DiaBLOGue

Snowfall at Glenflesk

The hush that sheathes the road is sure and slow. 
My lights suspend a galaxy of flakes: 
The silence is as haunted as the snow. 

“A Song for One Still Voice”: Hymn of Affirmation

Christian doctrine, from Paul’s injunction, “Mortify the deeds of the body” (Rom. 8:13), to King Benjamin’s declarative, “The natural man is an enemy to God” (Mosiah 3:19), teaches the death of the natural man, the…

The Mormon Conference Talk as Patriarchal Discourse

Everything means something. When I write a list of food names on a long, narrow sheet of paper, not only the words themselves but the form in which they are written indicate this is a…

During Recess

Spring sneaked into town while court convened. 
One noon, I walk from my office to my 
old neighborhood and find it well-kept. 
The ditch I’d hurtle galloping home 
from school has been curbed and guttered. 

sonnet on life’s dangers

cop and father, he cautioned us of more 
than boogeymen and fire, in case of snakes, 
freeze where you are, same for skunks and por-
cupines, brave enough to tromp on cracks, 

Juanita Brooks, My Subject, My Sister

I have recently finished writing a biography of Juanita Brooks. The fame of this Mormon housewife and teacher from Utah’s Dixie resides in the definitive books she authored about the Mountain Meadows massacre and its…