drmstream[writing]

At that time, my dad had bought an old truck.  He said to my mother, “Prissy, we are going to load all these kids in the truck and we’re gonna drive to Pine Bluff.  There’s a spir­i­tual man com­ing to church who believes in prayer.  I’m gonna fast and pray that we’re going to go […]

16 Cold Moun­tain is a house With­out beams or walls. The six doors left and right are open The hall is blue sky. The rooms all vacant and vague The east wall beats on the west wall At the cen­ter noth­ing. Bor­row­ers don’t bother me In the cold I build a lit­tle fire When I’m […]

XXIX. NO Free­man shall be taken or impris­oned, or be dis­seised of his Free­hold, or Lib­er­ties, or free Cus­toms, or be out­lawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor con­demn him, but by law­ful judg­ment of his Peers, or by the Law of the land. We will […]

This is John the Evan­ge­list, who wrote the Gospel of John.  John was the wit­ness, the dis­ci­ple who was always in the right place at the right time.  The eagle that soars into the sky, hold­ing a man­u­script in its talons, is a  metaphor for his faith. Some 700 years after the death of Christ, a […]

Gus­tave Doré’s illus­tra­tion to Dante’s Inferno. Plate X: Canto III: Charon herds the sin­ners onto his boat. “Charon the demon, with eyes of glede, / Beck­on­ing to them, col­lects them all together, / Beats with his oar who­ever lags behind.’” (Longfellow’s trans­la­tion, which isn’t par­tic­u­larly good, it must be said.) Find more here:

Last night I made a start at writ­ing this down, then fal­tered when I saw how late it was, real­ized that my mind wasn’t nearly quiet enough to go to sleep and ques­tioned whether the first few phrases that had formed in my mind were going to lead to any­where. This morn­ing I got out […]

Yes­ter­day I flew from the east coast to Los Ange­les and watched two movies that were uncanny in the sim­i­lar­ity of their view of the human con­di­tion. The moral syn­chronic­ity was more star­tling for the cul­tural chasm between the two films: the uber-Wasp cor­po­rate real­ity of the Reit­man broth­ers’ Up in the Air and the […]

D’s Com­mu­nion One time when I was a young man I caught the scent of the priest Through the tan­nins of the com­mu­nion wine. He smelled like my father On the morn­ing that he buried my mother. I had just mar­ried. My new wife Kept two paces behind me In the com­mu­nion line. Tak­ing the host was […]

A’s Com­mu­nion Through him With him In him In the unity of the holy spirit Unto the hour of death, And the echo of a long val­ley For ever and ever. Crepe paper light­ens my hand The flut­ter comes from the breath Of the word One sup­pli­ca­tion in this prayer To feel him A post­card From a […]

T’s com­mu­nion When I go to com­mu­nion hold my hand. The change in the air, The rus­tle of the heavy clothes, The scuff of shoes against the pol­ished slate, The soli­tary cough, The clap of the wood boards against metal stays, The mumur­ing up ahead, The swollen rota­tion of the bel­lows, The still­ness of the lift, […]