Episode 9 is my first “Etymology Episode”! This week, I’ll talk about being a sixth grader, we’ll look at the word “diabolical” and its surprising opposite, and, as a closing prayer, I’ll share a draft of a poem I’m working on.

So what IS a Cofferstowe anyway? So glad you asked… this week’s episode features an essay about the heart behind this “Creative Kingdom” retreat coming up this June, and closes with a few words from one of our featured speakers Lanier Ivester.

In Episode 7, writer, poet, and fellow G.K. Chesterton nerd Amelia Friedline shares an essay on the holy ache of homesickness, and I’ll close by reading a couple of Amelia’s poems as a benediction. As always, visit the podcast website (matthewclark.net/onethousandwords) for the essay text, to comment, and for links to more info.

On Episode 6, I’ll recount a conversation from a hotel shuttle that took place just before I arrived at Bruce Herman, Malcolm Guite, and JAC Redford’s “Ordinary Saints” exhibit at Laity Lodge, and we’ll hear Malcolm Guite share a snippet of poetry to close.

Here, in the fifth episode, I’ll share an essay about learning to see and we’ll hear a George Macdonald quote.

This week, special guest Rachel Mosley shares the story of her Grandmother’s passing, we’ll hear original music from The Mosleys, and close with Jane Kenyon’s poem “Let Evening Come”.

This week we’ll walk through the old hymn “Come, Thou Fount”, explore the etymology of “inoculate”, and end with a live in-studio recording.

For more, visit: www.matthewclark.net/onethousandwords

Fifty-four frogs. I counted fifty-four pinky-nail-sized frogs on a single walk one day in a patch of woods near where I live. It began with catching some hardly noticeable movement in my peripheral vision - some strange small shift on the ground among the scattered...

One of the very best things I’ve read in the past few years is a little seventy-five page book called “Only the Lover Sings” by Josef Pieper. My friend Joy Clarkson recommended it to me, and I have read and re-read it many times since. The conversation from this...