Paul Lake

When Saul of Tarsus lost his sightAlong the hot Damascus roadAnd heard the resurrected ChristCry out his name, Saul, Saul, why doYou persecute me?                             And Saul replied,“Lord, who are you?”   . . . . Continue Reading »

“BrickHouse Security saves Jesus for 8th year in a row, offers free GPS tracking of nativity scenes and holiday displays.” Somehow escaping The sharp eye Of angels, shepherds, And magi, Thieves snatch the infant From the crèche To spirit God off In the flesh. Clearly, it’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Far more than Once Upon a Time, A lonely would-be single-mom Wished for a child, and one soon came, Not in the usual way”but sprung From golden seed of barley corn Sold by a fairy. And when it bloomed, A little unborn maiden stood Among the flower’s velvet stems, So small, a shell served . . . . Continue Reading »

As a Boy Scout, Dad decoded The dit-dit-dahs of Morse, the swashed flags Of semaphore, bugled “Taps.” At war’s end, trumpeted jazz, Sported a dashing Errol Flynn mustache, Drove a Mercury coupe, led a brass swing band. Growing gray, he bought a Mustang, Captained boats down the . . . . Continue Reading »

Brave luminaries, Jan Hus and William Tyndale, Were made to glow like scrolling leaves on Kindle, Snuffed out like candles and condemned to night For bringing Christ’s free gift of grace to light. . . . . Continue Reading »

A recent On the Square essay entitled “A Poet Haunted by Brokenness” occasioned a small disagreement among some First Things, readers. In the essay, Losana Boyd, the Director of Creative & Marketing Services at First Things, and a poet, favorably reviewed The Eternal Cityby Kathleen Graber, praising the poet’s fluent syntax, arresting imagery, and elegant, well-crafted lines. … Continue Reading »

In Year One, the month of Vintage , time began. Fog hovered above the earth, like an emanation Of spirits underground. The scents of rose water Sprinkled on sawdust, bird lime, blood, and fungus Commingled in the air, like a chimera Exhaled from broken mouths. The word Virtue Rumbled above the roar . . . . Continue Reading »

A neighbor passing by the widow’s house Stopped dead on seeing him in the garage Behind the wheel of his new Lincoln, slouched Half toward the dashboard, as if tuning in A Cardinals game. The shape was no mirage, He said, but Clarence, or a living twin, Though just how that might be, he . . . . Continue Reading »

A bloody handprint on a windowpane Beneath which, blood-scrawled letters spell Beware . Across the street, a pumpkin with straw hair Gathers his seedy thoughts like Harvest grain. Then, like an evening shadow, Halloween Spreads darkness down the block, and black despair. The bloody handprint on the . . . . Continue Reading »

As her dance dissolves and smiling Salome Sashays across the floor in smoky veils To join her scheming mother, Herod sighs, Seeing how foolishly he’s just behaved” Losing his head to such a vapid girl, Whose liquid rippling of breasts and thighs Writhing in time to pipes and throbbing . . . . Continue Reading »