1. The sulfurous flame
sunbeams in corners
lightning like cracked glass
the bulb of an idea
your dark eyes
I direct my thoughts and yours to the I-Thou model of human related ness as it is confirmed or denied in the all-too-human realm of ethnic, national, religious, and ideological differences. Any honest and wide treatment of how we behave in such circumstances is bound to cause some discomfort, since we may recognize ourselves in some of the horrible examples of non-dialogical relatedness.
“Not a day passes over the earth,” Charles Reade wrote, “but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great works and suffer noble sorrow. Of these obscure heroes, the greater part will…
Johns Valley is a high mountain valley about 7,000 feet in elevation, thirty miles long, and twenty wide. You can drive it today, partly on paved road, partly on gravel, starting from Bryce Canyon and…
Parchmental stand aspens,
Paper atrmeble accepts scars,
Words healing standing parchmental
To the north of Salt Lake City, two or three miles from famed Temple Square, an odd, knob-shaped promontory rises above the community of Saint and gentile. Since pioneer times, it has been called Ensign…
The Mormon Battalion reached San Diego in late January 1847 with five and a half months of service remaining in its one-year enlistment. Mustered by the Mormon church at the request of the U.S. government,…
Through Perean hills and Arabian desert,
pacing our journey by the pulsing star,
we come here, finally, to this quiet shelter
that houses the holy—to Bayt al-Lahm.
In November 1831, in a small out-of-the-way community in the Western Reserve of Ohio, known as Hiram, ten ordinary looking men met to discuss an extraordinary circumstance—the publication of a Book of Commandments. This book,…
Dialogue 26.4 (Winter 1993): 1–22
The analysis that follos is an admittedly speculative personal reflection on elements that need to be kept in mind in understanding the psychological dynamics of Joseph Smith’s creativity.