NEW POETRY AND UPDATES

Opened by Joshua Alan Sturgill

Congratulations to Jesse K. Butler winner of the third place prize in the Kierkegaard Poetry Competition.

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THE WEEKLY MACHEN

The Joy of London I: To the imaginative man, I suppose nothing has so great an attraction as that which has some savour of mystery about it. He who is something more than a new automaton, a mechanical performer of certain mechanical tasks, returning day by day, feels instinctively that he is born to voyage in the unknown, to live always in contemplation of a great perhaps. And here, I think we touch on the secret of one of the most powerful of the many attractions of London.

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MACHEN MISCELLANEA

Arthur Machen remembers Maurice Barrès, the French Belloc.

CATALOG UPDATE

As Far As I Can Tell, the debut poetry collection by Joshua Alan Sturgill, is now OUT-OF-PRINT. A few remaining copies may be purchased at Eighth Day Books. Sturgill’s latest book, Now A Major Motion Picture, is still available.

Joshua’s newest poem: Disparate

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MACHEN STUDIES No. 44

Fugues and Fish Heads by Dale Nelson: When Machen wrote of “a highly elaborate and elaborated piece of work, full of the strangest and rarest things,” he was referring to a great romance that he never managed to compose.  But he could have been referring to compositions by Bach.

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

Marvels of To-Day’s Flower Show: Here was a bank of the richest purple, brilliant to the point of crudity; here were the trumpet notes of scarlet and bright yellow; and opposed to these daring tones were groups of poppies, not only suggesting sleep and quiet and long dreams by their nature, but by those languorous petals that looked like faded ancient silks that had hung for a hundred years in a forgotten cupboard.

NEW POETRY & UPDATES

Long into Night by Joshua Alan Sturgill

St. Sebastian in the Kitchen by Linda Lobmeyer

Chasing the Burr by Bryn Homuth is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the Book Depository and fine bookstores such as Eighth Day Books. Our friends in Canada and the UK may purchase the book here. Australia: Booktopia. And, of course, you may purchase it from the Darkly Bright Catalog.

Jesse K. Butler has published two poems in the latest edition of THINK Journal.

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THE WEEKLY MACHEN

The Joy of London III: And the sight of the map of London always leaves me with a sense of a kind of lesser infinitude—if the phrase may be allowed. Thus does London make for us a concrete image of the eternal things of space and time and thought.

NEW POETRY

After a brief hiatus, Joshua Alan Sturgill returns with The Archangel Contemplates A Buddha.

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BOOKS AROUND MACHEN

Dale Nelson digs into Walter De La Mare’s On the Edge, a book read and reviewed by Arthur Machen.

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THE WEEKLY MACHEN

In Memory of Edith Cavell: The last verse swells into sonorous triumph; the sunlight pours in golden rays down from the dome, the painted saints and martyrs glow in the windows. Then the Paternoster, which is a prayer for quick and dead alike, is said, and after the versicles and responses, they sing the Antiphon: I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet he shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.

If you’re in the area, celebrate St. Pat’s with the Eighth Day Institute on Saturday, March 18^th in Wichita. Enjoy whiskey, food and friends. I highly recommend Jack Korbel’s Celtic-inspired music.

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THE WEEKLY MACHEN

Famous Novelist’s Blunder: The artist who sets himself to rewrite masterpieces is, in a sense, a heroic figure. He is the desirer and the attempter of the impossible. At the best he can only hope to be a splendid failure; at the worst . . . let us be merciful, and avail ourselves of the figure called aposiopesis.

Celebrating Machen’s 160^th birthday on March 3, 2023…

NEW  BOOKS AROUND MACHEN No. 2

Life of Charlotte Brontë: Dale Nelson continues his survey of Machen’s favorite literature with a book the Apostle of Wonder read over twenty times. 

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NEW  MACHEN STUDIES No. 43

What the Prebendary Saw: The original version of an seldom read, but excellent war story.

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NEW  THE WEEKLY MACHEN

A Clever Study of the “Average Young Girl”: No writer quite realises his idea; the book as it is written is never quite so fine as the book as it was imagined; and so in a way the best literature makes a catalogue of splendid failures. But after all, this is according to the general scheme of the universe; it is the greatest saints who acknowledge that, after all, they are but miserable sinners. The man who can do a thing really well is always the man who knows that it should have been done a great deal better.

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FAR OFF THINGS: The complete first volume of memoirs.

FICTION AND ESSAYS BY MACHEN

The Holy Things / Out of the Earth

Opening the Door / The Gift of Tongues

The Iron Maid / The Bowmen

The Islington Mystery

Word and Voice / The Matter of Romance

Ars Artium / Realism and Symbol

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ARTICLES ON MACHEN AND HIS WORK

Alchemy & Transfiguration

Why You Should Read Arthur Machen 

From a Lost Bookshelf

Lewis, Tolkien… And Arthur Machen?

Yours Sincerely: The Letters of Arthur Machen

Inklings Lecture: Dreamt in Fire

March 1st is the Feast of St David of Wales:

Visitations Essay

Meditation by Fr. Gabriel Rochelle

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POETRY NEWS

Congratulations to Jesse K. Butler who has recently published poetry in the following journals: Ekstasis and Solum. Currently, Butler is working with Darkly Bright Press on his first volume of collected poetry entitled The Living Law.

The Tale of the Two Guides by Joshua Alan Sturgill

Phillip Neal Tippin concludes The Pilgrimage, Book II.

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

Among My Books: To my surprise some of the best stories of the year have come to my desk in the last week or ten days. I have been wondering since last February what had become—not of the masterpieces of fiction—but of the well written, well constructed tale, the book that showed cleverness at all events, if not genius.

NEW POETRY

Unconditional Conditions by Joshua Alan Sturgill

The Pilgrimage, Book II: Part 32 by Phillip Neal Tippin

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THE WEEKLY MACHEN

Among My Books: Sound, too, is Lord Redesdale’s contention that the real things are done with pains and difficulty. Here is a doctrine very necessary for the present time, which has got into its silly head the falsehood that important things are to be secured easily, that, everything is to be gained without tears. It would be true to say that nothing is to be had without tears.

MACHEN MISCELLANEA

An early and obscure work: Sir Serjeant Ballantine

This week: The Feast of St. Teilo of Wales

Kontakion of St Teilo (Tone 1)
O teacher of pure doctrine, joy of monastics
and Dewi Sant’s fellow pilgrim to Jerusalem,
where thou wast elevated to the episcopate, most pious Father Teilo,
we keep festival in thy honour, praying for grace to follow in thy footsteps.

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BOOKS AROUND MACHEN

The Holy Grail: Arthur Machen and The Inklings: Dale Nelson explores an old text and its admirers. This is the first in a series about the books on Arthur Machen’s reading list.

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

The Desire In Our Hearts for Colour: Sound, sturdy, practical common sense, I say it again; and yet, how many men who think themselves hard-headed would condemn these maxims as mere drivelling sentimentality. Yet man hungers and thirsts for colour and beauty just as truly as he hungers and thirsts for meat and drink. Lack of the latter means disaster to the body; lack of the former means disaster to the spirit.

MACHEN MISCELLANEA: English and Irish

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NEW POETRY

The Chase by Joshua Alan Sturgill

The Pilgrimage, Book II: Part 31 by Phillip Neal Tippin

Congratulations to Bryn Homuth
His book is now available.