The Soul That Hath A Guest

The Soul that hath a Guest
Doth seldom go abroad--
Diviner Crowd at Home--
Obliterate the need--

And Courtesy forbid
A Host's departure when
Upon Himself be visiting
The Emporer of Men--

Emily Dickinson

'Tis When A Value Struggle - It Exist

I'm loving the almost-rhymes in some of Emily Dickinson's poems. Where a perfect rhyme would have lent these a sing-song giddiness, the not-quite-rhymes invite a more contemplative spirit in us.



This Bauble was preferred of Bees -
By Butterflies admired
At Heavenly - Hopeless Distances -
Was justified a Bird -

Did Noon - enamel - in Herself

I Have Not Yet Stopped Shivering

Well, a new decade for us all! 'Tis the season for evaluating our pasts and for making goals for the future. In that spirit, I want to present a couple of "Top Ten" lists.

First, here is the Top Ten list of books that I have read over the past decade. It is not the top ten books written in the past decade, but rather ones that I have read. I'm not so big on reading all the new books, I like to read and re-read books that have timeless authority and that give me a larger vision of life, this world, and God's hand in the lives of his people.

So, without further ado:


10. The Rabbit Proof Fence,

A Page of Prancing Poetry

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any courser like a page
Of prancing poetry.

Poetry and Language

TS Eliot says in THE SACRED WOOD that the purpose of poetry is to teach people how to speak. It is to clarify and clean the language, and the use of it. It is to move language forward. The poetry of today is the language of tomorrow, and it must always be progressing for just as pure water grows stale by being trapped, so language can not sit still without stagnating.

What was crisp and clear in our diction when I was a kid is no longer vivid. It has become stale. So language must always be moving, changing, evolving, disintigrating or growing.