mom and The Lanyard
Can Poetry Matter?
Poetry Quotes
Men and Poetry
What is Poetry?
Billy Collins, Animation
National Poetry Map
Billy Collins Poetry Reading
On Reading American Poetry
A Few Poems
On Writing Poetry

Let me also add the podcasts that I failed to mention.  I listen to some writing and poetry podcasts worth looking up: Writers on Writing, Poetcast from poets.org, Writer's Almanac from Garrison Keillor, and Poem Present.

NPM: On Writing Poetry

Poets.org has a nice page of essays on writing poetry and the writing life. 

What advice can you get from Edgar Allen Poe or Ralph Waldo Emerson?  What do rhyme, meter, metaphor, elision, and free verse mean?  What is a haiku, a limerick, or a sonnet?  Check these resources out.

NPM: A Few Poems

A few poems to continue with National Poetry Month.

Czeslaw Milosz (found in)

"A Confession" (via)

My Lord, I loved strawberry jam
And the dark sweetness of a woman's body.
Also well-chilled vodka, herring in olive oil,
Scents, of cinnamon, of cloves.
So what kind of prophet am I? Why should the spirit
Have visited such a man? Many others
Were justly called, and trustworthy.
Who would have trusted me? For they saw
How I empty glasses, throw myself on food,
And glance greedily at the waitress's neck.
Flawed and aware of it. Desiring greatness,
Able to recognize greatness wherever it is,
And yet not quite, only in part, clairvoyant,
I knew what was left for smaller men like me:
A feast of brief hopes, a rally of the proud,
A tournament of hunchbacks, literature.

Translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Hass. 

Haiku from Billy Collins (first two via, third via, found in)

Mid-winter evening,
alone at a sushi bar—
just me and this eel.

Awake in the dark—
so that is how rain sounds
on a magnolia.

Moon in the window—
the same as it was before
there was a window.

Robert Frost

"The Road Not Taken" (via - with audio, found in)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

NPM: On Reading American Poetry

On Thursday during the question and answer time with Billy Collins he gave some great insight and advice on poetry.  I thought his comment on reading American poetry was worth repeating.

87% of American poetry is not worth reading.

Wow. 

NPM: Billy Collins Poetry Reading

It's not everyday a world renowned poet, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, and the author of the poem you read at your Mom's funeral comes to your hometown.  So I just had to go see Billy Collins (via poets.org, bigsnap.com, bestcigarette.us) author of "The Lanyard," when he came to Woodstock today. 

We didn't know he was coming until a few days after Mom's funeral.  So I immediately contacted the Woodstock Opera House for tickets and learned they were sold out.  That was disappointing.  But I talked to a friend and Opera House employee about it and he called the next day with the news that some tickets opened up.  We picked up two.

This morning we dropped off the two youngest at a friend/church member's house and went to see Billy Collins.  He read poems for about an hour: a sonnet or two, a handful of haiku, and the rest his typical, informal-style poetry.  He was funny, thoughtful, and engaging.  The crowd clapped and laughed, and even gasped at insightful lines.  It was brilliant, just brilliant.  I can't believe anyone can think poetry is over their head if it comes from Billy Collins. 

I have three of his books and wanted them signed, so I got in line and met Billy Collins.  I told him I read "The Lanyard" at my Mom's funeral.  The lady next to him (I don't think I've ever met her before) said something like, "Are you the guy with the Woodstock blog?  I was telling Billy about what you said on your blog."  How cool is that?  He was very personable and showed real concern.  He asked how well I got through the poem, you know, without crying.  I told him I did fine.  So then he signed my three books, including just above "The Lanyard" poem, and then we posed for a photo via my hot wife.  He said the photo would probably end up on the blog.  He was right. 

I think Billy Collins has become my favorite living poet.  Watch his animated poetry, buy his books, listen to his live readings, or attend a live reading.  Here's a big archive of Billy reading poems.  I think you may just learn to love poetry, or love it even more.

NPM: National Poetry Map

Man, this is so cool.  Poets.org has a National Poetry Map so you can click on a state and find out about local poets and poetry, the state Poet laureate, literary organizations, poetry friendly bookstores, writers conferences, etc.  For example, when I click on Illinois I find out that Li Young Lee is one of our local Chicago poets (already knew that) and that Kevin Stein is our Illinois Poet laureate (didn't know that).

This is a great resource for finding local stuff as well as expanding your horizons.  The more I use Poets.org, follow their RSS feed, and listen to their Poetcast (podcast), the more I love this site.  Get on it.

NPM: Billy Collins, Animation

These Billy Collins action poetry videos are just fantastic.  Brilliant.  He is the dude who wrote "The Lanyard" and is speaking at the Opera House here in Woodstock on Thursday.  My wife and I have tickets.  Enjoy these wonderful short videos.  (Videos not available to embed are "Men in Space," "No Time," "Today" and "The Country."
.

NPM: What is Poetry?

The spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling recollected in tranquility. –William Wordsworth

The art of doing by means of words what the painter does by means of colors. –Thomas Macaulay

What ideas feel like. –Karl Shapiro

The art that offers depth in a moment. –Molly Peacock

Memorable speech. –W.H. Auden

Perfection of form united with a significance of feeling. –T.S. Eliot

Poetry essentially is figurative language, concentrated so that its form is both expressive and evocative. --Harold Bloom in The Best Poems of the English Language

This, I believe is the ultimate direction and goal of poetry, metaphor, and symbol—to express what is inexpressible, to fuse together what still remains separate. --Robert Siegel, The Christian Imagination, 351

NPM: Men and Poetry

If you are interested in taking online poetry writing classes, you may want to look at Zarafa Tutorials.  I haven't used them, but like where they are coming from.  They link to Douglas Jones' interesting, short article "Men Hate Poetry."

...if you hate poetry or don't have the time or are just indifferent, consider that this might be symptomatic of some deep failure in you instead of in the poetry. And then, don't just admit to the failure and go on hanging your head. Hunt for beauty. Track it down. A passion for beauty certainly is characteristic of those great men in the past whose lives were characterized as after God's own heart. Remember David's psalms and Beowulf's celebrations, full of life and faithfulness.

I also recommend looking at the articles on poetry over at Credenda Agenda (where Jones' article is published).  If you search for poetry on their site, you get many articles.  Check them out. 

NPM: Poetry Quotes

Some quotes about poetry (and art) from The Christian Imagination (which happens to be a fantastic book of essays on the "practice of faith in literature and writing").  These are quotes in the book, not quotes from the book.

The poet's job is not to tell you what happened, but what happens: not what did take place but the kind of thing that always does take place. --Northrop Frye, The Educated Imagination

The poet is not a man who asks me to look at him; he is a man who says "look at that" and points.  --C.S. Lewis, The Personal Heresy

It is the function of all art to give us some perception of an order in life, by imposing an order upon it. --T.S. Eliot, On Poetry and Poets

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul. --George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah

A poem is the very image of life expressed in its eternal truth. --Percy B. Shelley, A Defense of Poetry

Reading poetry gives experiences there is no other way to have.  It gives them quickly, suddenly, just about whenever we want.  --Kenneth Koch, Making Your Own Days: The Pleasures of Reading and Writing Poetry

Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another.... We like to talk in parables and in hints and in indirections.  --Robert Frost, "Education in Poetry"

Podcasts I Enjoy

Here are podcasts I enjoy, listed by category.  I hope you might find some of them helpful for you.  I'm leaving off my poetry podcasts for another post.

Ministry/Theology

Audition (Mars Hill Audio): Ken Myers in an NPR style commentary on culture and Christianity through Myers' commentary and interviews.  This is a free spin-off of the Mars Hill Audio commentaries. 

Catalyst: Covers both church leadership issues and cultural issues through interviewing Christian leaders, authors, pastors, etc.  I really enjoy the Catalyst podcast, though I find myself skipping the first several minutes of pre-interview conversation about Catalyst Conference stuff and other random bits.  The interview is the meat, and it's consistently thoughtful and engaging. 

Church Leader Insights: Pastors Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas of The Journey Church in NYC talking together about church leadership, church growth, church planting, systems, evangelism, etc.  A lot of info of what has and hasn't worked for them.  I always come away with insights for pastoring and ministry, even if you don't approach ministry in quite the same way as these guys.

Covenant Worldwide: At least 15 free seminary classes are available on the topics of biblical theology, OT and NT, apologetics and outreach, the Reformation, life and letters of Paul, and more.  What the heck are you waiting for?

Fermi Project: Discussions with leaders on culture, the future, the Church and the Gospel.  It's hosted by Catalyst guys Gabe Lyons and Andy Crouch.  It's only on episode three, but I've enjoyed it tremendously so far.  A great, concise podcast.

Internet Monk Radio: Michael Spencer's thoughts on theology, ministry, his critics, yadda.  The worst aspect of this podcast is his love affair for the Cincinnati Reds.  Yuck.  But if you can get past that, Spencer can often deliver thoughtful insights on a variety of issues.  Warning: If you don't know Spencer and his online writings, some of this won't make much sense.  It's for the devoted.

National New Church Conference:  Interviews with conference speakers dealing with church and church planting.  Have learned a lot from this podcast and highly recommend it for church leaders.

Practically Speaking: North Point boys (Andy Stanley, et al) on the Seven Practices of Effective Ministry.  It's a "dead" podcast in that there are no new episodes, but their seven podcasts I have found very helpful as a pastor.  I've listened to them more than once, and will listen again.

Resurgence: Mark Driscoll's missional resource that includes talks from various conferences and lectures pertaining to ministry and theology.  Lots of good stuff here.

Movies

Filmspotting: A weekly podcast from Chicago featuring new movie reviews, top 5 lists, interviews and insightful film talk with Adam Kempenaar and Sam Van Hallgren. It's also found on Chicago Public Radio.  Ugh, this is a great podcast.  The best movie podcast I know of.  Even when I disagree with a particular take on a movie, which isn't often, these guys are still compelling in their arguments.  Worth every second.

Music

KEXP Live Performances: In-studio concerts at KEXP for all to hear.  I've found some great new stuff from this podcast.

KEXP Song of the Day: Live performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent musicians that KEXP thinks listeners should hear along with songs from more well-known artists.  Why not?

Introductions to newer bands and/or new albums through a free song.

NPR All Songs Considered: An eclectic mix of fresh music by emerging artists and breakout bands -- from NPR.org's Web-only music show.   Good stuff.

Paste Culture Club: A wonderful music magazine's podcast.  Always a treat.

Preaching

Capitol Hill Baptist: Pastor Mark Dever is one of the most important living Southern Baptist pastors/preachers, and a pastor who I have had a chance to talk with a bit.  He has seen a remarkable change over the years of his church in D.C.  Dever is obsessively expository in his approach.  If you want to know the Bible, this is a great way to digest it.  Dever is also well known for tackling very large sections of text, including single sermons on entire books of the Bible.

Cornerstone Simi: Pastor Francis Chan is fairly new on my radar, but I have enjoyed what I have heard so far.

The Journey - St. Louis: Pastor Darrin Patrick is a friend and has seen some great things happen after planting in St. Louis.  A good preacher, and a young leader worth watching.

Mars Hill Church, Grand Rapids: Pastor Rob Bell is a controversial writer and speaker in the emerging church movement.  I find him very engaging and biblical, though we would surely differ at points.  He challenges me with living the Gospel.

Mars Hill Church, Seattle: Pastor Mark Driscoll is a different sort of controversial writer and speaker in the emerging church movement.  He has been very influential in my ministry and life.

Village Church: Pastor Matt Chandler is SBC, Acts 29, and one of the best young preachers I've heard.  Probably my favorite younger preacher to listen to over the last few months.  Some people trip over a few of his stylistic traits at first, but please persist and you will find so much worth hearing. 

Miscellaneous

This American Life: Ira Glass hosts this show of first-person stories and short fiction pieces that are touching, funny and surprising.  An amazing show that takes a topic and surrounds it with pertinent stories.

Fresh Air (for Joe, "frosshhaar"): Terry Gross hosts this daily take on contemporary arts and issues.  Good stuff on politics, faith, entertainment, etc.  (Please no emails on her political POV, as if I don't know.)  A great show nearly every day.

Writers on Writing: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett hosts this weekly show on the art and business of writing.  She interviews authors, poets, literary agents, etc.  A staple in my life.  Great insights through great interviews.

NPM: Can Poetry Matter?

I thought it would be on topic this National Poetry Month to mention that I read "The Lanyard" at my Mom's funeral.  My brother said he hadn't cried all week until I read that poem.  Something to think about concerning how poetry can matter in life, and death.

Dana Gioia's essay, "Can Poetry Matter?" (originally published in 1991, also found in his book Can Poetry Matter?) is must reading on this subject.  His concern is that poetry now belongs in a subculture in America and has been lost from "the mainstream of artistic and intellectual life."

It is time to experiment, time to leave the well-ordered but stuffy classroom, time to restore a vulgar vitality to poetry and unleash the energy now trapped in the subculture. There is nothing to lose. Society has already told us that poetry is dead. Let's build a funeral pyre out of the desiccated conventions piled around us and watch the ancient, spangle-feathered, unkillable phoenix rise from the ashes.

One of my all-time favorite poems is by a famous writer of frontier/adventure novels, Louis L'Amour.  "An Ember in the Dark" is found in his book of poetry, Smoke From This Altar. 

An Ember in the Dark by Louis L'Amour

Faintly, along the shadowed shores of night
I saw a wilderness of stars that flamed
And fluttered as they climbed or sank, and shamed
The crouching dark with shyly twinkling light;
I saw them there, odd fragments quaintly bright,
And wondered at their presence there unclaimed,
Then thought, perhaps, that they were dreams unnamed,
That faded slow, like hope's arrested flight.

Or vanished suddenly, like futile fears--
And some were old and worn like precious things
That youth preserves against encroaching years--
Some disappeared like songs that no man sings,
    But one remained--an ember in the dark--
    I crouched alone, and blew upon the spark

NPM: Mom & The Lanyard

Another poem for National Poetry Month.  I've posted this poem before, but I find it timely and beautiful.  My Mom is nearing the end of her life (at 59).  Cancer.  We are headed to see her today, not knowing how many hours, days she might have left.

"The Lanyard" by Billy Collins (first heard on NPR)

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.        

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

It's National Poetry Month!

April is National Poetry Month and I hope to provide a number of posts this month with some good poems, links, and encouragement to make poetry a regular part of your diet.  I'll have some stuff for aspiring poets as well. 

A few quick links to start off the month.

A lot of great stuff on NPM from Poets.org.
Receive a poem a day in your inbox this month.
Scholastic gives some helpful links for teachers.
Charles Bernstein says he is Against National Poetry Month, As Such.

Listen to W.H. Auden (died 1973) read his poem First Things First. (bio, wikipedia)

The Next Poem by Dana Gioia (link)

How much better it seems now
than when it is finally done–
the unforgettable first line,
the cunning way the stanzas run.

The rhymes soft-spoken and suggestive
are barely audible at first,
an appetite not yet acknowledged
like the inkling of a thirst.

While gradually the form appears
as each line is coaxed aloud–
the architecture of a room
seen from the middle of a crowd.

The music that of common speech
but slanted so that each detail
sounds unexpected as a sharp
inserted in a simple scale.

No jumble box of imagery
dumped glumly in the reader's lap
or elegantly packaged junk
the unsuspecting must unwrap.

But words that could direct a friend
precisely to an unknown place,
those few unshakeable details
that no confusion can erase.

And the real subject left unspoken
but unmistakable to those
who don't expect a jungle parrot
in the black and white of prose.

How much better it seems now
than when it is finally written.
How hungrily one waits to feel
the bright lure seized, the old hook bitten.

Christianity and the Creative Age

It will cost you a few bucks, but if you want to understand art and "cultural creatives" you should get Tim Keller's message "Christianity and the Creative Age."  This is a lecture given for the Redeemer InterArts Fellowship in September 2006.  The Redeemer InterArts Fellowship is "for anyone working in (or interested in) the fine or performing arts, design, media, or entertainment." 

This lecture is helpful on consumerism, art & artists, the city, creativity and relationships.  It's particularly helpful for pastors desiring to encourage a biblical view of the arts and, obviously, artists.

Faith & Work

If I haven't linked to it before, check out the Redeemer Center for Faith and Work (yes, of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC, Tim Keller, etc).

The Lanyard

Billy Collins is a former Poet Laureate of the U.S. and creator of Poetry 180.  I heard an interview of him on some podcast, I think.  Maybe this one.  He read his poem, "The Lanyard."  I think it's brilliant and wanted to share it here. 

"The Lanyard" by Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.        

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

Saturday Selections

I'm getting a lot of hits from Spero News.

Have you been listening to Ken Myers' podcast from Mars Hill Audio?  It's called Audition, and it's a great free resource for provoking thoughts on theology & culture.  And if you don't subscribe to Mars Hill Audio, I recommend it.  At least get a free sample issue to try.  It's a key resource for stretching me beyond my current intellectual boundaries.

I've gotten through part of the Book TV discussion with Andrew Sullivan and David Brooks.  The conversation focused on Sullivan's new book The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How We Can Get It Back.  I originally caught some of the end of the show on TV.  It is intriguing concerning political conservatives and evangelicals.  You can also get at least some (maybe all?) of the video at YouTube, which has worked better for me than the Book TV video.  Al Mohler just had Sullivan on his radio show as well.

Speaking of evangelicals and the political world, I'm very interested in the recent comments of David Kuo, who is currently a columnist at Beliefnet.  Kuo served as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and has written the new book  Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction.  I just bought the book and look forward to reading it in the next couple of weeks. I was introduced to Kuo by watching Charlie Rose's interview a couple of nights ago.  Here's the Google Video of the program, and the Kuo interview begins at around the 35 minute mark.  Justin Taylor points to the Books & Culture review of Tempting Faith.

I'm already tired of the online discussion about Ted Haggard, and find Stephen Shield's post on the matter very helpful.  Mark Driscoll's good advice in his post on the subject are must reading, though nothing profoundly new (a typical sign of most good advice).

The late Mitch Hedberg has some important thoughts for us as Thanksgiving approaches.

I don't listen to country music, but the new CD by Alan Jackson is really good.  It's called Like Red On A Rose. 

I'm finishing up preaching Colossians this Sunday.  I've enjoyed N.T. Wright's commentary (TNTC) the most.  Then I'm taking two Sundays off for vacation and a planning retreat.  Tim Etherington will be preaching for me from Jude.

Suburban Christian: Creativity

The opposite of consumption is production.  It takes far more time and energy to create something than to consume something.  It takes a novelist a year to write a book that someone can read in a few days.  A cast and crew of thousands spend years to create a film that will be viewed in two hours.  Often our only recreational activities are actions of consumption.  What an alternative it is, then, to rediscover the wonder and delight of creativity.

Albert Hsu in The Suburban Christian, page 87.

Art That Means Something

To mean something, anything, art must provide a specific sense of where you are and where you have been, of your particular take on the larger history of which you, willingly or not, form a part.

Gordon Theisen in Staying Up Much Too Late, page 21.

Artist Community at The Journey

A couple of weeks ago I was perusing the website of The Journey Church in St. Louis, where Darrin Patrick pastors.  They had a video up that was produced by their community of artists in the church.  Brilliant idea.  But I couldn't find an easy way to link it, until now.  Here's the link to "Sacrifice."  Check it out. 

If you go to the church website, a popup video is linked on the front page.  It's the same thing, a little smaller, and a little better quality.

Lost Art

I encourage you to read "The Importance of Art When Engaging Non-Believers" by David Fairchild.  Helpful.  A blurb...

Since art is both enjoyable and educating, and communicates a message about itself and about the world that it was created in, we should pray that more and more the Christian community will see the need to engage the arts as the primary way to speak intelligently and truthfully to those who are made in God’s image.

The Resurgence of Resurgence

From Mark Driscoll...

The elders at Mars Hill Church, which I founded in 1996, have always been a big-hearted, kingdom-minded team of godly men who have given over 10 percent of our general budget to help church planters since our inception. Now, they have also agreed to give even more money to serve the greater church by launching The Resurgence ministry. This includes paying for the development of a massive website that will include thousands of free articles, audio and video podcasts, film reviews, music reviews, book reviews, and more. It also includes freeing up one of our elders, Gary Shavey, to serve as director of The Resurgence, and recently hiring Jon Krombein as the full-time content manager for the forthcoming website.

To kick The Resurgence off with a bang, we will launch the new website this spring, Zondervan will release my next book Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church in early May, and we will be hosting the Reform & Resurge Conference 2006 at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Below I’ll introduce each of the main speakers and give some reasons why you will not want to miss this event.

Planned Tallest Building in the U.S.

The nations new tallest building will be in Chicago.  This isn't new news, but the details are coming out and changes are being made.  Here's a great Tribune article on the residential twisting tower being planned by Zurich-based architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava.  The plan has been approved by the Chicago Plan Commission and it should be built by around 2010.  I believe the pic at the right is the pre-approved version and it will be slightly different, but not too much.

The design for the $550 million tower, which was breathtaking but hardly flawless when it was introduced last July, has taken some important steps forward, both in the sky and along the ground. Now here's the trend part of the story: If this tower and Jeanne Gang's sensuous Aqua high-rise both get built, Chicago will be running a clinic in the new aesthetic possibilities offered by skyscrapers that are places to live rather than work.

Dana Gioia Audio: Artists as Reconcilers

Dana Gioia (a guy) is one of my favorite living poets.  He spent 15 years in business, eventually becoming a Vice President of General Foods.  He would write at night and on weekends until he left business in the early 90's to be a full-time writer.  I've been reading him for a couple of years.  I think anyone even remotely interested in the arts and the work of redemption should read his fantastic essay "Can Poetry Matter?".  You can find several of Gioia's poems online as well.

Gioia was a speaker at the February IAM (International Arts Movement) conference, Artists as Reconcilers.  You can find his keynote address for free on iTunes.  Just search for "Artists as Reconcilers" and you will get their podcast.  If you become a member of IAM for $40 a year you will have access in a few weeks to all the conference talks from Dr. Miroslav Volf, Nancy Pearcey, Betty Spackman, Rev. Ian Cron, Rev. Tom Pike, and Makoto Fujimura (the founder of IAM).

Sidewalk Chalk

This sidewalk chalk art is unbelievable.  More here.  A must see.

(HT:JT)

About A.R.T.

Makoto Fujimura, the founder of IAM (International Arts Movement) in NYC which is connected to the ministry of Tim Keller, is writing a series of essays on art called "A.R.T.: Awareness, Reconciliation and Transformation."  His first essay, "About A.R.T." is available on his blog, Refractions.  Other essays will only be available initially to members of IAM.  Here's a blurb...

After the success of Lord of the Rings, and now Narnia, we desire for more Lewises and Tolkiens to come out. These creative resources are not birthed out of a vacuum, but over generations of commitment to nurture and value creativity. The church has been mostly reluctant to take the lead in cultural production, fearful that those who enter Babylon will come out tainted by her, unable to speak for her values. And since there is still a vacuum in culture that the church abdicated to general culture, even if we desire more Tolkiens and Lewis, the church, in her present status, will be the first to reject them as misfits.

In order to have meaningful dialogue in this condition, we Christians must reevaluate our definition of creativity and art. On one hand, Biblical literalists and separatists (such as the “Left Behind” authors) may insist on that all of what is discussed in art must be literal interpretation of Christian stories, an approach which forbids certain art to exist at all. On the other we have secular purists who desire art to be left alone to the “good” desires of our hearts, self reliant and (in most cases) necessarily alienated from society. My approach in A.R.T. is neither of these routes. In order to lead, and teach our children to lead, Twenty First Century with creativity, we must speak in to our culture to value art and steward her with proper boundaries, and lead with a sense of responsibility. At the same time, we must realize that art is neither a mere tool to be used for ours or other ideologies. A.R.T. must ask deeper questions: what I have began to call “a five hundred year questions.” What we create matters: all art products cast their vision of what the artist consciously or unconsciously desire for the world to become. We are, and will become, what we imagine: and if we do not understand both the power and the danger of our imaginative powers, we will not begin to birth meaningful, and hopeful works of inspiration.

Slowness: Among Trees

I'm planning a series of posts on the art and importance of slowness.  Here's a poem worthy of meditation.

The opening poem from A Timbered Choir by Wendell Berry

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
Where I left them, asleep like cattle.

Then what is afraid of me comes
And lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
And the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.

Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
And the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.

After days of labor,
Mute in my consternations,
I hear my song at last,
And I sing it. As we sing,
The day turns, the trees move.

Mad World

Beautiful commercial for Banana Republic.

(HT: Joe Thorn)

Makoto Fujimura

Philip Ryken is pastor of Tenth Presbyterian in Philadelphia, the author of several books and contributor to the Reformation21 Blog.  Today he points to the blog of a NYC artist Makoto Fujimura which has some good essays and art.

I first heard of Fujimura through the International Arts Movement (IAM) where he is director and founder.  There is an interesting interview with him on the IAM site as well.

The Sign Guy

Joe Thorn and I were in downtown Chicago yesterday.  We took a short drive to a unique shopping area and saw this guy.  We couldn't stop laughing.

Poetry: Brain Food

Good article on the goodness of poetry for deep thinking.  We need to read more poetry.

Just a couple of poet suggestions (all guys, sorry): Dana Gioia, Wendell Berry, Ted Kooser, and Li-Young Lee.

Words
by Dana Gioia

The world does not need words. It articulates itself
in sunlight, leaves, and shadows. The stones on the path
are no less real for lying uncatalogued and uncounted.
The fluent leaves speak only the dialect of pure being.
The kiss is still fully itself though no words were spoken.       

And one word transforms it into something less or other—
illicit, chaste, perfunctory, conjugal, covert.
Even calling it a kiss betrays the fluster of hands
glancing the skin or gripping a shoulder, the slow
arching of neck or knee, the silent touching of tongues.

Yet the stones remain less real to those who cannot
name them, or read the mute syllables graven in silica.
To see a red stone is less than seeing it as jasper—
metamorphic quartz, cousin to the flint the Kiowa
carved as arrowheads. To name is to know and remember.

The sunlight needs no praise piercing the rainclouds,
painting the rocks and leaves with light, then dissolving
each lucent droplet back into the clouds that engendered it.
The daylight needs no praise, and so we praise it always—
greater than ourselves and all the airy words we summon.

- from Interrogations at Noon