Few poems of the previous century have attracted more discussion than Wallace Stevens’ “Sunday Morning.”
Photo by Ioann-Mark Kuznietsov on Unsplash
Detail of the sculpture "Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss" by Canova • Photo by Jean-Pol Grandmont (CC BY 4.0)
The door of the soul
Mouths. I want to write about mouths. These lips I caress with my fingertip. These teeth I bare. This tongue, curled and soft like a bear in its den. This throat, strung with the instruments of speech.
Photo by Mark de Jong on Unsplash
Can a skeptic pray?
When two pagan Irish princesses, daughters of King Laoghaire, asked Patrick about his God, he is said to have answered: “Our God is the God of all things, the God of the sky and earth, the God of sea and stream, the God of sun and moon, the God of the great high mountains and the deep glens, the God of heaven, in heaven and under heaven.”
Photo by Feroze Omardeen (CC BY 2.0)
Rhapsody in C major
Hummingbirds and bananaquits at the bird feeders. Can’t help but smile. Can’t help but feel a thrill. Who can be glum in the face of so much animation — so much of what is — packed up in those tiny bodies, abuzz with life, turning sugar into energy.
The North Downs • Photo by Clem Rutter (CC BY 2.5)
Some notion, however imperfect…
Not long ago, on a walk through southern England, I visited Down House, sixteen miles south of London, for forty years the family home of Charles and Emma Darwin.
"Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee" by Ludolf Backhuysen (1695)
Gladdening smiles, mournful tears
The stained glass window above the altar of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church on the island of Exuma shows Christ stilling the waters of the Sea of Galilee. However, the waters in the window do not seem particularly threatening, nor do the apostles seem anxious.
Photo by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash
Making a mind
Francis Crick, the codiscoverer of the DNA double helix, writes in his book The Astonishing Hypothesis: “To understand ourselves, we must understand how nerve cells behave and how they interact.”
Photo by Annie Niemaszyk on Unsplash
Winter stars
The drama of the night sky comes in two acts, as the Milky Way sweeps overhead in summer, then again in winter. These are the seasons when our evenings are posted with bright stars and constellations.
Photo by Vlad Tchompalov on Unsplash
The meaning of life?
“The most common of all follies,” wrote H. L. Mencken, “is to believe passionately in the palpably not true.”
Jupiter, as imaged by the Juno spacecraft • NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill
Heaven beyond
Galileo, OrbView‑2, Terra, Aqua, Lunar Orbiter, Magellan, Mariner 10, Yohkoh, SOHO, TRACE, Mars Pathfinder Lander, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Viking Orbiter, Viking Lander, NEAR, Cassini, Voyager 1 and 2.