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Recent Posts
- Psaltery & Lyre’s New Site
- 123 Psaltery & Lyre: “Agricola Dreams of Flying” by J. Rose Lara
- 122 Psaltery & Lyre: “Communion: a love poem (a villanelle)” by Rachel Bollinger
- Book Review: Philip Metres’s Sand Opera
- 121 Psaltery & Lyre: Rachael Matthews, “Horsehead Nebula”
- Book Review: Monica Ong’s Silent Anatomies
- 120 Psaltery & Lyre: Rachael Matthews, “Return, pt. III” and “Gaia”
- Book Review: Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely
- Book Review: Matthea Harvey, If the Tabloids Are True What Are You?
- Book Review: LoterÃa Cards and Fortune Poems: A Book of Lives
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Tag Cloud
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Columns Archive
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Psaltery & Lyre’s New Site
Posted on December 28, 2016 | 1 CommentAfter four and half years with Doves and Serpents, Psaltery & Lyre has moved to its own website. -
123 Psaltery & Lyre: “Agricola Dreams of Flying” by J. Rose Lara
Posted on May 2, 2016 | 1 Comment"The escaped runs toward home, and as it runs it turns into a golden boy, then a golden man, then the parents transform, too." -
122 Psaltery & Lyre: “Communion: a love poem (a villanelle)” by Rachel Bollinger
Posted on April 28, 2016 | No Comments"Make it more than bread and wine-- / more than unleavened and red / --lace your heart into mine." -
Book Review: Philip Metres’s Sand Opera
Posted on March 7, 2016 | No Comments"We lift the blinds, look out into ink / For light. My God, my God, open the spine binding our sight" (97). Whether or not you're a believer, after reading these poems, you'll be praying these words in your own way. -
121 Psaltery & Lyre: Rachael Matthews, “Horsehead Nebula”
Posted on March 6, 2016 | No Comments"infrared blues and oranges, / they've never seen a beauty like you." -
Book Review: Monica Ong’s Silent Anatomies
Posted on February 22, 2016 | No CommentsMonica Ong elevates poetry to a new level, creating compositions that open up the genre and respond to the visual expediency of a digital era. -
120 Psaltery & Lyre: Rachael Matthews, “Return, pt. III” and “Gaia”
Posted on February 18, 2016 | 1 Comment"I aim to make you my best friend, / my home, / the jar that will house my electricity . . . " -
Book Review: Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely
Posted on February 15, 2016 | No CommentsBe warned: those protective layers you've carefully built up may be in danger of dissolution. -
Book Review: Matthea Harvey, If the Tabloids Are True What Are You?
Posted on February 11, 2016 | No Comments"The danger of Harvey's recent book is that it can feel disjointed, like a summation of individual chapbooks or projects that have been lumped into a monograph." -
Book Review: LoterÃa Cards and Fortune Poems: A Book of Lives
Posted on February 6, 2016 | No Comments"While the book contains splendidly intricate and intriguing linocuts on every other page, the poems are more or less forgettable." -
119 Psaltery & Lyre: Matthew LaBrot, “St. Francis River”
Posted on February 6, 2016 | No Comments"Sheets of silver snow in the rearview mirror. / I leave loved ones behind, / knowing future loss will bring us back / to that same cemetery." -
Book Review: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee
Posted on January 18, 2016 | 1 CommentCha's is an unwelcoming text. It shoves back, sometimes with short, chopped up sentences, and other times with opaque references and images. It shuts the door and clearly says, "PAS." -
118 Psaltery & Lyre: Matthew LaBrot, “Transfiguration”
Posted on December 22, 2015 | No Comments"A lone lightning bug catches my gaze / and quickly I strike it down, / its body going thunk . . ." -
117 Psaltery & Lyre: Alex Spears “‘Til the end”
Posted on December 22, 2015 | No Comments"I step through my eyes, / onto the electrified track. / There I hop a current / and ride / like a homeless man / on the subway . . ." -
116 Psaltery & Lyre: Alex Spears, “Mountain Shepherd”
Posted on December 3, 2015 | 1 Comment"He keeps watch for wolves / beneath the fading sunlight / and is soothed by the soft bleating." -
115 Psaltery & Lyre: Matthew LaBrot, “Sacred Heart”
Posted on December 2, 2015 | 2 Comments"I recite the included Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus / and spend the rest of the night wondering / if this glowing, anatomically incorrect version of / Christ can comfort me or keep me safe." -
114 Psaltery & Lyre: Becky Sirrine, “Walk”
Posted on October 22, 2015 | No Comments"I reach my hungry hands / to the clean heavens. / The singing voice / no longer silenced / sounds clear." -
113 Psaltery & Lyre: Trisha Kc Buel Wheeldon, “A Girl, Now Mother”
Posted on July 30, 2015 | 1 Comment"Now she knows / What it is like to lactate. [. . .] / To cry honey white tears from her chest." -
My Own Personal Canon: Childhood House
Posted on July 28, 2015 | 1 CommentSeveral years ago, in the midst of researching the process of canonization, or, how the Bible became what it is now, I started keeping track of texts and poems and essays that have been particularly meaningful to me. I started thinking of these writings as […] -
112 Psaltery & Lyre: Becky Sirrine, “Lesson”
Posted on July 15, 2015 | No Comments"All I have is one shining moment, / just before my face. ' -
111 Psaltery & Lyre: Becky Sirrine, “Read”
Posted on July 9, 2015 | No Comments"when the atoms in my brain / sighing with relief /release themselves wearily back / into the planet . . . " -
Open Call for Dove Song
Posted on June 14, 2015 | No CommentsPeculiar Pages is seeking submissions for a poetry anthology titled Dove Song: Heavenly Mother in Mormon Poetry. -
110 Psaltery & Lyre: Ashton Nicole Allen, “Leftovers”
Posted on June 4, 2015 | No Comments"According to Japanese lore, / if one was to dine upon / the remains of a mermaid / they would live forever." -
109 Psaltery & Lyre: Ashton Nicole Allen, “Photons Fired”
Posted on May 28, 2015 | No Comments"I'm reading an article during church revealing how / after hours of test-subjects sat clammy-handed / in the dark, biologists determined yes, humans glow." -
108 Psaltery & Lyre: Sarah Page, “Terra Salis”
Posted on April 30, 2015 | 1 Comment"I slip deeper / Into Precambrian wilds where waves whip / Mounds of cloudy crystals onto banks, / Glossing Terra Firma into Terra Salis." -
Word up!
Posted on January 8, 2015 | 3 CommentsEnergy.Follow through.Wherewithal. These are my words of the year from the years 2012, 2013, and 2014, as I’ve written about here before. And as I start year four of this family tradition, I’ve been doing some serious thinking about just how much impact one […] -
107 Psaltery & Lyre: Jonathon Penny, “Christmas Present”
Posted on December 18, 2014 | No Comments"God and his Goddess gave us their Son." -
Interview with a Vampire
Posted on December 15, 2014 | 1 CommentVampire Weekend burst onto the indie pop scene in 2008 with an afro-tinged caribbean-flavored eponymous album. Almost immediately its world pop stylings made it a critical and popular darling, at least with my friend Becca, who introduced me to the band, and with other Brooklyn […] -
The Rotting Forest Floor in Our Own Personal Sacred Groves
Posted on November 12, 2014 | 20 CommentsEarlier in the fall, I was visiting a ward in Austin, Texas with friends. The high council speaker genuinely surprised me by sharing something in his talk that I had not yet heard of nor considered: the process of saving the sacred grove. As soon […] -
106 Psaltery & Lyre: Tim Bryant, “Gods and Angels”
Posted on October 30, 2014 | No Comments"No Noah's flood or starlight from the east / can match the marvel found in humankind." -
105 Psaltery & Lyre: Theric Jepson, “Creator”
Posted on October 26, 2014 | 1 Comment"the magic is slow / but this god is patient . . ." -
104 Psaltery & Lyre: Christen Mattix, “Record Salmon Run at Mattole River”
Posted on October 23, 2014 | No Comments"(gills open and close) / in the circular act of breathing. . . ." -
103 Psaltery & Lyre: Theric Jepson, “After Party”
Posted on October 21, 2014 | 1 Comment"I'm dying to get to that curtain call, / to hold hands with the dearly departed . . . " -
Church Hop: Reform Judaism
Posted on September 22, 2014 | 6 CommentsLeaves are changing color. Summer is ending. What started as a short season of church hopping will almost certainly continue, although this will be our last post. -
Church Hop: Quaker
Posted on August 25, 2014 | 5 Comments35 minutes of complete silence, followed by 25 minutes of what we would call "testimony meeting," but without all the "I knows." -
Church Hop: Community of Christ
Posted on August 18, 2014 | 4 CommentsEven though the Community of Christ is something of a distant LDS cousin, the service felt nothing at all like an LDS service. -
Russell M. Nelson: Culture Warrior (Face Palm)
Posted on August 17, 2014 | 20 CommentsBigotry doesn't have to be an extension of religious belief. -
102 Psaltery & Lyre: Theric Jepson, “Jesus Fishing the Styx”
Posted on August 14, 2014 | 1 Comment"Circles showing where briefly the / dead have surfaced / Their wide round eyes filling their / foreheads with baleful no-hope . . . " -
Church Hop: Unitarian Universalism
Posted on August 11, 2014 | 6 Comments"Most conversion stories begin with the person having questions for which the Church is able to provide answers. His began with questions for which the Church does not provide satisfactory answers. Most end with a whole-hearted embrace of the Church's moral prescriptions; his ended with a whole-hearted embrace of compassion as the only legitimate moral compass." -
101 Psaltery & Lyre: Theric Jepson, “Some Seduction This”
Posted on July 24, 2014 | 2 Comments"God / cross-dressed in death- / his shroud cinched at the waist, / skull rouged, scythe with matching / clutch." -
100 Psaltery & Lyre: Christen Mattix, “Passage from Virgin to Bride”
Posted on July 17, 2014 | 1 Comment"He lifts the veil, / lifts the embargo / on touching" -
Church Hop: First Congregational Church, UCC
Posted on July 14, 2014 | 10 Comments"[T]his church's main emphasis seems to be community and fellowship." -
99 Psaltery & Lyre: Cheryl L. Bruno, “Garden Games”
Posted on July 10, 2014 | No Comments"Elusive God of the garden, who, / when rain is roaring, winds are high, / delights in the playing of peek-a-boo . . ." -
Church Hop: The Episcopal Church
Posted on July 7, 2014 | 3 CommentsWhen my wife suggested that we try the Episcopal Church, I immediately started singing "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am." . . . [A]ll I could think was, "Isn't that the church that Henry VIII started so that he could get a divorce?" -
Book Review: Field Notes on Language and Kinship
Posted on July 5, 2014 | 6 CommentsIn Field Notes on Language and Kinship, Chadwick gives us yet another gift: a companion book of notes to Fire in the Pasture. Sometimes these notes are original poems Chadwick composed while editing Fire. Before each of these poem-notes, Chadwick includes an introductory paragraph or so explaining the relationships between his poems and the poems in Fire. Chadwick is an excellent poet, and so these entries, for me, were particularly delightful to read. -
98 Psaltery & Lyre: Jonathon Penny, “Ex Machina”
Posted on July 3, 2014 | No Comments"For He is the God of last gasps and swan songs / of sullen, grasping groans . . . " -
Church Hop: Introduction
Posted on June 30, 2014 | 10 Comments"My husband and I have landed on the idea that we will try out different churches for the summer and see what happens. We're not saying we're leaving Mormonism; we're not saying we're joining another church; we're simply experimenting with no commitments either way." -
On Obedience
Posted on June 27, 2014 | 13 CommentsThis poem by the beloved Mormon poet Carol Lynn Pearson has been haunting my waking and sleeping thoughts all week: Obedient Girl Everybody was proud of this little girl.She loved to please and obey.She got good gradesAnd she baked good cakes And she cleaned her […] -
To the Mothers in Zion
Posted on June 17, 2014 | 10 CommentsAs is so typical, those feminists (say it with derision, come on, you know you want to curl your upper lip as you say it) at Feminist Mormon Housewives are encouraging us to help Ordain Women change its name by calling for us to pool […] -
Room for All in this Church
Posted on June 16, 2014 | 23 CommentsWe face a difficult and pivotal moment in Mormonism as LDS leaders and church members wrestle more openly with complicated aspects of our faith, its doctrine, and its history-often in spaces afforded by the Internet. In light of possible disciplinary action against prominent voices among […] -
Collisions of Conscience
Posted on June 12, 2014 | 10 CommentsIn today’s New York Times we read about the collision of personal conscience with the attempt of an institution (whether locally or centrally is irrelevant) to silence its expression within the boundaries of membership in that institution. While many of us have hoped the […] -
There is hope smiling brightly before us
Posted on June 11, 2014 | 12 CommentsIn September 1993, I was a 20 year old, already-married (gasp!) undergrad at BYU. I watched the September Six play out with some combination of fear, horror, confusion, befuddlement, and disgust. And then I silenced myself. I retreated into a safe corner, […] -
97 Psaltery & Lyre: Jonathon Penny, “Song to be sung in times of famine, fear, and desolation”
Posted on June 9, 2014 | 15 Comments"Oh, Father, make it rain; / Oh, Mother, make it quick: / Pour out that balm again / And swift unsick what's sick." -
Equality is not a Feeling, 27.0
Posted on June 4, 2014 | 24 CommentsNumerous scholars (e.g., here, here, here, here, etc.) have studied the images included in U.S. and world history textbooks as well as science textbooks and have argued that the representation (or lack of representation) of women and of non-white people therein sends a powerful message […] -
Unafraid to Ask: Jane Elizabeth Manning James and Ordain Women
Posted on May 30, 2014 | 12 CommentsThere is no more sympathetic figure in Mormon history than Jane Elizabeth Manning James, African-American Mormon pioneer, beloved member of the Joseph and Emma Smith household, and patient, yet relentless, petitioner for LDS temple blessings that remained withheld from her because of her race. Like […] -
Equality is not a Feeling, 26.0
Posted on May 28, 2014 | 7 CommentsToday’s Equality is not a Feeling post focuses on the gender of the CES Devotional speakers over the last 14 years. Seventy people total have spoken at these broadcasts: 4-6 per year. Some years, no woman has spoken to this audience–young adult church […] -
Cost of Scouting (Equality is not a Feeling, 25.0)
Posted on May 21, 2014 | 80 CommentsToday’s guest post is by Nate Curtis, an endowed member with a current temple recommend. He is currently serving as the stake cub master in Phoenix, Arizona. Nate is an Eagle Scout and a forensic economist. In the past, he has served in bishoprics, as […] -
Ride to Church: Vacation Bible School
Posted on May 18, 2014 | 5 CommentsWhen I was growing up in the Midwest, some of my friends attended Vacation Bible School during the summer. I thought this meant that they studied the Bible all week in one of their church classrooms. It sounded like Primary class all week long. But […] -
Equality is not a Feeling, 24.0
Posted on May 14, 2014 | 12 CommentsToday’s Equality is not a Feeling post focuses on seminary teachers and supervisors. This data comes from my local ward/stake (Nacogdoches, TX). Your mileage may vary (although, I suspect, not very much). First, a look at the unpaid seminary teachers in our stake. […] -
The Manner of Prophets and Prophesying Among the Jews
Posted on May 14, 2014 | 4 CommentsNephi once observed that ancient Hebrew prophets (Isaiah in particular) spoke things which were hard to understand because his people did “know not concerning the manner of prophesying among the Jews” (2nd Nephi 25:1). Among the Latter-day Saints, I’ve felt this was often the case […]