Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 14h

I hope everyone here is already following @npr.org, but just in case . . .

NPR @npr.org · 14h

A Statement from NPR’s Editor in Chief on the Pentagon’s Press Policy.
Read More: www.npr.org/2025/10/13/g...

2 4

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 22h

We all know how tenuous it is, but we can be thankful for the release of hostages at least.

3

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 23h

A short poem of mine about the horrors in the Middle East was accepted last week and probably won't appear until next year. I can only be grateful that my timing is so bad. May the cease fire hold!

1 3

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 1d

I read a lot of detective fiction while the brain tries to stir up the muse. Recently I tried Sue Grafton: too relentlessly colloquial, Californian, anti-intellectual, fond of the violent underworld. I'm back to #PDJames, with her Dalgliesh reading himself to sleep with the Heaney *Beowulf.*

1

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 2d

I could brag, I suppose, about how little time I spend on my phone. But that's because my eyes are so bad that I need the big screen of my desktop machine. So much for statistics.

2

Reposted by Maryann Corbett

Eric Colburn @etherealcolburn.bsky.social · 3d

I’ve been reading the Summer/Fall issue of THINK, and it’s excellent, with great work by
@maryanncorbett.bsky.social, Dan Campion, Steven Knepper, Jesse Keith Butler, and others. Here’s one of mine:

1 4

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 3d

Minnesotans: You know public radio is now without federal funding. If you're a listener and not yet a contributor--even if you're not, but you want an unbiased news source to continue to exist--take note: today's the last day of MPR's fall member drive. Give. www.mpr.org

Home | Minnesota Public Radio

Minnesota Public Radio is one of the nation's premier public radio organizations, operating a regional network of more than three dozen stations in Minnesota and its neighboring communities.

www.mpr.org

1

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 4d

It's right there in the Gospels.

PBS News @pbsnews.org · 4d

The conclusion Leo draws in his first teaching document is that the Catholic Church’s “preferential option for the poor” has existed from the start, is non-negotiable and is the very essence of what it means to be Christian. https://to.pbs.org/4h06dIm

Pope Leo condemns economies that marginalize the poor while the wealthy live in a bubble of luxury

The Vatican released the document, entitled "I have loved you," which Francis had begun to write in his final months but never finished. Leo credited Francis with the text, cited him repeatedly, but s...

to.pbs.org

1 5

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 5d

It's odd, though it's certainly nice: Every once in a while I find that somebody has liked a poem of mine; they've featured it on a blog, or reproduced it, or taught it, or something like. But I never learn how they found the poem they liked, so I'm still clueless about what works!

1

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 5d

Yes, Writer's Almanac and ALP used to get us lots of general readers who aren't poets. Most of the daily poetry newsletters now have a poet audience. I do try to publish in general(ish) magazines; religious mags are usually as close as I can get.

1

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 5d

So how does a site devoted to video get eyes on motionless poetry?

1

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 5d

Before the demise of the daily Writer's Almanac and American Life in Poetry, I would have named one of those as the best way to get eyes on work. Now that they're relics, what online venues do we like? Poetry Daily? Verse Daily? Some other daily poetry project? Our own posts on social media?

1 1

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 5d

How many years of patience have you got?

1

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 5d

I think it's fair to say that poets would like their work to be read. So it's reasonable to ask: Where / how should one publish in order to be read? What form of publication is most likely to get a poem read? Granted, we try to put our eggs in multiple baskets. But where do we find the most readers?

4 3 4

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 6d

Here's something I posted seven years ago, relevant again. I wish more people could be persuaded to study medieval history.

"I'm reading--again--the history of the late 14th c., when a usurper seized the throne of England. All the chroniclers rewrote history to praise him. People weren't free to say what they thought about the government. The wrong religious opinions could get you burned (which hadn't been true in England before that time.)
One reason I like medieval history is that it reminds me what the Constitution is meant to prevent."

2

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 7d

Finally, seasonable temperatures and a bit of red on the maples. Time for an old poem of mine. (I think this was in *Credo for the Checkout Line in Winter.*)

Ardors
By Maryann Corbett
What makes the engine go?
Desire, desire, desire —Stanley Kunitz
As if the sin of Adam took its toll
on trees, the maples stricken with the fall
burn in their sins. Red passion and proud gold,
their vanities float down like scraps of flame.
Lives ago, we burned them—garden stubble
and leaves—the yard’s year gone in a smoky plume
curling to heaven. Now the tumulus
of compost seethes in its center, simmers, mulls.
We rake the piles. The crickets’ wings rehearse
desire, desire, slowing as daylight’s slant
unwarms the world. We feel it too, the chill,
the ache displacing older, wilder want:
Leaf into loam, red giant to black hole,
lust into languor, everything that burns
burns out: the dust, the gas, the acrid smell,
the end of the matter. All our burning’s doomed,
even these fires where maple trees are found
still ardent after years, still unconsumed.

3

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 8d

Tell Congress: Christians want our government funding to care for all us, not terrorize our neighbors. act.faithfulamerica.org/sign/goverme...

Tell Congress: Christians want our government funding to care for all us, not terrorize our neighbors

The Trump regime has shut down the federal government indefinitely in the latest scheme to line the pockets of billionaires, fund ICE's terror against our neighbors, and eliminate federal services tha...

act.faithfulamerica.org

1

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 8d

I've pulled a muscle in my back by bending over while doing dishes. So I'm feeling decrepit and identifying with the old guys in B.H. Fairchild's poem "Old Men Playing Basketball," #GeorgeBilgere's daily poem (which you should subscribe to if you don't already). georgebilgere.com/so/4bPcWFrm_...

Here’s a poem for today, October 5, 2025

Poetry Town

georgebilgere.com

2

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 9d

I've just now noticed that our friend, NVR editor @StevenKnepper, is published at Commonweal. www.commonwealmagazine.org/more-gore

More than Gore

Horror movies can unsettle us and stir us to think about the world—and about God, as Ryan Duns shows in 'Theology of Horror.'

www.commonwealmagazine.org

1 2

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 9d

Happy feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. If there was ever a year when we needed his prayer for peace, this one is it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hdW...

Prayer of St. Francis - Robert Delgado

YouTube video by UWEC Choral

www.youtube.com

7

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 11d

I'm often so slow to get around to reading new books by poets I like that when I do, that book is no longer the newest one! I've finally gotten to Mary Jo Salter's *Zoom Rooms* and am especially enjoying the ekphrastic poems, like this one: www.literarymatters.org/13-3-carlo-c...

Carlo Crivelli and the Trees - Mary Jo Salter - Literary Matters

Playful, prolific, noted for tableaux of bounty, he’d do a portrait of a man’s face composed of fruit, or picture his Madonnas under garlands, bright as chandeliers, of nearly three-D pickles, pears, ...

www.literarymatters.org

1

Reposted by Maryann Corbett

Anne M. Carpenter @catholickungfu.bsky.social · 12d

fwiw, the Catholic Church considers medical care a human right, which means it’s not accorded to persons due to citizenship but because they exist, which in turns means societies that desire to seek the good must offer such care.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12d

Vance: "If you're an American citizen & you've been to the hospital in the last few years, you've probably noticed wait times are especially large & very often somebody who's there in the ER is an illegal alien. Why do those people get healthcare benefits at hospitals paid for by American citizens?"

6 31 130

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 12d

Happy discovery this morning: #PatrickKurp uses my poem "Ice Dam" as a prompt for some snowy-and-icy memories. (The poem, by the way, is in my most recent book, *The O in the Air.*) evidenceanecdotal.blogspot.com/2025/09/flui...

'Fluid As Mood and Ponderous As Grief'

Winter 2001-02. Upstate New York. Much snow, few thaws. We discarded our Christmas tree at the curb and awaited pickup by the city. Passing ...

evidenceanecdotal.blogspot.com

1 3

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 13d

Happy International Translation Day! The UN is concerned with "bringing nations together" via living languages. But the country of the past is important, too. www.un.org/en/observanc...

International Translation Day | United Nations

International Translation Day is meant as an opportunity to pay tribute to the work of language professionals, which plays an important role in bringing nations together, facilitating dialogue, unders...

www.un.org

3 8

Maryann Corbett @maryanncorbett.bsky.social · 15d

The numbers in this Guardian subhead--ALL the numbers--should be getting much more attention. Focus on them: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Immigrants with no criminal record now largest group in Ice detention

Government data shows 16,523 people with no record, versus 15,725 with a record and 13,767 with pending charges

www.theguardian.com

2 3