Why Substack. Why now.

My first post

When newly married, four decades ago, I wrote love poems to my wife. Recently, she told me she still has them. But then she keeps everything.

Two years ago, I began writing short poems about daily Scripture passages. (I’m Catholic. You’ll learn this about me.) The Benedictines have a tradition called lectio divina, or holy reading. It’s a way of meditating on Scripture. I came to think of my occasional verse as lectio lyrica.

Within the past six months, my spiritual director and another personal advisor both urged me to write more of these poetic meditations, lectio lyrica, or whatever they are.

More recently, a close friend, a deacon, told me when I told him I was writing a poem a day, “When you finish one, just press send.”

Enough hints. Enough tweeting birds. I’m deeply unsettled by the prospect of letting my poems become performative. It happened sixteen years ago with a blog, “Why I Am Catholic,” and it destroyed the blog. But without readers, poems exist only in the heart of their writer.

Maybe you’ll think that’s where my poems should remain. If so, simply unsubscribe.

I’m going to post twice a week: on Sundays, my personal favorite from the past week; on Wednesdays, an oldie that I still like.

Thanks for reading. Pray for me.