NEW SPRING BOOKS
NEW POETRY
PŌNIKŌAN by Joshua Alan Sturgill
The Celtic Paradise: It is a beautiful theory; I wish I could believe in it—but I don’t. Still, I think that every Celt thrills in his heart when the West is mentioned; there lingers in his soul that desire for the paradise beyond the glassy waterfloods which drove the monks of Wales and Ireland and Scotland to embark in boats without oars or sails, trusting that the winds and the waves would somehow bear them to the blessed and happy island.
Recently, Jesse Keith Butler, the author of The Living Law, read poetry from his new volume at a fundraiser for Windstone Farm Linlathen. Based on a farm in the Ottawa valley, this organization is led by Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson, a prominent George MacDonald scholar. Windstone Farm Linlathen is focused on “Cultivating Community through Theology, Ecology, and the Arts.” Among other events, Linlathen Lectures attract Christian artists and Inklings readers from near and far.
For our Canadian customers, Butler’s book is now available for purchase from Indigo.
All But Immersion by Joshua Alan Sturgill
Religio Poetae, Part 5 by Dale Nelson: “Wordsworth and Coleridge inspired MacDonald, and MacDonald inspired Lewis and Tolkien. Who would have predicted the enormous blessings for the Christian mind and imagination that came about from the writings of these two Inklings (even as the world descended into violence and vileness that Patmore could not have conceived)?”
Stilted Formulas of Courtesy: … the real difficulty is in the production by tens and scores and hundreds of novels, which are, frankly, of no use at all. They have no merit of any sort or kind; they are not funny, they are not exciting, they are not original, they are not well written, they have neither character nor “characters.” They almost make the “non-ens”—the existence of nothing—an imaginable idea.
The latest Arthur Machen collection from Darkly Bright Press has returned to print. What Do We Know? Observations of the Strange and Unusual sold out quickly when it was released late last year in a limited hardcover edition. The trade paperback is now available for purchase. Read excerpts.
POETRY
For Salad And For Wine by Joshua Alan Sturgill
The Living Law by Jesse Keith Butler has been highlighted on the Kingdom Poets blog by D. S. Martin.
“Love and Unrest”: There certainly are novels which confine themselves strictly to the action without wasting time over descriptive passages; they are mostly tenth-rate stories about detectives. But this new rule—that a novel is to be concerned only with “action”—must be squashed with all convenient firmness and despatch.
This is a very fine book. Jesse Butler has put his mastery of traditional poetic form to good use in these varied reflections on faith, personal tragedy, encounters with nature, life in the modern Canadian suburbs and many other things. These poems reveal a mind expansively curious about the world and deeply attentive to it.
—Burl Horniachek, editor of To Heaven’s Rim: The Kingdom Poets Book of World Christian Poetry
Religio Poetae, Part 4: Dale Nelson delivers another fine study on Patmore’s classic and its influence upon Arthur Machen.
New Books of 1914: Roosevelt takes an interest in prize-fighters, Roosevelt can climb high cliffs; all his achievements of this sort are here set down, together with his part in the Spanish War, and the comfortable doctrines of the Big Stick and the Square Deal. It is all splendid if you happen to be a professing member of the Roosevelt faith; to dissenters from that crude credo it is perhaps a little excessive and superabundant.
An Arthur Machen Calender: On Simnel Cakes
The Living Law by Jesse Keith Butler is now available for purchase. Read some of Butler’s award-winning work.
NEW POETRY
Congratulations to Joshua Alan Sturgill as he celebrates his 300th post with And Of All Things. Explore his wonderful poetry and essays.
MACHEN STUDY No. 47
Machen, the Pilgrim: For St. David’s Day, we examine Arthur Machen’s pilgrimage to Wales and the confluence of Celtic Saints with the Grail Legends in his work.
Remembrance Day Address: This was one of the most terrible and tremendous things that have happened in the history of the world. It was terrible for us because it meant that tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of Englishmen, Scotchmen, Irishmen, and Welshmen were to be killed in fighting. It was tremendous; because it was bound to alter the whole history of the world for ages and ages yet to come.
Available March 1st: The Living Law by Jesse Keith Butler.
Darkly Bright Press is pleased to announce The Living Law, the first poetry collection from Jesse Keith Butler. An awarding-winning poet from Canada, Butler promises to be a leading voice in contemporary formalism. Collecting meditations on theology, family life and culture, Butler’s debut presents the poet as a confident and hopeful voice. Explore the poet’s work.
Speaking of poetry… Prayers of Ignorance by Joshua Alan Sturgill
Religio Poetae, Part 3 by Dale Nelson
The Immortal Story of Captain Scott’s Expedition: You are to hear about five great men. Their names are: Captain Scott, who was their leader, Captain Oates, Lieutenant Bowers, Dr. Wilson, and Petty-Officer Evans. These men are all dead, and they died after dreadful pain, in a dreadful place, called the Antarctic Region. You can find it on the maps and on the globes; it is the very bottom of the world.
AN ARTHUR MACHEN CALENDAR
On Valentines and Other Things: I think some substitute should be found for the vanished Valentine and its observances. Suppose we made February 14 a day on which we could do what we liked—of course without malice or injury to our neighbours. Suppose we made a regular wild day of it, and insisted on buying chocolate creams—and why not bullseyes?—at 8.15 p.m.; on having another glass of small beer after ten, on buying cigarettes openly at eleven.
The Piper: “My effort has always been to preserve what is good in the old traditions and to blend them with the more modern, natural method. I found when I became a manager that the old ways had crystallised into a kind of ritual—into a formula; while, on the other hand, the ‘natural’ people seemed to have forgotten that Shakespeare wrote poetry.
Religio Poetae, Part 2: Dale Nelson continues his investigation into the spiritual legacy of Coventry Patmore and his influence upon Arthur Machen.
NEW POETRY
Hypothermia by Joshua Alan Sturgill
The Problem of Tom: Now Tom, of course, had not learnt Latin and Greek; he had pretended to learn those languages, and his master had pretended had pretended to teach him. But if Tom had learnt Latin to such purpose … it would still have profited him nothing with that Canadian bank manager. But it must clearly be stated that a classical education is not to be blamed because it does not fit a man to earn his living by being a bank clerk.
NEW POETRY
Every and No by Joshua Alan Sturgill
Groundhog Day by Linda Lobmeyer
The Craving to Scream: We had just rushed down the water-chute at Earl’s Court together—I have seldom experienced a more disagreeable sensation—and drew my attention to the screams and shrieks which rent the air as the boats swept down that horrible descent and struck the water with a sickening bang.
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