Beauty

“Go Easy Kid”

So I was listening to KEXP radio and heard the song “Go Easy Kid.” Monica Martin is a new artist to me, and I’m loving what I’m hearing so far. But this song stopped me in my tracks, I had

Dwight J. Friesen August 27, 2022August 31, 2022

One More Love Poem by Dunya Mikhail If I had one more day I would write a love poem composed of one word repeated like binary code. I’ll multiply it by the number of days that passed without saying it

Dwight J. Friesen May 12, 2022June 7, 2022

“I Feel Good” Jon Batiste

I feel good. I feel free. I feel fine just being me. I feel good today. Oh so good today. Gospel! Peace, dwight

Dwight J. Friesen April 5, 2022April 12, 2022

“The Last Man on Earth” by Wolf Alice

The other night on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Wolf Alice preformed their new song, “Last Man on Earth.” Damn… if that wasn’t the most beautiful thing I’ve heard thus far in 2022. They will be in Seattle later

Dwight J. Friesen March 24, 2022April 19, 2022

“Miracle of Peace”

I No Longer Pray for Peace by Ann Weems On the edge of war, one foot already in, I no longer pray for peace: I pray for miracles. I pray that stone hearts will turn to tenderheartedness, and evil intentions

Dwight J. Friesen February 25, 2022March 3, 2022

“Listening” by William Stafford

Listening by William Stafford My father could hear a little animal step, or a moth in the dark against the screen, and every far sound called the listening out into places where the rest of us had never been. More

Dwight J. Friesen September 29, 2021December 14, 2021

“Lost”

Lost by David Wagoner Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here, And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, Must ask permission to know it and be known.

Dwight J. Friesen July 8, 2021November 8, 2021

Poet: Spencer Reece

At Thomas Merton’s Grave by Spencer Reece We can never be with loss too long. Behind the warped door that sticks, the wood thrush calls to the monks, pausing upon the stone crucifix, singing: “I am marvelous alone!” Thrash, thrash

Dwight J. Friesen March 19, 2021November 21, 2021

“This is My Story”

My love of jazz began when I was in junior high. My older sister often let me hang out with her and her high school friends… one of her many generosities. One of her friends played trumpet in a jazz

Dwight J. Friesen February 15, 2021November 22, 2021

“If”

If Rudyard Kipling If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too;

Dwight J. Friesen January 5, 2021November 8, 2021

“Penny Rabbit & Summer Bear”

Penny Rabbit & Summer Bear by Kishi Bashi Under the ocean, far from the sun Penny Rabbit, wondering “When will we ever become one? Must I suffer days to come?” Fresh out of wishes, fate wouldn’t dare He had to

Dwight J. Friesen January 3, 2021August 31, 2022

Poet, Natalie Diaz… Wow!

Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation by Natalie Diaz Angels don’t come to the reservation. Bats, maybe, or owls, boxy mottled things. Coyotes, too. They all mean the same thing— death. And death

Dwight J. Friesen December 20, 2020November 24, 2021

“Singularity (After Stephen Hawking)”

SINGULARITY by Marie Howe (after Stephen Hawking) Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity we once were? so compact nobody needed a bed, or food or money — nobody hiding in the school bathroom or home alone

Dwight J. Friesen November 22, 2020August 31, 2022

“Prayer for the Untranslated Testimony”

Prayer for the Untranslated Testimony by Franny Choi At midnight, I am sitting on my back steps, looking at the leaves and listening to the sound a boy is making into the night with the peak of his lungs somewhere

Dwight J. Friesen June 11, 2020August 31, 2022

Flash Mob… So Beautiful

Came across this video the other day… wow! Why is this so contagious? I can’t stop watching this. Peace, dwight

Dwight J. Friesen August 15, 2012November 29, 2023

“Same Love”

So I was driving to Issaquah to meet a local leader about a possible new church and to walk around a couple of neighborhoods together. On my way, I was listening to KEXP radio…as I often do, when John Richards

admin July 18, 2012September 5, 2022

A Fourth Transcendent Virtue?

Reflection on Truth, Beauty, and Goodness – the three transcendent virtues – is vital to anyone seeking to discover and live a good life. To ponder the question, “What is a full and flourishing life?” seemingly takes us to consider

Dwight J. Friesen May 10, 2006August 31, 2022

Artist Ed Traub recently passed a great quote on to me from Mark Rothko’s book: Artist’s Reality: Philosophies of Art. “Like the old ideal of God, the abstraction itself in its nakedness is never directly apprehensible to us. As in

Dwight J. Friesen January 28, 2006May 12, 2022

pivotal art of the 20th C.

Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 by Marcel Duchamp oil on canvas, 1912146 x 89 cmPhiladelphia Museum of Art Peace, dwight

Dwight J. Friesen June 14, 2005October 3, 2022

tension

“Tension“ by dwight friesen part of the Will Mapel collection.

Dwight J. Friesen May 11, 2005January 15, 2021

seeing what happens between colors

In the seemingly unending stack of theology papers I am privileged to be engaging, a quote from Albers’ Interaction of Color caught my heart… thanks Ed. “In musical compositions, so long as we hear merely single tones, we do not

Dwight J. Friesen December 22, 2004September 28, 2022

God says yes to me

God Says Yes To Me by Kaylin Haught I asked God if it was okay to be melodramaticand she said yesI asked her if it was okay to be shortand she said it sure isI asked her if I could

Dwight J. Friesen October 14, 2004December 11, 2020

Chaos & Beauty

Complexity seems to find its fullness in beauty. So I’m not sure I connect as much with the subtle message that complexity is bad and beauty is good. Some people speak of God as a God of order rather than

Dwight J. Friesen March 15, 2004December 7, 2022

“A Gift” by Denise Levertov

A Gift by Denise Levertov Just when you seem to yourself nothing but a flimsy web of questions, you are given the questions of others to hold in the emptiness of your hands, songbird eggs that can still hatch if

Dwight J. Friesen January 10, 2002November 18, 2021