Posts Tagged: "Poetry"

If You Want To Be A Better Christian, Work To Become A Better Poet

Brian Dolleman - January 13, 2016 - Life With God, Uncategorized

From Professor Richard Beck…

A few months ago I was giving a chapel talk to ACU Honors students about what I called “the poetry of the Christian life.” The ideas were taken from Walter Brueggemann’s book Reality, Grief and Hope.

I shared three things with the students.

First, I said, when you look at the poetry of the prophets you see three different sorts of poetry, each with a different emotional tone. The prophets sing three different songs.

The first song is prophetic rage and indignation. This is the cry, “Let… Read More

Confusing Anger With Kindness

Brian Dolleman - December 10, 2015 - Life With God, Uncategorized, Video

I read this poem by Rupi Kaur that spoke to me as a man, a father of a daughter, and a pastor.

* * * *

to fathers with daughters

every time you

tell your daughter

you yell at her

out of love

you teach her to confuse

anger with kindness

which seems like a good idea

till she grows up to

trust men who hurt her

cause they look so much

like you

* * * *

I am thankful for this poem.

It reminds me that… Read More

You Swirling Tornado of a Human Being

Brian Dolleman - December 2, 2015 - Life With God, Uncategorized

note: picture above is from the field at the end of my favorite walking/running trail near my home – the trail ends in a wide-open field – the stacks of wooden boxes are bee hives, and they are from Yakima, WA – some 137 miles away from Maple Valley.

* * * *

The following is a poem entitled “We Are The People” by Naomi Shihab Nye…

* * * *

We are the people

always going somewhere else. What is this peculiar attribute of our households, our days, our nation? We will not be here long enough to get tired of it. Does this make us less responsible? It’s that relationship you have with a towel when the towel belongs to a hotel.

If we can’t go anywhere else, are we more encouraged to enhance and protect the place where we are?

Hmmmmmm. Bzzzzzzzz.

We should do all we can to stay out of jail, but now and then it is quite uplifting to… Read More

Read. Listen. Watch. I Think You’ll Enjoy.

Brian Dolleman - July 27, 2014 - Guest Posts, Life With God, Uncategorized

Each week on Sunday Shout Outs, I like to share the best bits of what I watched or read online recently. There’s no theme or common thread between these posts, but they are all thought-provoking and enjoyable.

This video, “Shake The Dust” by poet Anis Mojgani. His first line prolly had you a little worried…

This post, “Actually, Scratch That” by John Blase. Here’s my favorite part: “The timeline’s different for each of us, but at some point you have to stop fighting your parents or religion or 1950s America or your no-good-son-of-a-bitch-ex-spouse or quite possibly even… Read More