Backward Mutters

  • Wisdom’s Call

    This sonnet is based upon Proverbs 5:7-23 in which Wisdom’s first attribute is loving faithfulness (Proverbs 3:5,6). The loving faithfulness of Wisdom is likened to a young man’s love for his wife. By contrast the young man is warned away from Folly, the adulteress. In the sonnet I make use of Song of…

  • The Good Shepherd

    I think about leadership a good bit from day to day. I probably think about it a bit more in recent days. It helps me to be reminded of the kind of leaders we need and be encouraged by the kind we have. This is a little poetic meditation on…

  • O Emmanuel (God With Us)

    This is the last in a series of sonnets based upon the Advent prayers, “The Great O Antiphons”. “O Emmanuel” is the last in this series of prayers sung in the liturgy before Christmas Eve and makes up for us the title and first line of the Advent hymn, “O…

  • A Gift to Unweary

    This is a sonnet about one of those moments when something barely perceptible comes into your awareness, and you are able to stop and receive it as a gift. https://audioboom.com/boos/5098127-a-gift-to-unweary I can hear something underneath the sound Of the congregational response when I realize you’re humming, and I am unwound;…

  • The More We Shall Have

    C.S. Lewis in his book about love entitled, The Four Loves, writes about the exponential blessing of philia (brotherly love) or “friendship”. In this picture (taken in April 1987) are my friends. Not many have known me longer or more deeply nor have been more patient and enduring. Though I don’t…