Michael Dubruiel, RIP

Michael Dubruiel, the husband of Amy Welborn, both Catholic writers and bloggers, died suddenly today.

Requiescat in pace.

(Thanks, Kathryn.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 02/03/09 10:52:32 PM
Categorized as Blogosphere Stuff.

Unhelpful and Provocative

Here's what Robert Wood, Acting Department Spokesman for the Obama/Clinton Department of State, had to say in today's Daily Press Briefing when queried about reports that North Korea may be planning to test a long-range missile:

A ballistic missile launch by North Korea would be unhelpful, and frankly, provocative.

Yes, that's what he said. That's actually what he said. He actually said that.

The Obama/Clinton State Department's motto? Diplomacy in Action.

God help us all.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 02/03/09 05:21:04 PM
Categorized as International & Political.

Tabb Centenary Year VIII

Three poems on Sidney Lanier by Rev. John B. Tabb.

Lanier’s Flute

When palsied at the pool of thought
   The Poet’s words were found,
Thy voice the healing Angel brought
   To touch them into sound.

1897 (p. 348, Quatrains: Persons)

To Sidney Lanier

The dewdrop holds the heaven above,
   Wherein a lark, unseen,
Outpours a rhapsody of love
   That fills the space between.

My heart a dewdrop is, and thou,
   Dawn-spirit, far away,
Fillest the void between us now
   With an immortal lay.

1894 (p. 261, Himself and Others)

At Lanier’s Grave

I stand beside a comrade tree
That guards the spot where thou art laid;
For since thy light is lost to me
   I loiter in the shade.

I lean upon the rugged stone
As on the breast from whence I came,
To learn ’tis not my heart alone
   That bears thy sacred name.

November 1892 (p. 262, Himself and Others)

[The poet Sidney Lanier, with whom Father Tabb had become friends while both were prisoners of war, was born this day, February 3, 1842. “Lanier’s Flute”: the two men met when the sound of Lanier playing the flute out of sight drew Tabb to go and look for him; the poem’s imagery alludes to John 5:1-4. “To Sidney Lanier”: a lay is a poem written to be set to music.]

The references (page number and section) are to The Poetry of Father Tabb, ed. Francis A. Litz, Ph.D. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1928). All of Tabb's poems published here in the Father Tabb Centenary Year were originally published before 1923.

Biblical references link to the New Advent Bible comprising Bishop Challoner's edition of the Douay-Rheims Bible (English) and the Sixto-Clementine edition of the Vulgate (Latin), since they are the versions which Father Tabb would have used as a Catholic.

The year 2009 is the centenary of the death of Rev. John Banister Tabb, November 19, 1909.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 02/03/09 03:08:46 PM
Categorized as Father Tabb Centenary Year.