Signs of the Times  •  8.19.16  •  No. 84

Special issue
Hope quotes

Introduction
       I wrote only one poem from my work as a stonemason, after several days of cutting capstone with hammer and chisel to adorn pillared porch columns. That experience remains a vivid image for what it means to live in hope.

Signs of the Times  •  11 August 2016  •  No. 83

¶ Processional. “Just a Closer Walk With Thee,” by legendary clarinetist Pete Fountain, who died Sunday at age 86.

Signs of the Times  •  4 August 2016  •  No. 82

¶ Processional. “Now the Powers of Heaven,” Moscow Sretensky Monastery Choir.

A note from Gerald,
prayer&politiks’ guardian angel

“Signs of the Times” is on vacation this week, but we’ve posted two election reflection pieces you will enjoy.

The first, “O Shizzle! Electoral season parable,” is a first-person story about a happenstance conversation across party affiliation lines, “in this age of un-friending, of only seeking news outlets that contribute to opinions we already hold.”

A note from Gerald,
prayer&politiks' guardian angel.

“Signs of the Times” is on vacation this week.
But two new poems have been posted. (See below.)

Turn off (what passes for) the news.
Boycott the season’s electoral charades.
Don’t give in to Pokémon’s promise of
“augmented reality.” Attend instead to
unmitigated reality: bloodied, stricken
and strewn. Offer grief the hearing it
demands, the voice it obliges, and
the risk it assumes.
—continue reading Ken Sehested's "Lamentations' call to arms: A poem inspired by the Book of Lamentations"

Signs of the Times  •  13 July 2016  •  No. 81

¶ Processional. “Ella’s Song,” Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Signs of the Times  •  6 July 2016  •  No. 80

¶ Processional. “This Land Is Your Land,” Woody Guthrie.

Signs of the Times  •  30 June 2016  •  No. 79

Processional. “America the Beautiful,” performed by Willie Nelson for a video protesting the devastating practice of coal mining by mountaintop removal.

Above. Purple mountains' majesty. Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.

¶ America the Beautiful. Poet and Wellesley College English professor Katharine Lee Bates wrote her poem “Pikes Peak,” first published in 4 July 1895 edition of The Congregationalist magazine under the title “America,” on a trip to Colorado’s Pike National Park. In 1910 the poem was adapted to a hymn tune by Samuel A. Ward.
        In Bates’ original poem (revised in 1904 and 1911), the third stanza ends with, “Till selfish gain no longer stain, / The banner of the free!” These lines “reflected Bates’ disillusionment with the Gilded Age’s excesses” which produced profound levels of economic inequality in the late 19th century (Lynn Sherr, America the Beautiful: The Stirring True Story Behind Our Nation's Favorite Song).
        The fourth and final stanza of the original poem also contained prophetic announcement, “Till nobler men keep once again / Thy whiter jubilee!” referencing the Torah’s “jubilee” tradition of a profound social renewal movement along with a reference to Revelation 7:14 where those “dressed in white” represent “they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” the Lamb being the one who refused violence’s ascendancy, accomplishing salvation’s triumph by abandoning rather than wielding the sword of vengeance.

Signs of the Times  •  23 June 2016  •  No. 78

¶ Processional. “Siyahamb’ e-kukhanyen’ kwenkhos" (“We are marching in the light of God”), Oração popular da África do Sul.

Signs of the Times  •  17 June 2016  •  No. 77

¶ Processional. “Dedication,” San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus sings in solidarity with Orlando victims. (Click the “show more” button for more background. Thanks Patrick.)