Category: Uncategorized
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In the Beginning Was the Word
And God said, “Letthere be light!”And there was light, or would have been, had God been crafting a cosmos intelligible to the Bronze Age mind, or mine. Scientists—specifically, astrophysicists—tell us that we can detect light from the Big Bang, the background microwave radiation all around us. We can see into…
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First Sunday in Lent
I am not a fan of Lent. There is altogether too much breast-beating for my taste. Or, rather, for my mental and spiritual health. I’m trying to recast it in my own mind, because I know it means so much more. As one of the Proper Prefaces for Lent says,…
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Trying so hard to be ordinary
It’s a weird calendar this year for us church folk. Christmas Eve was on the Fourth Sunday in Advent, and Ash Wednesday will be on Valentine’s Day again. This past Saturday, January 6, was the Feast of the Epiphany—a feast you would think would be transferred to the nearest Sunday,…
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Mood Journaling
I’ve just had an Advent poem published in Earth & Altar, which I’ll repost over here soon. Until then, give them some traffic: https://earthandaltarmag.com/posts/among-women-blessed And now, on to what is certainly my most self-indulgent post. I thought I’d share an exercise I’ve been doing on and off for years now.…
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A Phenomenology of Trees Before Dawn
(Response to Theresa Moore’s reduction linocut print, View of Loch Long) Elaine Elizabeth BelzA PHENOMENOLOGY OF TREES BEFORE DAWN any unenumerated morning— early chill resolved with tea& cardigans—you’re already out by the lakeside I fumble with paper—still sloughing off sleep— eyes still trying to dreamopen—pull trees out of dark silhouettesone…
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Call & Response 4
OK, that was amazing. Last night’s Call & Response event centered around poets reading and artists talking about their work. The watercolorist Carol LaChiusa (pictured with me above) responded to my poem, “Mind Game” with her painting, “Mind Games.” She said that she tried to capture the imagery of my…
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Mind Game
The big Call & Response 4 show—featuring poetry readings by the authors, artists talking about their art, a gallery show, food, and books for sale—is coming up: Thursday, November 9, 7:00-10:00 p.m. at Grosse Pointe Congregational Church (unsurprisingly, in Grosse Pointe). For this event, gallery show, and book, artists and…
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Putting Down Roots
A prose poem about my back yard. Elaine Elizabeth BelzPUTTING DOWN ROOTS Someone who lived here before me had a taste for the exotic in flowers and vines; or else didn’t care for gardening at all, and simply allowed whatever flora came marauding through the neighborhood to take root. Arriving…
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Habitus
Read it here on Earth & Altar‘s website Elaine Elizabeth Belz HABITUS Crossing this threshold, I dip my hand in water,re-inscribe my birth. Stolid airushers me in, thick with dustand smoke and resin and with voices, shuffling feet,creaking floorboard and pew—all musicto uncloak my solitude.A votive wick receives my longing,…