Life On the Threshold: Reading the father of the rural life movement in the heart of the modern city

March 21, 2013 By 2 Comments
UrbanNat-header

  I have been talking about the work of Liberty Hyde Bailey a lot recently....  (See this previous post for instance)   So, I decided to republish this short essay on Bailey here.  Of all the things I've written over the years, this is one of my favorite pieces. This essay originally appeared in Catapult Magazine, March 2009.   Life on the threshold Reading the father of the rural life movement in the heart of the modern city   About a year ago, my friend Ragan Sutterfield recommended that I read Liberty Hyde Bailey’s The Holy Earth.  At some earlier point … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ecology, Neighborhoods, Place, Poetry 2 Comments

Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

February 27, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Simple-Weight

I was delighted to get a copy of poet Tania Runyan's collection Simple Weight last week, which fortuitously is structured around the backbone of the Beatitudes. Another collection of Runyan's poems, A Thousand Vessels was recently named a 2012 Englewood Honor Book (as one of the best books of the year). Simple Weight is going to make an excellent companion to my reading daily through the Sermon on the Mount, and I hope to share a few of the poems here between now and Easter. I begin today with the opening poem of the collection, one whose title are the opening words of the first … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Lent, Poetry, Scripture Leave a Comment

How to Be a Poem

December 22, 2012 By 1 Comment

Today I was thinking about spiritual formation and what came to mind was a poem by Wendell Berry, the Kentucky writer, farmer, and activist. The poem is called "How To Be a Poet." But I think it could be re-titled "How To Be a Poem." Here's what I mean: the New Testament says we are "God's workmanship." The word used for "workmanship," poiema, is the same word from which we get our word "poem." Thus, it's not too much of a stretch to say that we are "God's poem." So much of what Berry describes here is good advice not just for the poet but for anyone who wants to put themselves in the loving … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Poetry Tagged With: , 1 Comment

The Taste of the Place

April 29, 2012 By 1 Comment
The Pines Vineyard

One of the keys to understanding Slow Church is captured in the seventeenth-century French phrase le goût de terroir, which can be translated “the taste of the place.” Carlo Petrini, co-founder of the Slow Food movement, writes often about terroir as “the combination of natural factors (soil, water, slope, height above sea level, vegetation, microclimate) and human ones (tradition and practice and cultivation) that gives a unique character to each small agricultural locality and the food grown, raised, made, and cooked there.” Thus, a Pinot noir from Oregon’s Willamette Valley … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Place, Poetry Tagged With: , , , , 1 Comment

Learning Contentment (from Thomas Merton and Liberty Hyde Bailey)

March 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Bailey-WNW

This is the second in my promised series of reflections on Liberty Hyde Bailey’s poetry. [ Bailey's collection of poems Wind and Weather, has just been released by The Englewood Review of Books as a bargain-priced Kindle ebook.  It's well worth it! ] Read the first post in the series here: Cultivating Wonder. Wind and Weather Passengers on the cosmic sea We know not whence nor whither, -- 'Tis happiness enough to be Complete with wind and weather. This first and title poem in this collection of Bailey's poetry reflects the importance of contentment (and particularly … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Meditations, Place, Poetry Tagged With: , , , , Leave a Comment

Cultivating Wonder.

March 15, 2012 By 4 Comments
Bailey-WNW

This is the first in my promised series of reflections on Liberty Hyde Bailey's poetry. [ Bailey's collection of poems Wind and Weather, has just been released by The Englewood Review of Books as a bargain-priced Kindle ebook.  It's well worth it! ] Miracle Yesterday the twig was brown and bare; To-day the glint of green is there To-morrow will be leaflets spare; I know no thing so wondrous fair No miracle so strangely rare. I wonder what will next be there. One of the great losses in the post-industrial age, is the disappearance of wonder.  Our pace of life moves so … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Meditations, Poetry Tagged With: , , , 4 Comments

Liberty Hyde Bailey Poetry Reflections

February 21, 2012 By 2 Comments
Bailey-WNW

One of the great gifts of my writing retreat at the Convent in Cincinnati last week (here's a glimpse inside the Convent's own story of stability, written by one of my fellow retreatants) was the realization of how important Liberty Hyde Bailey's work, and especially his poetry, has been in framing the concept of Slow Church in my head and in the life I share in community with others at Englewood Christian Church. Liberty Hyde Bailey was one of the most prominent American botanists of the early twentieth century, who taught at the university that would become Michigan State and then later … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Place, Poetry Tagged With: , , 2 Comments