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Poem: “Squall”
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Readers Respond
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GEDs for Myanmar Migrants
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Inside Nyansa Classical Community
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Watching the Geminids
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A World Full of Signs
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Covering the Cover: The Riddle of Nature
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Back from Walden Pond
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Can Masculinity Be Good?
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Nature Is Obsessed with Me
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Ancient Songs in the Desert
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The Sadness of the Creatures
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Meeting the Wolf
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Saskatchewan, Promised Land
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The Plants Can Talk
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Saving the Soil, Saving the Farm
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The Wonder of Moths
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The Leper of Abercuawg
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Dandelions: An Apology
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A Wilderness God
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Why I Hunt
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Reading the Book of Nature
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Breakwater
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Lambing Season
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Earthworks Urban Farm
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Are You a Tree?
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Practicing Christianity
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Who Gets to Tell the Story?
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A Medievalist Looks for the Image of Christ
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In Defense of Chastity
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—For my grandsons
to someday stumble on the circumstance
of love, lie back, and in the quiet, try
to give shy thanks for all its providence.
I pray they’ll need not know such things as, by
its sound, the caliber of ordnance.
This poem was shortlisted for the Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award in 2023. Find out how to enter your poems here.
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Thomas Decker
Robert Crawford's poem "Let them Grow" rings true for many in American society, but not in every instance. While I would not change one word of the poem, as a retired Army chaplain I would speak to many other sounds heard by all who have chosen the hard path of service within the nation's militaries. We thank God that our nation's service members--of all branches--recognize many sounds in their dogged perseverance to provide the nation’s security in perilous times. Included are the call of bugles and chapel bells, the varied calls to worship, the energy of gospel choirs and the provocative chant of liturgy, and the solo voices of singers from every tradition. They provide a ringing and pervasive backdrop for the freedom that America seeks. The varied and rich sounds of service to this nation require our learned attention and proper thanksgiving for this ordnance of a different tenor.