Article Poem | Advice “Every old lady should keep a hatchet handy.” By Wilma Spellman July 13, 2022 Poetry
Article Poem | Superposition of Grief “It is hard to gather / your sadness without spilling more of it” By John Moessner July 13, 2022 Poetry
Forward & Backward On this episode, poet Paul Mariani discusses his Catholic poetry as an act of imagination and remembrance. Poetry Arts
Article ‘Blessed Happenstance’ The poet Ange Mlinko on rhyme, restraint, and roses By Anthony Domestico June 3, 2022 Interview Poetry
Article Books in Brief The editors are reading Harry Crews’ memoir, theology for a fruitful future Church, and poetry from a convert and Commonweal contributor. By The Editors June 1, 2022 Books in Brief Nonfiction Poetry
Article Poem | Nest “Built, some would say by instinct—I saw love, / the flaming care stars lavish on their planets.” By Richard Schiffman May 24, 2022 Poetry
Article Poem | A Devotional Poem “Please God make me strong—please, God, make me brave. / By ‘strong’ I mean steady, steadying, built deep into you.” By E. J. García April 27, 2022 Poetry
Article Poem | A Bough Falls “His match, a splinter of grace, / sparks petals of persistent light / into bloom” By Gary Stein April 26, 2022 Poetry
Article Poem | The Time to Ask Questions Has Passed “A contagious spring reigns in the garden. / Crescendo of purple clouds, lime green leaflets” By Judith Skillman April 26, 2022 Poetry
Article Poem | The Madness of King Charles “One hour / It rains. You take the green way down to daydream” By Spencer Hupp April 25, 2022 Poetry
Article Poem | The Plunge “Even the air over this water is made of / water and salt, the first soil.” By Michael Cadnum April 25, 2022 Poetry
Article The Influence of Anxiety Alejandro Zambra’s work grapples with the fear of coming up short, questions of literary inheritance, and generational anxiety. By Adam Fleming Petty April 19, 2022 Poetry Latin America
Article Poem | Vegetables “I am making / history in the green / exacting plenitude” By Theodore Worozbyt March 30, 2022 Poetry
Article Poem | Tiramisu “My love a tiramisu in the lap of luxury / it makes me happy to see her so” By Stephen Rybicki March 30, 2022 Poetry
Article Poem | Civilize the Sacrifice “She is at home with a hard providence” By Joshua Hren March 30, 2022 Poetry
Article Poem | D., Gardening “One fire further than the one in which we’ve burned” By Christian Wiman March 30, 2022 Poetry
Article Books in Brief The editors read essays about library, about global theology, and poetry about family and grief. By The Editors March 28, 2022 Books in Brief Nonfiction Poetry
Article Poem | The Hermit Returns “The moon shucked off its cryptic gleams, / the rains were only rains again, not drops of manna.” By Richard Schiffman March 2, 2022 Poetry
Article Poem | Hurakan Despacito “The workers clearing rainforest wreckage / from an upper road see clear / to the ocean over downed trees, to a bay / glowing with ancient messages.” By David Skeel March 2, 2022 Poetry
Article Poem | Standing by the Shutters “They can’t go home. They live nowhere / but here. I’d lock them in, if I could, / and tell them this: Don’t stop talking.” By W. S. Di Piero January 26, 2022 Poetry
Article Books in Brief The editors read nonfiction about the role of silence in classical music and the nature of remote work, plus poetry about our changing natural world. By The Editors January 26, 2022 Books in Brief Nonfiction Poetry
Article Poem | Beach Haven, New Jersey “The smashed shells, / stranded weeds, / the bells / of shape-shifting / clouds” By Magda Andrews-Hoke January 26, 2022 Poetry
Article Poem | Rodin’s ‘Adam’ “Life-struck, he’s cast into / the bronze light of first morning. The wild beauty” By John Moessner January 26, 2022 Poetry
Article Two Poems by Brian Swann “Stars sting, flint / fer-de-lance, bloom / like neurons” By Brian Swann January 25, 2022 Poetry
Article Poem | Vow “Guardian angels, / sovereign ghosts, music, gin & tonics / keep me company.” By Drew Calvert January 25, 2022 Poetry
Article Poem | Cave Painting “The land is wide and made of stone. / The horizon is unseen, but also rock. The excited, / fearful cheers, too, are grain / beside grain of lime-stone.” By Michael Cadnum December 21, 2021 Poetry
Article Poem | Salt Domestic presence, staple, / residue of tears, / buoyancy, the rocking buoy / saying to drifting children / here, where I am / you may drop your nets By Marjorie Mir December 21, 2021 Poetry
Article 2021 Books in Review Our book columnist recommends some of his favorite books of the year. By Anthony Domestico December 14, 2021 Fiction Nonfiction Poetry Books
Article Poem | Rest “We are impressed / by the slow, / winkless kindness that glows / slightly when we still.” By Magda Andrews-Hoke November 22, 2021 Poetry
Article Poem | Delayed “Going back now, / more a child than ever.” By Eric Rawson November 22, 2021 Poetry
Article Poem | Roadrunner “She asks no questions, her grammar / the bridges over dry rivers” By Michael Cadnum November 22, 2021 Poetry
Article Poem | I Remember Yesterday. The World Was So Young. “On the radio the scientist is speaking of other earths.” By Christian Wiman November 22, 2021 Poetry
Article Poem | The Poet Retires to Plato’s Republic “Does the fly escape the ointment? / Does the troubadour win his coin / if he’s brooding at the bottom / of wells?” By Drew Calvert October 26, 2021 Poetry
Article Poem | On Earth... “Blessed be the night shift / the unfriended / those who try / the drivers and delivery boys / the widows / the utterly forgiving” By Susan Delaney Spear October 25, 2021 Poetry
Article Poem | Elegy for Our 130-Year-Old Catalpa “Thou, home to God / knows how many woodpeckers, cardinals, and jays” By Paul Mariani October 25, 2021 Poetry
Article Silence & Contradiction The poetry of San Juan de la Cruz forgets the familiar, easy, and convenient, slipping into darkness and unknowing to find God. By Sharon Mesmer October 13, 2021 Poetry Theology Spirituality
Article Poem | Monks “Thus the Lord showed me both ways, / the austere and the hospitable, are good.” By Danielle Chapman September 27, 2021 Poetry
Article Poem | After Showers “An image focused on ground glass— / containing the entire outside world of sky / and sun and land and trees” By Stephen Rybicki September 27, 2021 Poetry
Article Poem | The New World “True it may be that the whole of your light / shines forth in this darkening sky” By Anthony Carelli September 27, 2021 Poetry
Article The Same Anew The poet Donald Revell believes that seeing—true seeing, ecstatic seeing—is the poet’s real task. By Anthony Domestico September 2, 2021 Poetry Interview
Article Two Poems by W. S. Di Piero “I sang to myself, by myself, / in kitchen, garden, bed and car, / and begged the household gods to preserve /this being, this you I have in me.” By W. S. Di Piero August 24, 2021 Poetry
Article Two Poems by Donald Revell “The afterlife is an austere beast, / Fabulous but austere.” By Donald Revell August 24, 2021 Poetry
Article Poem | Quintet of Cinquains “The hill— /ritual hike/to the top of the world.” By Tiina Aleman August 23, 2021 Poetry
Article Critical Loitering Michael Hofmann’s writing is elegant, funny, and very strange, less interested in synthesis than exploration. By Anthony Domestico August 12, 2021 Poetry
Article ‘Drop a Notch the Sacred Shield’ The strange, syncopated, joyful, and utterly inimitable music of Etheridge Knight’s poems By Christian Wiman July 31, 2021 Poetry Spirituality
Article Poem | The Sum of Us “Outliving Eden and its myths, / we find in space what / saves us.” By Samuel Hazo July 7, 2021 Poetry
Article Two Poems by Michael Miller “In a town beyond / The mountains, we live / In the ripeness of old age” By Michael Miller July 7, 2021 Poetry
Article Poem | Kumquat “Might I be able to swallow this / fruit of spite? / Might I like it?” By Danielle Chapman July 7, 2021 Poetry
Article Two Poems by Don Barkin “In autumn / gusts of paper-shuffling in lofty offices / will roil a lawn like God’s face on the waters.” By Don Barkin July 7, 2021 Poetry
