I guess it is safe to say that my making soup for the carolers before they go out to sing on the Second Sunday of Advent is a tradition, since I have now done it for three Advents. I had recipes for two of the soups I made: Pumpkin Corn Chowder and Uncle Milty’s Guinness…
This summer, Blazing Fresh Donuts opened across the street from our house. They make the donuts to order. They drop the batter when you get to the counter and then you get to choose a glaze and any number of toppings and drizzles. The maple-bacon-pretzel donut is one of my creations, along with the chocolate-graham…
As we finish the first week of Advent, it feels like a good time to offer some music for the journey. All of the songs are covers, that is they are songs recorded by someone other than the songwriter. I hope these songs offer some warmth and light for the journey. The first is Sara…
I have a growing list of words and phrases I have collected from things I have read and heard. I am hoping to use them as kindling for a poetry book. Tonight, I offer one of the poems to you. The inciting phrase is “the compliment of your curiosity.” Here is what it set to…
I had to go to New York two days in a row this week, which meant the long night was short for me and rode the train both ways in the dark. Winter in the Northeast is so much fun. As I walked the chilly streets to get to my office building, an old Simon…
nothing matters from my window seat I can see a bench concrete sides holding wooden slats under the tree that has taken a century to grow beyond the telephone pole meet me there with nothing other than a cup of coffee, or a pup leave anything that beeps or vibrates and we will linger with…
People who think poetry has no power have a very limited understanding of what power means.–Christian Wiman If you look up power in the dictionary, the definitions revolve around influence and control, as in the power to make people do what you want. If you look at the way we talk about power these days,…
One of the songs sure to show up over the next few weeks is “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” In our congregation, we sing it to the HYFRODOL tune, which is warm and familiar to me. As long as I have heard the story of Jesus’ birth, it has had expectations attached to it: the people…
On my train ride to Grand Central Station, the penultimate stop is Harlem/125th Street. Once the doors close, it takes about fifteen minutes to go the last eighty blocks to the terminal on 42nd Street. The closer we get, the slower the train goes. Passengers get up, put on coats, and line up in front…
I deactivated my Twitter account last week, in part because I have never been able to fully understand how to use it, but mostly because I think it takes more than 240 characters to communicate well with one another. That our politicians have allowed themselves to use it as their primary means of communication is…