I was looking through some old books and found a couple of pages of songwriting notes from many years ago. As I read over them, I was taken by this phrase: the syntax of the cynic. I picked up the phrase and here is what I found. watch your language In the grammar of grace,Love…

Early Saturday afternoon, after we had spent the morning unpacking the last of the boxes from our move (last August), Ginger and I slipped out of the house for lunch together at a new Cuban sandwich shop that opened only last Thursday in downtown Durham called Old Havana. I had scouted it out on opening…

I was reading this morning in a small volume of poetry I have had for years called Poems to Live By: In Uncertain Times and found some words worth sharing today. First, from Robert Bly: Things to Think Think in ways you’ve never thought before.If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a messageLarger…

Over the past several weeks, I’ve accumulated some new music — either in actuality or by listening and watching online — so I thought I would pass a few of the gems along since I haven’t done that in awhile. I’ll start with the newest: The Decemberists and “Rise to Me” from their new CD,…

I talked to one guy todaywho got tired of constructionand “making the wrong people rich,” which was as far as he got before another, who used to work with an autistic kid, asked for help –we were cooking breakfasttogether for folks at the shelterwho stood single file for sausage, oatmeal, and eggs. As they took…

The assignment for my kids yesterday was to write for ten minutes about the word “explore.” I did the assignment as well. to explore — to go where Ihave not gone before — is to follow the                        footprints                                 mindprints                                           heartprintsof others who dreamed before me and wandered off . . . (wondered?)…

The title is not mine, nor is the poem that follows. A friend posted this video animation interpretation of a poem by a poet and teacher named Taylor Mali, which led me to his website and there I found this poem, which is one of those he-said-what-I-feel-and-I-want-to-give-him-credit-for-it kind of things. (An epithalamion, by the way,…

This morning I went to Watts Street Baptist Church to hear Tim Tyson preach on “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr: Black Power and the Religion of Jesus.” He rocked and I will have more to say about what I learned in another post (or two). But tonight I want to share the MLK quotes included…

Many years ago, my friend Billy Crockett and I read an article about a ship captain who, with his crew, abandoned ship when it began to sink, leaving the passengers on board. The story led us to the song title, “Down With the Ship,” which ended up being a song about Martin Luther King. Now…