First Things RSS Feed - Marjorie Maddox https://www.firstthings.com/author/marjorie-maddox en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:54:29 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/marjorie-maddox 60 The Nun from Nigeria Sits Next to Me at the College Jazz Concert https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/06/the-nun-from-nigeria-sits-next-to-me-at-the-college-jazz-concert https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/06/the-nun-from-nigeria-sits-next-to-me-at-the-college-jazz-concert Mon, 01 Jun 2020 06:00:00 -0400 Face blank as absolution,
              from this back row
she stares straight ahead
              to the small raised stage
of touring musicians, lost
              in the rebel notes they sold
their souls for. Surely, the slight
              shadow of sax expands
to fill her one solemn eye,
              the blur of bass drum
the other. The charismatic vocalist’s
              filled-with-the-Spirit keyboard
oscillates up and down
               her stiff spine, while—
inside the long sleeves of her habit—
              her fingers, half-hidden
in the fabric’s heavy folds,
              tap-tap, tap-tap.

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]]> ​Anniversary https://www.firstthings.com/article/2017/03/anniversary https://www.firstthings.com/article/2017/03/anniversary Wed, 01 Mar 2017 00:00:00 -0500 This second circle—coming back again
to the coming back—the sweeping dial
of days; where all time’s whats and whys and whens

click clockwise on your face, or mine. Begin
again the memory of counting while
this second circle, coming back again,

continues clicking on its route to chime
delights and dangers on discarded piles
of days. Where all time’s whats and whys and whens

witness what we won’t forget in skin: lines
that show in photographs, first seen in smiles
this second. Circle, coming back again

to the coming back: foretold convergence
unfolding; calendar that reconciles
our days when all time’s whats and whys and whens

wed what we’ve become, your nows, my thens
intersecting us again. Meanwhile
this. Second circle. Coming back. Again
the day where all becomes our whats, whys, whens.

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]]> Parable https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/05/parable https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/05/parable Sun, 01 May 2016 00:00:00 -0400 “Virtue! a fig! ’tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus.
 Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills
 are gardeners.”

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]]> Laundry List https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/03/laundry-list https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/03/laundry-list Tue, 01 Mar 2016 00:00:00 -0500 “The ordinary acts we practice every day
 at home are of more importance to the soul
 than their simplicity might suggest.”

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]]> The Joke around the Water Cooler and Other Dilemmas https://www.firstthings.com/article/2015/12/the-joke-around-the-water-cooler-and-other-dilemmas https://www.firstthings.com/article/2015/12/the-joke-around-the-water-cooler-and-other-dilemmas Tue, 01 Dec 2015 00:00:00 -0500 Let us nail ourselves to him, resisting
 the temptation to stand apart or to join
 others in mocking him.” —Pope Benedict XVI

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]]> Lower Higher Ed https://www.firstthings.com/article/2015/08/lower-higher-ed https://www.firstthings.com/article/2015/08/lower-higher-ed Sat, 01 Aug 2015 00:00:00 -0400            Here God
gums up in the mouth,
won’t spit itself out
with every easy expletive,
leaving the discussion free
for disagreement.

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]]> The Episcopal Priest Cleans Out His Office https://www.firstthings.com/article/2005/01/the-episcopal-priest-cleans-out-his-office https://www.firstthings.com/article/2005/01/the-episcopal-priest-cleans-out-his-office Sat, 01 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0500 After the years of tear-drying and tissue-passing,
the closed-door conferences above reproach
and beyond remembrance, he packs files of sermons,
reread books, thank-you notes and complaints,
receipts from now-broken air conditioners
that can’t cool this fear
that swirls up the unexpected
dust of the lives
he thought he saved. They don’t want him here,
near the new.

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]]> All Saints’ Day https://www.firstthings.com/article/1998/11/all-saints-day https://www.firstthings.com/article/1998/11/all-saints-day Sun, 01 Nov 1998 00:00:00 -0500 Waiting behind burned-out jack-o’-lanterns for day to come,
the saints clap their stigmata hands.
They are the sun’s halo, shimmering the November air
with celestial simplicity; the sky, their dried blood.
By the time we wake on All Hallows,

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]]> All Souls’ Day https://www.firstthings.com/article/1998/11/all-souls-day https://www.firstthings.com/article/1998/11/all-souls-day Sun, 01 Nov 1998 00:00:00 -0500 We stack the dead
names of the faithful
high in the incensed air,
light prayers beneath them
till the altar burns with words.
The nave knows their smoke,
remembers our memories of them.
The chancel recants our absence
from their lives until we live
again in the space at the rail
beside them, these saints
unSainted, the faint flames
of our unmartyred selves
riding their iridescent fires.

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]]> Monthly Communion https://www.firstthings.com/article/1998/10/002-monthly-communion https://www.firstthings.com/article/1998/10/002-monthly-communion Thu, 01 Oct 1998 00:00:00 -0400 At church, the man touches his lover’s

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