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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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January 2013 YM/YW Lesson Comparison
Posted on January 6, 2013 | 10 CommentsThe church has finally updated the curriculum for the YW/YM’s programs. At long last. We published two comparisons of the YW/YM lessons in 2012–both written diligently and conscientiously by Laura C. You can read them here and here. The following is […] -
38 Psaltery & Lyre: Angela Felsted, “Helen Mar Kimball to Joseph Smith”
Posted on January 3, 2013 | 3 Comments"If I were permitted selfishness, I'd ask God to / catch a ram inside a thicket, send an angel down / to smite the chains that bind my will." -
Parenthood Juggle: From SAHM to Single Parent
Posted on December 31, 2012 | 10 CommentsI couldn't quite believe my bishop had confidence in my ability to be in charge. "Are you sure about this?" I asked him. "My life is falling apart right now." -
37 Psaltery & Lyre: Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, “There Will Be Poetry,” translated by Charles Patterson
Posted on December 30, 2012 | No Comments"the sun dresses the tattered clouds / in fire and gold . . ." -
Guest Post Invitation: The Parenthood Juggle
Posted on December 28, 2012 | 10 CommentsI want my daughters (and my son!) to be able to read about other women's struggles. How did they go about deciding what to do and when? -
I Am
Posted on December 27, 2012 | 1 Comment“And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.” Exodus 3:14 Sandy Hook Elementary December 14, 2012 I Am the pretty little blonde haired, blue […] -
36 Psaltery & Lyre: Alex Wiggins, “Sometimes I Fear”
Posted on December 27, 2012 | 1 Comment"Sometimes I fear a body knows when it's dying / and relays urgency to the brain / to make a flourish of praise . . ." -
Encounters: Easter Morning
Posted on December 26, 2012 | No CommentsBy Jessica This Easter my family and I were visiting London, with the intention of doing tourist stuff and to evaluate our choice to move to England. We wanted to travel to the city that we were thinking of moving to so we could […] -
Encounters: Miraculous Timing
Posted on December 25, 2012 | No CommentsBy Karin I work as a nursing home and hospice physician. One day, while travelling to see patients on a 100-mile round trip route, I got a call from one of our nurses about a patient who had just arrived home from the hospital […] -
Encounters: Flat Tires
Posted on December 24, 2012 | 1 CommentMy tire blew as I crossed a bridge on the way to the St. Louis VA at 5:30 on a pitch-black winter morning. I had a cell phone this time, but no AAA and no one to call. -
Encounters: I Wish I Was Still Young
Posted on December 24, 2012 | 2 CommentsShe looked at me again and seemed almost surprised to find me there holding her hand. She thanked me for stopping to talk to her and turned to slowly push away. -
The Years of Magical Thinking
Posted on December 23, 2012 | 12 Comments“I know the truth about Santa Claus, Mom. I know the answers now, the real answers,” my twelve year old son said to me solemnly last week, waving a Christmas card featuring the red-cheeked jolly man in his hand. “You do?” I answered cautiously, treading […] -
35 Psaltery & Lyre: Michael Hicks, “We Gather Together”
Posted on December 23, 2012 | No Comments"I've practiced this before, like hard dough rolled / in sugar: how we sweeten survival." -
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. -
34 Psaltery & Lyre: Sarah Dunster, “Herald”
Posted on December 20, 2012 | No Comments" . . . bringing sick, / terrible knowledge and that grey uncertainty / of the world at an end-how it could come / when nobody realizes nobody hears . . ." -
On Being a Christmasist
Posted on December 19, 2012 | 11 CommentsIn the three years since I lost faith in Mormonism, I’ve tried on more than a few labels to describe my spiritual alignment: agnostic, atheist, humanist. I’m not content with any of them. It’s not that they are wrong, necessarily, but each fails to capture […] -
Twenty Years
Posted on December 19, 2012 | 4 CommentsI stumbled across this Facebook meme a couple months ago and sorta fell in love with it. I want to put it in a frame next to my girls’ beds so they can fall asleep every night seeing it. I don’t want them […] -
Mormonism is a Skirt, Not a Pair of Pants!
Posted on December 18, 2012 | 7 CommentsSkirtism doesn't imply that there exists no universal Mormonism -- for all we know, One True Mormonism is floating out there in the noumenal -- it only requires us to admit that we don't possess it, no matter where we got our beliefs. -
Behold, the Condescension of God
Posted on December 18, 2012 | 5 CommentsO Come, all ye faithful. O Come, all ye doubtful. Come, all ye sorrowful and shameful and prideful and sinful. You are never so low, but that He has gone lower. You are never so lost but that He will seek you out. -
47 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: A Faith like Mine
Posted on December 18, 2012 | 7 CommentsI now admit, somewhat sheepishly, that one of the reasons I voted for Obama is because of his religious beliefs. -
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. -
Grondahl Restored 46
Posted on December 16, 2012 | No CommentsIf you’d like to see other cartoons in this series go to https://dovesandserpents.org/category/columns/grondahl-restored/ ; This cartoon, as always, is posted with the kind permission of The Sunstone Foundation, the publisher, and Calvin Grondahl. ; -
33 Psaltery & Lyre: Michael Hicks, “Aesthetics Seminar as the Last Supper”
Posted on December 16, 2012 | No Comments" . . . seconds when we believed our little thoughts / were stars pricking through a black canopy. / Stars we thought we could sail by to some new home, / a port both necessary and sufficient. . . . " -
Put on Your Pants Uke Song
Posted on December 15, 2012 | 3 CommentsEvery movement needs music. This is a great start. -
Pantsgate 2012: There Is Room Enough for All of Us
Posted on December 14, 2012 | 6 CommentsThere is room enough in Christ for all of us. -
46 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Girls Can Change the World
Posted on December 14, 2012 | 7 CommentsWe're not just losing the voice of someone who would say the same things as everybody else in the conversation. -
Heather Wears Pants
Posted on December 14, 2012 | 28 CommentsI was pregnant with Stuart, my third (and last) child when I decided I wanted to get a Ph.D. By the time he was three months old, I had already started my coursework. It was invigorating. I was excited to be reading […] -
32 Psaltery & Lyre: Dayna Patterson, “Soft”
Posted on December 13, 2012 | 5 Comments"The doctrine is an egg / in its shell / I can't swallow / God . . . " -
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. " -
45 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Pants-Wearing Women Running Wild
Posted on December 12, 2012 | 21 CommentsThat, my friends, is how you maintain a cultural norm, and in that context, press releases telling women they can decide for themselves what to wear are meaningless. -
Friendless in East Texas
Posted on December 12, 2012 | 16 CommentsI was born and raised in East Texas and have spent most of my adult life living here or Louisiana. But my parents are originally from California, which means that I don’t really have the necessary social capital required to happily live here. […] -
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. -
Grondahl Restored 45
Posted on December 9, 2012 | No CommentsIf you’d like to see other cartoons in this series go to https://dovesandserpents.org/category/columns/grondahl-restored/ ; This cartoon, as always, is posted with the kind permission of The Sunstone Foundation, the publisher, and Calvin Grondahl. ; -
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. -
31 Psaltery & Lyre: Michael Hicks, “Jesus Is Coming Back”
Posted on December 6, 2012 | 6 Comments"He is walking home from the church in our skulls / knocking the halo from his head . . ." -
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. -
Guest Post Invitation: Encounters
Posted on December 5, 2012 | 2 CommentsSo throughout this busy month, we here at Doves and Serpents would like to share some stories of what we're calling encounters--moments or exchanges with people, whether strangers, family members, or acquaintances--when we felt like we really connected with someone in an unusual way. -
Worshipping in Exile
Posted on December 3, 2012 | 19 CommentsHow do I worship in Exile? -
Grondahl Restored 44
Posted on December 2, 2012 | No CommentsIf you’d like to see other cartoons in this series go to https://dovesandserpents.org/category/columns/grondahl-restored/ ; This cartoon, as always, is posted with the kind permission of The Sunstone Foundation, the publisher, and Calvin Grondahl. ; -
Words, Words, Words
Posted on December 2, 2012 | 7 CommentsEarlier this week, someone I didn’t know, someone I’ve never met, just a woman in pain, mistakenly thought I had taken something of hers, or rather, someone of hers. In a fog of unstable hurt, she lashed out at me. The attack was virtual, a […] -
30 Psaltery & Lyre: Elizabeth Pinborough, “Recantation”
Posted on November 29, 2012 | No Comments"A wickedness presses / in my breast. I cannot / pluck it out. It is a rolled up / Torah scroll I cannot read." -
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. -
Grondahl Restored 43
Posted on November 23, 2012 | No CommentsThis cartoon, as always, is posted with the kind permission of The Sunstone Foundation, the publisher, and Calvin Grondahl. -
29 Psaltery & Lyre: Alex Wiggins, “Cleaning our keyboard”
Posted on November 22, 2012 | No Comments"It's weird how we erode. / In the valleys, shed pieces of me / fell from busy fingertips and mingled / with cracker crumbs, bacon bits, / stranded grains of rice . . . " -
Soul to Soul Foundation: Supportive Networking for Effective Mental Health Care
Posted on November 21, 2012 | 1 CommentToday’s guest post comes to us from Michelle and Cami, who recently launched Soul to Soul Foundation, an organization committed to assisting people suffering directly and indirectly from mental illness. From the Outside, by Michelle My sister once asked our older brother what his pain […] -
28 Psaltery & Lyre: Kris Bluth, “Truth of Consequences”
Posted on November 19, 2012 | No Comments"She called me at 11:00 on / Saturday night and asked if / I could have sex with her." -
Random Snippets From My Own Feminist Journey OR A Few Things I Learned About Being a Woman
Posted on November 18, 2012 | 4 CommentsAround that time, I also got it into my head that I would like to be President of the United States when I grew up. I sent multiple letters to the White House. -
Nearly True: Man Reading Moran Uncovers Repressed Grooming Memory
Posted on November 16, 2012 | 6 CommentsSince I had no idea what she was talking about, I assumed her question had to do with fine-tuning the performance of our new house cleaning service by paying for a more expensive option involving, perhaps, additional personnel from Brazil. -
There you are
Posted on November 16, 2012 | 5 CommentsHow old were you when you last felt completely like yourself without checking in with the rest of the world to see if you were "acceptable"? -
27 Psaltery & Lyre: Angela Felsted, “it starts”
Posted on November 15, 2012 | 1 CommentAngela Felsted is a musician, poet, and nature lover. Her work has appeared in issue fifteen of Drown in Your Own Fears, in Chantarelle's Notebook, and on her blog. -
I Don’t Know What to do With my Breasts! And I Think I’ve Experienced Some Sexism
Posted on November 15, 2012 | 7 CommentsAlthough it would take a lot more life experience for the lesson to sink in, it was important to have a sense at a young age that I wouldn't settle for just any attention that came my way, to know that I would rather be alone than feel small and humiliated or like a body part that just happened to have a person attached to it. -
“I Hate the Feminists”
Posted on November 14, 2012 | 10 CommentsI wish 17-year-old me could've had a good chat with Caitlin Moran. Perhaps Moran could've helped me realize that feminists are on my side, not something scary and Other. -
I Am a (Mormon?) Feminist
Posted on November 14, 2012 | 2 CommentsMy first official introduction to feminism came in an undergraduate class on Feminist Theory at BYU (an idea that now makes me chuckle, it seems like such an oxymoron). -
I’d Rather Pretend I Don’t Have One
Posted on November 13, 2012 | 12 CommentsSome parts of How to Be a Woman are so funny, they left me in bed, shrieking with laughter. I'm talking about legs sticking up the air, writhing in the bed, gripping the bed sheets laughing. -
26 Psaltery & Lyre: Kris Bluth, “What’s Playing on God’s iPod?”
Posted on November 12, 2012 | 1 Comment"Falling snow without wind . . ." -
Dudes–How To Be A Woman is a Must-Read!
Posted on November 12, 2012 | 17 CommentsFeminism can, and should, be explained in a way to men that is not only understandable, but also sympathetic, without making them feel like complicit conspirators in the patriarchal society they inherited, but did not intentionally design. -
How to Be a Woman Week
Posted on November 12, 2012 | 8 CommentsSo, here it is, The D&S How to Be a Woman Week, wherein we'll be discussing our favorite parts of the book and that scariest of all F-words -- feminism -
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 […]