First Things RSS Feed - Stephen Kampa https://www.firstthings.com/author/stephen-kampa en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:55:33 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/stephen-kampa 60 Wasted Time https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/01/wasted-time https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/01/wasted-time Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 -0500 You’d think that after New Year’s boozy kisses,
Back-slapping, and effusions in confetti,
The last hors-d’oeuvres and passes at the Mrs.
Beneath the hanging cardboard amoretti,

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]]> The Offering https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/12/the-offering https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/12/the-offering Sat, 01 Dec 2018 00:00:00 -0500 The room is full of empty chairs.
The gods above break down, distraught.
We offer them our thoughts and prayers.

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]]> Wasted Time https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/01/wasted-time https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/01/wasted-time Thu, 04 Jan 2018 00:00:00 -0500 You’d think that after New Year’s boozy kisses,
Back-slapping, and effusions in confetti,
The last hors-d’oeuvres and passes at the Mrs.
Beneath the hanging cardboard amoretti,

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]]> My Father's Father's Body https://www.firstthings.com/article/2017/05/my-fathers-fathers-body https://www.firstthings.com/article/2017/05/my-fathers-fathers-body Mon, 01 May 2017 00:00:00 -0400 My grandpa built a go-cart out of junk:
An old lawnmower engine, scraps of metal,
A cupboard door, a cushion. The result
Was forty miles-per-hour of swerving joy—
Flung gravel, wind-snagged bugs, my father’s arms
Vined around mine to help me steer.
We gunned it past the neighbors’ humdrum farms.
The message: we are here.

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]]> Last Stab at Goodness https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/12/last-stab-at-goodness https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/12/last-stab-at-goodness Thu, 01 Dec 2016 00:00:00 -0500 I’ll tell you how to be the perfect man:
You do a perfect imitation
Of someone who would hesitate
To let the real you through the door.
You’ll need to smile and nod, smell decent, plan
At least one slideshow-worthy week’s vacation,
Lug brats to ballgames and stay late,
Skip nightcaps, and never mind
That you don’t know what it’s all for
 Or that you often want to be unkind,

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]]> Living Room Blues https://www.firstthings.com/article/2014/08/living-room-blues https://www.firstthings.com/article/2014/08/living-room-blues Fri, 01 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0400 I feel less lonely when I watch TV:
The heartbreak and the healing both go quicker,

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]]> Overcast https://www.firstthings.com/article/2011/05/overcast https://www.firstthings.com/article/2011/05/overcast Sun, 15 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400 Deep in the country of unbroken clouds,
The sundry broken crowds
Have wondered for unnumbered years what lies
Beyond their numbed gray skies.

Some have spun rumors, flimsy as wet straw”
A peasant weaver saw
Twilled clouds unravel and a golden reed
Spike earthward at the speed

Of light; a crippled beggar glimpsed bright alms
Ripple through limpid calms
In cloud-patched sky; a farmer, his untilled
Acres before him, filled

With joy at sunlit fields of uncracked blue”
But crack-downs brought them to
Their senses, down to earth, and back to wonder
Under the reign of thunder.

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