Seth Haines's Blog, page 27
January 19, 2017
What Is Light?
This is my continued exploration of the senses. Enjoy.
***
What Is Light?
Behind the eyelids I see things:
a fluorescent flicker; two tiny dancers;
hazy tracers; an aurora borealis.
In the moments before sleep,
my eyes hunt and gather
the last photon trickle of night,
bend it into quantum illusions
of beauty without meaning.
I’ve known these lights since
I was a child, and once
they spoke these words: Pure dark
is the true illusion, at least
for those who have eyes to see
or to c...
January 17, 2017
An Invitation
I’ve found myself in lighter days, days with shining, luminous edges. Silver linings are real, I’ve found, and I can say this with some certainty–this life ain’t so bad.
I suppose I’ve found my way through a hole of sorts. It’s a hole that took a while to dig, one that involved a marriage, a career, the slow realization of the unimportance of a life, a little sickness, a little liquor, and a hell of a lot of my own stupidity. The odd thing about the hole I dug was that I dug it–for the most p...
January 12, 2017
The Confession
In the silence of this house
there is a frequency humming,
needle sharp. Piercing
electric madness, it sings
from
where?
The refrigerator?
The air conditioner?
The morning stars of all
the universes shining
through these walls?
This mole has tunneled
somewhere past my brain
every morning for three years–
these bone-dry mornings.
There are days, I confess,
I miss the dull thud
of drunk veins throbbing
in my ears.
***TINY LETTER***
Thanks for stopping in! If you enjoy reading he...
January 10, 2017
Sense over Significance
Today, I’m continuing an examination of the senses. Come along?
***
What is a man’s life?
A man’slife isa few thousand breaths of time, a unit of history, at best a memory though usually forgotten within a leap-year’s cycle.
What does aman want from life?
To reach past his given breaths, to be certain of his purpose, his life, and his death.
What is certain?
The only things that are certain are the things that can be measured by the senses–tasting, touching, hearing, seeing, smelling. Signifi...
January 5, 2017
Quitting Heroin or Not?
There are facts that are quantifiable and facts that are intuited.These are the quantifiable facts:
As of the first quarter of 2016, U.S. adults spent 10 hours, 39 minutes a day consuming media, which represents a year-over-year increase of one hour.
The increase in media consumption is due largely to smartphone and tablet use. Smartphone use rose an average of 37 minutes, while tablet use saw an increase of 12 minutes.
Half of all “U.S. TV households” (whatever that means) now have access to...
January 3, 2017
Just Say “No,” 2017
It’s 2017 and the “One Word” folks have come out in full force. I saw them on Facebook and Twitter, slinging words likeresistance, ordiscipline,or spontaneity (an ironically planned and unspontaneous use of the word). The words read like truncated manifestos leaving so many read-between-the-line impressions. And as if this were not enough for the One-Worders, nearly every one of them badgered the rest of us to participate, asking, “What’s your One Word?”
No.
As in, “No; Iwon’t have the course...
December 15, 2016
Advent: Day 19 (Laws and Lineages)
Each Advent, I commit to reading the daily lectionary, the Bible readings that prepare our hearts for thecelebration of Christ’s coming. This year, I’m writing a brief reflection on these readings each weekday. It’s Advent, day nineteen.
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Readings: Isaiah 9:18-10:4; 2 Peter 2:10b-16; Matthew 3:1-12
In yesterday’s Gospel reading, we found John the Baptist in the wilderness, preaching repentance to the people. And today, here we are again in that same wilderness with the same prophet speakin...
December 14, 2016
Advent: Day 18 (Power is Coming)
Each Advent, I commit to reading the daily lectionary, the Bible readings that prepare our hearts for thecelebration of Christ’s coming. This year, I’m writing a brief reflection on these readings each weekday. It’s Advent, day seventeen.
***
Readings: Isaiah 9:8-17; 2 Peter 2:1-10a; Mark 1:1-8
Today, we move from Luke’s passion account and push into the Gospel of Mark. Mark opens with this salutation: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” It is the genesis accordi...
December 13, 2016
Advent: Day 17
Each Advent, I commit to reading the daily lectionary, the Bible readings that prepare our hearts for thecelebration of Christ’s coming. This year, I’m writing a brief reflection on these readings each weekday. It’s Advent, day seventeen.
***
Readings: Isaiah 9:1-7; 2 Peter 1:12-21; Luke 22:54-69
Over the last few days, we’ve been followingJesus as he makes his way to the cross. In that, we’ve examined the disciples–Judas, Peter and the sleeping ones. Are we so much different? Aren’t we the b...
December 12, 2016
Advent: Day 16
Each Advent, I commit to reading the daily lectionary, the Bible readings that prepare our hearts for thecelebration of Christ’s coming. This year, I’m writing a brief reflection on these readings each weekday. It’s Advent, day sixteen.
***
Imagine the upper room, the table, the bread, the wine. See Christ divide the bread. See him hold the cup. Hear him say, “This is my body, broken for you; this is my blood, poured out for you. Do this in remembrance.” Feel the weight of the words spoken by...
