The journal

Notes from the slow hours.

Writing on poetry, faith, resilience, and the ordinary moments that turn out to be the ones that mattered.

An open book on a table, one page lit by low raking sunlight

On Reading6 min

The Case for Reading a Poem Twice

A poem read once is a poem you have only met. The second reading is where the acquaintance begins.

Wet paving stones at night holding the long reflection of a street lamp

On Noticing5 min

What Rain Does to a Street

Bad weather is the cheapest lesson in attention anyone ever gets, and almost nobody takes it.

A heavy overcast sky above a flat empty field, one seam of light along the horizon

On Hope7 min

Hope Is Not Optimism

One of them requires the odds to be good. The other one does not care about the odds at all. On Language6 min

The Grammar of Grief

Loss does strange things to language. It is worth paying attention to what those things are. On Craft7 min

Why Some Poems Refuse to Rhyme

Rhyme is not what makes a poem. Knowing what it actually does explains why so many poets put it down. On Endurance6 min

The Long Middle

Every story skips it. Every life contains a great deal of it. Here is what to do while you are in there. On Kindness5 min

A Short Defence of the Small Kindness

The gestures that change people are almost never the large ones, and there is a reason for that. On Faith7 min

Where Faith Keeps Its Questions

A faith with no room for doubt is not stronger. It is just smaller.

An open notebook and pen on a windowsill beside a vase of dried stems

On Practice6 min

How to Keep a Notebook You Will Actually Use

Most notebooks die on page four. The reasons are predictable, and so are the fixes. On Giving6 min

The Books That Arrive Uninvited

A book you chose and a book that turned up are not the same object, even when they are the same book.