Maryann Corbett

"I'm reading--again--the history of the late 14th c., when a usurper seized the throne of England. All the chroniclers rewrote history to praise him. People weren't free to say what they thought about the government. The wrong religious opinions could get you burned (which hadn't been true in England before that time.) One reason I like medieval history is that it reminds me what the Constitution is meant to prevent."

Here's something I posted seven years ago, relevant again. I wish more people could be persuaded to study medieval history.

Ardors By Maryann Corbett What makes the engine go? Desire, desire, desire —Stanley Kunitz As if the sin of Adam took its toll on trees, the maples stricken with the fall burn in their sins. Red passion and proud gold, their vanities float down like scraps of flame. Lives ago, we burned them—garden stubble and leaves—the yard’s year gone in a smoky plume curling to heaven. Now the tumulus of compost seethes in its center, simmers, mulls. We rake the piles. The crickets’ wings rehearse desire, desire, slowing as daylight’s slant unwarms the world. We feel it too, the chill, the ache displacing older, wilder want: Leaf into loam, red giant to black hole, lust into languor, everything that burns burns out: the dust, the gas, the acrid smell, the end of the matter. All our burning’s doomed, even these fires where maple trees are found still ardent after years, still unconsumed.

Finally, seasonable temperatures and a bit of red on the maples. Time for an old poem of mine. (I think this was in *Credo for the Checkout Line in Winter.*)

Tell Congress: Christians want our government funding to care for all us, not terrorize our neighbors The Trump regime has shut down the federal government indefinitely in the latest scheme to line the pockets of billionaires, fund ICE's terror against our neighbors, and eliminate federal services tha...

Tell Congress: Christians want our government funding to care for all us, not terrorize our neighbors. act.faithfulamerica.org/sign/goverme...

Here’s a poem for today, October 5, 2025 Poetry Town

I've pulled a muscle in my back by bending over while doing dishes. So I'm feeling decrepit and identifying with the old guys in B.H. Fairchild's poem "Old Men Playing Basketball," #GeorgeBilgere's daily poem (which you should subscribe to if you don't already). georgebilgere.com/so/4bPcWFrm_...

More than Gore Horror movies can unsettle us and stir us to think about the world—and about God, as Ryan Duns shows in 'Theology of Horror.'

I've just now noticed that our friend, NVR editor @StevenKnepper, is published at Commonweal. www.commonwealmagazine.org/more-gore

YouTube video by UWEC Choral Prayer of St. Francis - Robert Delgado

Happy feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. If there was ever a year when we needed his prayer for peace, this one is it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hdW...

I'm often so slow to get around to reading new books by poets I like that when I do, that book is no longer the newest one! I've finally gotten to Mary Jo Salter's *Zoom Rooms* and am especially enjoying the ekphrastic poems, like this one: www.literarymatters.org/13-3-carlo-c...

fwiw, the Catholic Church considers medical care a human right, which means it’s not accorded to persons due to citizenship but because they exist, which in turns means societies that desire to seek the good must offer such care.

Happy discovery this morning: #PatrickKurp uses my poem "Ice Dam" as a prompt for some snowy-and-icy memories. (The poem, by the way, is in my most recent book, *The O in the Air.*) evidenceanecdotal.blogspot.com/2025/09/flui...

International Translation Day | United Nations International Translation Day is meant as an opportunity to pay tribute to the work of language professionals, which plays an important role in bringing nations together, facilitating dialogue, unders...

Happy International Translation Day! The UN is concerned with "bringing nations together" via living languages. But the country of the past is important, too. www.un.org/en/observanc...

Immigrants with no criminal record now largest group in Ice detention Government data shows 16,523 people with no record, versus 15,725 with a record and 13,767 with pending charges

The numbers in this Guardian subhead--ALL the numbers--should be getting much more attention. Focus on them: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The current poem is still kinda half-baked, but my first-ever challah has turned out pretty well. (Don't look too closely at the six-strand braid. Form is challenging in all sorts of media.)

YouTube video by Graham Baldwin The Mysteries - Part 1: The Nativity

I see that my UK friends are mourning the passing of #TonyHarrison, so here *in memoriam* is a video of his realization of the medieval mystery plays. May he rest in peace. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzIr...

It is very creepy to Google one of your own fairly new poems and get, at the top of the result set, a very earnest and literate AI analysis of a work that surely no human has yet written about. Shudder.

But perhaps I need to clarify mine: your comparisons bug me. Cleaning my room and flossing my teeth don't ask for response from another person. Filling the feeder is also something I do for myself, to see the birds. The roast might be more comparable to writing, since it might feed others.

I dunno. I use language to communicate, and I do intend the communication to be received. If the poem isn't out in the world one way or another, it hasn't been. (Granted, being submitted and rejected is also a kind of reception.)

Thanks for the shout-out, John :)

I'm a bit late, but Shana Tovah to all who celebrate. Here's a link to an appropriate poem, John Hollander's "At the New Year." ccl.northwestern.edu/curriculum/p...

YouTube video by Choral Scholars of University College Dublin Silently, She’s Combing - Choral Scholars of University College Dublin

Here's some Yeats set to music this morning, because we could use a dose of calm: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOkK...

My contributor's copy of the new THINK Journal should *finally* get here today after mistakenly pingponging around the country, so it's fair to share one of my poems. Many thanks to editor #BrianPalmer. Looking forward to enjoying the full issue.

Spending time with #MichaelDonaghy's collected poems, I happened on the scary little poem "Majority," which is troublingly pertinent just now. Here are some thoughts about that poem: belljarblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/t...

Archive | Acts of Contrition by Michael Donaghy - The London Magazine This poem by Michael Donaghy originally appeared in the June/July 1994 edition of The London Magazine, alongside artwork by Roger Hilton.

A friend's post yesterday has reminded me to pull #MichaelDonaghy's collected off the shelf. So many fine poems. Here's one that grabs me: thelondonmagazine.org/archive-acts...

A.E. Stallings · Poem: ‘Autumn Cyclamen’ London Review of Books

#AEStallings has a new poem just out in the @lrb.co.uk : www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Jodie Hollander — Bad Lilies A poem by Jodie Hollander

The local library has exactly two books, one copy of each, by our new poet laureate, and a line of holds is already lengthening for each one. I think instead I'll pay attention to another poet whose name I've been seeing around: Jodie Hollander. www.badlilies.uk/jodie-hollan...

And once again, the country has a new poet laureate, and I'm trying with some embarrassment to learn what his work is like because I don't know it at all. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/152053...

"If you will, you can become all flame" --from The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks Desert priests who prayed for Your sparks before me caught your heat like kindling--and now I'm asking, God: Come blazing. Burn as you did for Moses. Father of fathers, speak to me tonight. Let my hand ignite. Here, fingers tipped with flame, I will understand You come, as small stars, to our own fists, come as pinpricks of fire.

When I feel like my brain has been gutted by ugly news and rumors, I reach for my bookshelves, and especially for books I haven't looked at in some time. Here, from #AshleyAnnaMcHugh's *Into These Knots,* is a prayer I'm not brave enough to pray:

Re the news, I have no comment but this bit of today's Gospel for the memorial of St. John Chrysostom:
A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,

but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;

for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.

I think about James Baldwin’s letter to his nephew all the time. “We cannot be free until they are free.” progressive.org/magazine/let...

I've got a new poem just out, in a magazine I hesitate to send to because I disagree with its very conservative stance. But editor Micah Mattix asked for a poem, and I sent one, and I thank him. I want readers of all kinds. firstthings.com/for-the-find...

Thanks, Paul :)