The Trouble with Organized Religion

A few years back, I read a book called The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Paul Elie. It was a parallel biography of Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Flannery O’Connor, and Walker Percy. Four influential mid-twentieth-century Catholics.

Commentary on Psalm 50/51

The reason for the numbering confusion is that the numbering and breakdown of the Psalms is a bit different in the Septuagint version, the Greek translation of the Bible that took place in Alexandria, Egypt,  in the third century and that also set the canon of the New Testament.

Recent Poetry, February 2026

Sin’s Origin

Sit still and quiet every day,

Your problems will not go away.

But you’ll learn where they arise:

It’s thinking.  Not a big surprise.

Love

Simone Weil considered it a direction, not a place. I think she was on to something. She equated it with attention, and felt it was the best gift we could give to anyone who was suffering.

Recent Poetry, January 2026

Origen (circa 185-circa 253)

When Egypt was a very Christian place,

Before Islam had showed its pretty face,

Of Alexandria, you were the wondrous sage,

And they all loved you in that early age.

The first book called The Philokalia,

Anthologized you. No et alia.

The Cappadocians, all did much like you,

You were a great foundation for them too.

Recent Poetry, October 2025

To the Priests of the Orthodox Church

To all guys I with whom I read,

(At least the ones who are not dead).

Who studied theology, from their perch,

Of th’Eastern Orthodox Church.

My Boss

A good publisher knows how to use people, and, I suppose that my former boss’s original Buddhist teacher saw that quality in him. Knowledge that it was a business, after all. No romantic ideas. No notion of editors who sit around reading all the time, making publishing decisions based solely on a work’s value.