A journal seeking light and beauty in people, places, arts, and culture
by Zitkála-Šá When the spirit swells my breast I love to roam leisurely among the green hills; or sometimes, sitting on the brink of the murmuring Missouri, I marvel at the great blue overhead. With half-closed eyes I watch the huge cloud shadows in their noiseless play upon the high bluffs opposite me, while into… Continue reading The Great Spirit
Like tiny drops of crystal rain, / In every life the moments fall, / To wear away with silent beat, / The shell of selfishness o’er all. (Poetry by Zitkála-Šá)
"There is a place where voices / Of great guns do not come, / Where rifle, mine, and mortar / For evermore are dumb: . . ." (Poetry by Geoffrey Bache Smith)
Surprising as it may seem, poetic political protest is a longstanding tradition in China, going back to the classic Book of Poetry (or Book of Odes) and other ancient texts. (See, e.g., Odes 191, 193, 195, 197.) Below is a famous fragment from the classic Book of Rites. In passing by the side of mount… Continue reading Fiercer than a Tiger
Tyger Tyger, burning bright, / In the forests of the night . . .
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, / Earth hard as iron, water like a stone . . . (Poetry by Christina Rossetti)
by Cen Shen* (715 - 770) The pagoda, rising abruptly from earth,Reaches to the very Palace of Heaven....Climbing, we seem to have left the world behind us,With the steps we look down on hung from space.It overtops a holy landAnd can only have been built by toil of the spirit.Its four sides darken the bright… Continue reading Ascending the Pagoda at the Temple of Kind Favor
by Jonathan English [As the new Bond film No Time to Die showcases a character who has deepened, growing more mature, emotionally honest, and even sacrificial, the following groundbreaking article looks back nearly 60 years to explore overlooked depths in the 1962 Ian Fleming short story "The Living Daylights." Further, as illuminated here, the dark… Continue reading James Bond: The Spy Who Nearly Came in from the Cold
Endeavour to be like the Morning Sun / Now sailing upon the circadian tide / Who grants warmth to the world when it’s earned none . . . (Poetry by Michael Shindler)
Fathers are built on / A hopeful foundation / You are in everything we do . . . (Song lyrics by Alex Caruso)
ENCOMIA 