Ned Hayes's Blog, page 69
November 30, 2014
BOOK QUOTE:
"April comes to us, with her showers sweet. I wake...
BOOK QUOTE:
"April comes to us, with her showers sweet. I wake to the cries of little birds before the light comes across the heath. They wait all night with open eyes. Now, with the rain at dawn, their voices make melody." I imagine my mother calling to me, her words echoing across the years. Every night, I slip into the empty winter land of memory."
— from the novel Sinful Folk, by Ned Hayes
PHOTO: khoaphamphotography
November 29, 2014
Requiem for Mark Strand
I’m sorry to report that the wonderful poet Mark Strand has died. In his honor, here is my favorite poem by him:
The Continuous Life
What of the neighborhood homes awash
In a silver light, of children crouched in the bushes,
Watching the grown-ups for signs of surrender,
Signs that the irregular pleasures of moving
From day to day, of being adrift on the swell of duty,
Have run their course? Oh parents, confess
To your little ones the night is a long way off
And your taste for the mundane grows; tell them
Your worship of household chores has barely begun;
Describe the beauty of shovels and rakes, brooms and mops;
Say there will always be cooking and cleaning to do,
That one thing leads to another, which leads to another;
Explain that you live between two great darks, the first
With an ending, the second without one, that the luckiest
Thing is having been born, that you live in a blur
Of hours and days, months and years, and believe
It has meaning, despite the occasional fear
You are slipping away with nothing completed, nothing
To prove you existed. Tell the children to come inside,
That your search goes on for something you lost—a name,
A family album that fell from its own small matter
Into another, a piece of the dark that might have been yours,
You don’t really know. Say that each of you tries
To keep busy, learning to lean down close and hear
The careless breathing of earth and feel its available
Languor come over you, wave after wave, sending
Small tremors of love through your brief,
Undeniable selves, into your days, and beyond.
…………..
Excerpted from The Continuous Life, by Mark Strand. Copyright © 1992 by Mark Strand. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
"Second Cousins," "Once Removed", and More Explained in Chart Form
With the holidays coming up, many of us are meeting relatives from our extended family. When they explain how they’re related, some of the terms are confusing. This chart gives you an easy guide.
In commemoration of the birthday of C.S. Lewis on this date in...
In commemoration of the birthday of C.S. Lewis on this date in 1898.
November 29, 1898
C. S. Lewis, Date of birth
PHOTOS: bookslooks
A C.S. Lewis quote for his birthday — November...
A C.S. Lewis quote for his birthday — November 29 !
"I am a product of endless books."
- C.S. Lewis
November 28, 2014
Read books? Write a review!
Do you read books? Write a review!
My publisher is sponsoring a great Kindle Voyage giveaway for reviewers.
Christian View of the Arts, Ken Puls Reviews Echos of Eden
Over at the Founders Ministries Blog, Ken Puls writes:
One of the books I have especially looked forward to reading this summer is Echoes of Eden: Reflections on Christianity, Literature, and the Arts by Jerram Barrs (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013). As a teacher of Fine Arts, I was intrigued by the title and curious as to how Barrs would navigate a subject to which Christians hold quite different and quite passionate views… Last week my copy finally arrived and I was not disappointed. Echoes of Eden is an enlightening book, both for artists who write books, poetry, plays and film scripts, as well as those who enjoy participating in the arts—reading books and poety, and watching movies and plays. In this book Barrs provides a helpful apologetic for creativity and imagination. How are we to think about the arts as Christians? How can we appreciate creativity and imagination? How can we participate in the arts from a Christian worldview?
Read the rest or listen to readout [4 min.]
November 27, 2014
Saturday, November 29th: Celebrate Indies First with Nikki McClure, Laura Swan, Eve Rickert and Franklin Veaux!
Indies First is a campaign begun by Sherman Alexie in 2013 to encourage authors to support independent bookstores through in-store special appearances, linking to indies for book sales, and supporting indies via your social media outlets. This year, Alexie’s call to authors has been echoed by …
leaves, fall, a bookish time of year…
leaves, fall, a bookish time of year…
books, books, books on a shelf
books, books, books on a shelf
