Yahrzeit
March 23, 2018This morning I light red candles
and set them on the sill,
daring the breeze
through an open window
to tease the flames.
DiaBLOGue
A Motherless Son Sings the Blues | Paul Swenson, Iced at the Ward, Burned at the Stake
March 23, 2018Last spring I wrote an essay for the March 2004 AML symposium in which I argued that the most effective poets writing from the LDS culture are those who provide a counterweight to the main…
Not a Coveyesque Self-Help Book | Ronald W. Walker, Qualities That Count: Heber J. Grant as Businessman, Missionary, and Apostle
March 23, 2018Collections of scholarly articles often display their strengths in their parts rather than in their functioning as a unified whole. After all, the structure of such volumes invites readers to pick and choose and, if…
The Province of the Extreme | Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
March 23, 2018Krakauer’s success has come as a writer of narrative nonfiction. He is best known for Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster (New York: Villard,1997). In Under the Banner of Heaven:…
Salvation
March 23, 20183 She held the umbrella close to her head, limiting her vision to the circle of stones at her feet. Anna watched her companion’s hemline bounce in time to the click of her heels against…
The Meadow
March 23, 2018My family and I drove hours one Sunday to see
a meadow in the mountains of Arizona. We stood
behind a split-rail fence. “It’s beautiful,”
my dad said. “It’s for sale. If we had money
we’d buy it.” And we climbed the fence
and wandered that acre of wildflowers and ferns,
ate fried chicken and picked up our litter,
and went home.
At Bay
March 23, 2018There are no waves on the bay side of the peninsula. The tide simply licks up and back, up and back on the sand shore. Beyond the shore, tall sailboats of vivid blues, greens, and…
Eve’s Offering
March 23, 2018Sacred, subtle slavery, the mother’s task
That burden of creation’s holy power.
To love a clot of flesh and never ask
If it deserves its soul at chosen hour.
An Interview with David Sjodahl King
March 23, 2018David S. King has led a life exceptional for its combination of public and ecclesiastical service. His parents were Vera Sjodahl King (1891-1955) and William Henry King (1862-1949), a four-term U.S. Senator from Utah. Born…
Afield
March 23, 2018Just off the highway
in the setting sun
cattle gather on a hill.
My foot lets up