In fall, I try to understand the dying
of so many innocent leaves. The changes
happen imperceptibly, till the once-verdant is carmine
or golden, but such pulsing color is only
prelude to their silent fall to the dark flesh
of life that decayed before them. A nectarine
Paula had the aisle seat. Her younger brother Tony was in the middle, next to Sugar, and the two of them pressed against the window and each other and pointed at cloud formations. Down below…
Few teeth remain in her mouth,
And the mouth exhales rottenness.
I turn my back, my nose.
Still she presses in.
Scattered across the countryside one may observe certain wild animals , male and female, dark, livid and burnt by the sun, attached to the earth which they dig and turn over with invincible stubbornness. However,…
an iguana in our empty pool
his eyes jumping wild
a metal fence around the yard
where naked boys waited outside for food
October 3, 1992, the first day of the 162d semiannual LDS general conference, was the 300th anniversary of the action that finally stopped the Salem witch trials. Those trials, perhaps the greatest blot on American religious devotion, had resulted in the deaths of twenty people, all of whom vigorously proclaimed their innocence to the end.
There are many in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who believe we need a workable definition of religious dissent in order to help make way for more serious debate over its legitimacy…
Jacob and Rachel
But a little way to come to Beth-lehem,
and the pains came hard upon her. She heard,
“Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.”
When I first read Paul Toscano’s jeremiad I thought it was too harsh and angry. But on revisiting it three years later I say, “Yes!” to many of his points; for the ones I quibble…
One of the ironies of my life is that I decided in 1963 to leave the Catholic church as it was becoming more open to join the Mormon church as it was becoming more closed.…