All Posts By

Debra Rienstra

Blog

Third Sunday in Advent: A Sestina

These candlelit evenings, ancient hope glimmers like a gift,gleams for a moment, then falters, slips to nothingin the circling of the year, our loves still

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Blog

Chronological Loneliness

My English composition students have been revising their first, low-impact, warm-up essay assignment this week. We’re mostly working on organization and sentence style at this

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Blog

A Passel of Idiolectical Delights

I’ve been thinking heavy thoughts all week—about liberal arts education, public discourse and its discontents, the challenges of the creative process, curricular dilemmas, etc. In

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Blog

Goodbye to the Books

This summer, Calvin University librarians are doing a “collection review.” That means they’re culling the stacks. Apparently, Calvin has never done this before. And since

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Blog

Perchance to Dream

Weary from contention, seeking escape, I try to rest. Even rest feels hard, hard like dry ground. A pillow flattened into stone. Tension in my

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