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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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Guest Posts Archive
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Encounters: How Great Thou Art
Posted on December 20, 2012 | 4 CommentsShe put her arm around my shoulder, gave me a sisterly hug, and was gone, without saying a word. -
Encounters: Collapsing Inside
Posted on December 17, 2012 | 4 CommentsDriving by the cemetery that day, I happened to look right and saw an older man with unkempt hair sitting on a bench outside a gravestone store across from the cemetery, his head in his hands, his shoulders heaving with sobs. And I zipped by at 65 mph. -
Encounters: The Power of Empathy
Posted on December 12, 2012 | 5 Comments"I found out that there is a point where you might as well be literally drowning in rising water, instead of disconnection bills. And when your kids are hungry, you get depressively creative. With everything of value either at a pawn shop or sold, I gathered up some of our many books and took my five-and-two-year-old to the other side of town. " -
Encounters: We Are All Beggars
Posted on December 10, 2012 | 3 CommentsWhen we see physical need in others, it is merely an external manifestation of an inner need we all carry. -
The Church and Homosexuality
Posted on December 6, 2012 | 8 CommentsI hope that, despite our setbacks, the Church will truly listen to its LGBT members and begin to loosen the reins that it has proverbially set upon our backs for decades. -
Now is the Time
Posted on December 6, 2012 | 23 CommentsAnd I hope that all of you who have suffered, if you need to sit it out, that you can begin to find solace from afar, if that's what you need. -
Encounters: I Passed By
Posted on December 5, 2012 | 1 CommentI was enjoying the beautiful evening as I crossed the Maeser quad, and I heard her before I saw her. I had to look around for the source of the wailing sobs, and finally I saw her through the late dusk, standing over near the entrance to the Brimhall building. -
Fish Out of Water
Posted on November 29, 2012 | 4 CommentsI'm terrified of this new dating scene because everyone is filled with experience and knowledge that I lack. -
Three Things
Posted on November 28, 2012 | 4 CommentsWe have two children together, ages 4 and 7, and they spend most of their time with me. Except for when I was attending the singles ward. -
Single Experiences: From Bad to Worse to Epiphany
Posted on November 11, 2012 | 8 CommentsHis name tag said “Ask me about: TAYLOR GUITARS”. Mine said “Ask me about: THE BAND SPOON”, which no one did. Everyone in attendance was wearing an identical preprinted, personalized name tag, the plethora of CAPITALIZED WORDS meant to help us jump start conversation, conversations […] -
Single Experiences: I, Me, Who is That? Identity and Emancipation as a Single Mormon
Posted on November 9, 2012 | 6 CommentsOccasionally older married folks attempt to throw lifesavers, but their attempts at rescue simply don't work, because the reality is, we are not drowning. We are not invalids. You think we are crazy, desperate, unhappy people. You are wrong. -
Election Week Musings
Posted on November 2, 2012 | 6 CommentsIf we are supposed to be a Christian nation, as so many claim, let us behave today as Christ would. We are only as strong as our weakest link. Let us strengthen our brethren, as Jesus bade. When we make a feast, let's not invite our friends, kinsmen, or rich neighbors but rather the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. When they are strong, they will be capable of helping lift up others as well, and cycles will be broken. -
Single Experiences: A Little House Just For Me
Posted on October 31, 2012 | 8 CommentsWe've all heard of stories where the husband is asked whether or not the wife could hold a calling or would be interested in doing xyz. -
Single Experiences: Cost-Benefit Analysis from a Single Gay Mormon
Posted on October 21, 2012 | 6 CommentsOf course, there is a third way, which is to stay single and celibate forever. Here again, I'm fulfilling my need to stay in the lines drawn by the church, because this is the church-approved model for gay people right now. -
Single Experiences: I Just Want to Date Myself
Posted on October 13, 2012 | 5 Comments[Note: This is one of a series of posts about being single in the Mormon church. Here’s a link to the guest post invitation Here’s a link to the archive for this series.] You know how some people – adults, parents, mostly – […] -
Single Experiences: More Welcome as Half
Posted on October 12, 2012 | 1 CommentMy husband was upset but understood. When his affair came to light later on, I was thankful that I stood my ground. -
Single Experiences: We Can Do Better
Posted on October 8, 2012 | 17 CommentsIn a culture where women are given the most power in roles defined by who they are attached to, mother and wife, single women are virtually powerless. -
A Record Keeping People
Posted on September 12, 2012 | 3 CommentsFor me, writing both requires that I feel centered within myself as well as helps me to get to that centered place. It's almost a form of meditation. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Lost and Found
Posted on August 31, 2012 | 2 CommentsWhen I showed up the next week (closer to 10:10 a.m. this time), the little old lady said, "You came back." I had found my spiritual home. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Light and Shadow
Posted on August 30, 2012 | 8 Comments"I don't know much," I think to myself, "but I know there is truth in their steady breathing, and in their dirty laundry scattered on the floor." -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: The Feminine Divine
Posted on August 27, 2012 | 3 CommentsShe pointed to two girls and told them, then she pointed to me. "You, with the blonde, your Goddess is as clear as the blue sea on our coasts. Your Goddess is Iemanja." -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Coming Out
Posted on August 26, 2012 | 7 CommentsThe premonition was followed by two additional thoughts. I needed to come out of the closet. I needed to resign formally from the church. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: I Don’t Know How It Ends
Posted on August 19, 2012 | 6 CommentsDoesn't matter what you call it. What matters is that it calls you. It's been calling poets and preachers, artists and alcoholics all along. People who see things that aren't supposed to be there. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Sacred Artifacts and Rituals
Posted on August 17, 2012 | 4 CommentsI'm a faithful skeptic, a doubting believer; this is why these spiritual experiences were so unexpected. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: An Object Lesson
Posted on August 14, 2012 | 11 CommentsI have felt those same feelings in and around mosques, synagogues, and churches of many different Christian denominations. Let's add mountaintops and porch swings, too. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Mormon Soccer
Posted on August 13, 2012 | 2 CommentsIt all feels organic and authentic in a way Church no longer does. Yet something about the early morning routine, the weekly exercise and exhaustion, the socializing with people I otherwise wouldn't-it somehow feels like Mormon soccer to me. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Spirit or Ghost?
Posted on August 12, 2012 | 4 CommentsWas it all in my head? Maybe. Was it a product of my environment? Maybe. Was it the result of a physiological condition? Maybe. But regardless of the cause, the results are the same. I am, without a doubt, a believer in spiritual experiences. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Letting the Sea In
Posted on August 10, 2012 | 9 CommentsThis wasn't how it was supposed to be. That thought thrummed constantly below the surface, a drumbeat following me everywhere. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: The New and Everlasting Covenant
Posted on August 7, 2012 | 14 CommentsThe three of us met in a park one night and I basically gave them permission to date. It was weird, but at the same time, I felt like God was somehow preparing us to be the pioneers of polygamy IN the church at this period of time. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Redemption from Pride
Posted on August 6, 2012 | 15 CommentsI kept toward the back, filled with the peace that comes from doing the right thing. I carried a sign that read, "Sorry We're Late" and took in the positive response from the spectators. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: More Than Meditation
Posted on August 3, 2012 | 3 CommentsGod knows that I have some deep and abiding struggles--religious conundrums with which I have grappled for years. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: What If?
Posted on July 31, 2012 | 12 CommentsNow I was laughing, giddy with freedom. "I don't know if You're there! I don't know what any of this means!" The more I said it, the more it filled me, that burning in the bosom, that unbridled peace. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: You Don’t Have To
Posted on July 29, 2012 | 3 CommentsMore valuable than being obedient was the reminder that I have a personal connection to the Divine, and while a third party's interpretation may be useful, it is not necessary. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: And Have Joy Therein
Posted on July 27, 2012 | 22 CommentsEven then I knew my dream of open, inclusive temple worship was idealistic, unlikely to be realized. For now, however, everything was right. Somehow the experience had turned out perfectly. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: The Mystery of Spiritual Experience
Posted on July 24, 2012 | 11 CommentsAnd it all comes down to one thing: experiencing a sense of Connection. Connection with God. Connection with other people. Connection with the natural world. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: That Amazing Grace
Posted on July 23, 2012 | 9 CommentsIt goes on and on, this tapestry we weave with the Divine that moves in and out, going from the seen to the unseen, letting us know that behind it all are threads that connect everything. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Letting Go
Posted on July 22, 2012 | 6 CommentsI realized that I'd always had it backwards. Spirituality didn't come from holding the power of God inside your body like a form of light. It didn't come from knowing all the answers, from soothing other people's pain or from living a perfect life. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Afraid to Pray?
Posted on July 13, 2012 | 6 CommentsI only know that I wasn't strong enough to let the lamplight keep glowing, tiny as it was. I snuffed it out. -
Unexpected Spiritual Experiences: Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Posted on July 10, 2012 | 8 CommentsI got into gear. This was the main event. We took out our scriptures and flipchart. We only had about 25 minutes left, so we skipped right to the apostasy, the first vision, and the Book of Mormon. -
Teaching Sex: On Labels
Posted on July 3, 2012 | 3 CommentsLabels affect how we treat others. When we label someone as gay or straight, we often treat them as though they fit all that label implies. -
Teaching Sex: It Seemed Terrifying
Posted on July 2, 2012 | 6 CommentsWhen dating I thoroughly enjoyed cuddling, holding hands, and kissing. I felt guilty for just how much I enjoyed kissing and frightened by the emotions that were raging inside me -
Teaching Sex: Confronting Corianton
Posted on June 19, 2012 | 6 CommentsHe came home weeping after meeting with the Lord's representative and feeling like he was dirt because he was told he was committing a sin . . . -
Teaching Sex: It’s Not the Stork
Posted on June 15, 2012 | 3 CommentsSometimes, he would preface with, "do you really want to know, because you won't be able to un-know it." -
Teaching Sex: Sex Talk (Somewhat) Misremembered
Posted on June 13, 2012 | 6 CommentsMy only hope now is that my son will also positively misremember my talk with him. -
Teaching Sex: On Reframing Negative Assumptions
Posted on June 9, 2012 | 15 CommentsIt's time to get rid of the "sin next to murder" rhetoric: a closer reading of the text in Alma suggests that Corianton's real sin is religious hypocrisy, not simply sleeping around. -
Teaching Sex: Two Tables?
Posted on June 7, 2012 | 7 CommentsHe walked forward and thrust in his hand. He pulled it back out to reveal . . . the centerfold from the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue! -
Teaching Sex: My Body Can Do That?
Posted on June 4, 2012 | 8 CommentsI wondered what it would feel like to take my arousal from beginning to end, instead of cutting it off (as I had become quite adept at doing with my frisky teenage boyfriends). -
Teaching Sex: I Apologize
Posted on June 2, 2012 | 8 CommentsI apologize after sex. Yes, I literally say, "I'm sorry." Actually I have come a long way in recent years about uttering the actual phrase. . .