Foreshadow Magazine

12/08/2023

Submissions deadline for this year's theme: 31 August. We continue accepting themes for next year's theme, 'In the Image, in the Flesh: Creation and Incarnation'. Thank you to all who have submitted work this season!

07/06/2023

New poetry and fiction

https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine

29/05/2023

New episode!

Musician James Bishop describes his journey five years ago of walking over half of the Pacific Crest Trail in California. Most of this time was spent in solitude, during which he emptied his thoughts and concluded that meaning in life only comes from the quality of one's relationships with others, the world, oneself and God; the greatest of all that remains is love. This five-month 1,400-mile hike inspired a collection of songs that he is releasing, and on this episode, he performs one song, 'Wrecking My Body', about the danger of being stuck in his mind and how that has impacted his participation in society and church.

Co-hosted by Jarel Paguio

Co-hosted by Jarel Paguio

07/05/2023

I Know Not Where I Go
By Michael Stalcup

--
after Charles Spurgeon

I know not where I go, but know with whom
I brave these bleak and beauty-broken lands
and know that though he leads me through the tomb
yet even there my life is in his hands.

Like Christ, I cannot see around the bend
of death except believe the Father’s call
and pour my life out, trusting him to mend
this tattered soul so ravaged by the Fall--

for all the paths of God will end in pure
unmingled good to every heir of grace,
and though the world would with its fires lure,
its warmth cannot compare to his embrace.

So lead me through the valleys when you must,
my Father — only this: help me to trust.

--
Michael Stalcup is a Thai American missionary living in Bangkok, Thailand. (Michael Stalcup Poetry)

From the author: Christ knew the resurrection would follow his self-sacrifice and, similarly, we know that we will rise again at the resurrection. Here I am emphasizing Christ's shared humanity with us. Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine... and so, in a certain sense, he had to go to the cross in faith that God would raise him from the dead. This is a great mystery, of course, but by "I cannot see," I am emphasizing that, although Christ knew he would rise from the dead, Jesus, in his humanity, could not "see" around that bend until he lived through it. Jesus was the firstfruits of the bodily resurrection of all humanity, and in his full humanity, I believe it is well within the realm of orthodox belief to speak of Jesus modeling faithfulness for us who also must follow in faith, knowing of our resurrection--and living toward it--without yet "seeing" it with our eyes.

https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/i-know-not-where-i-go

Art: Public domain

07/05/2023

A Road Through Ohio Spring
By Royal Rhodes

--
after Basho

conifers nearby
make me look up from my book
lost in translation

I wanted to write
to find love with life again
here were better words

now cherry blossoms
that like snow cover Spring boughs
show impermanence

layered breaths of clouds
moved by the arc of a fan
become narratives

I know I am watched
by eyes in a peacock's tail
that blink when I move
​
the ink that darkens
outlines how my emptiness
cannot be contained

all that passes here
as theatrical backdrop
shows and stops my world

our isolation
helps nature imagine us
in our long absence

nature was foreign
until I swallowed its soul
my mistakes teach me

--
Royal Rhodes taught religious studies for almost 40 years.

https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/a-road-through-ohio-spring

Art: Public domain

01/05/2023

New podcast!

Church musician Matt Bickett explores the roots of his family and wider Appalachian culture through visiting the gravesites of his ancestors in eastern Kentucky. He connects this journey with his theological study of St Gregory of Nyssa, who taught that perfection is possible only through God's grace and requires an ascent into God and at the same time a descent into mystery. Matt describes the contributions Appalachian culture can make for oppressed communities in other locations.

Co-host: Will Shine
About 55 minutes

Visit the link in the bio to listen

With Matt Bickett and Will Shine

01/05/2023

For I Have Sinned
By Adrian David

A priest wrestles between vengeance and forgiveness upon hearing a murderer's tragic confession.

--
Heaven and hell twisted together in his mind like a storm. The contradicting voices grew louder.

Kill him!

Forgive him!

Regaining his senses, Giovanni took quick, short breaths. He bit his fist, trying to muffle his inner agony.

Help me, Lord.

He squeezed his eyes shut. His moral compass wavered; the demons pounding in his mind raged. Yet, in all the darkness, Giovanni saw a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel. The hope that love could transcend all. The forgiveness that Christ offered to the world. The grace that redeemed even the worst of sinners, the redeeming grace.

--
Visit the link in the bio to read the whole story

https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/for-i-have-sinned

Art: Ilya Repin, Public domain

22/04/2023

April Snowfall, a Mercy
By Caroline Liberatore

Snow-laden eyelids flickering
Shut, then wide, mirror peeking

Behold, the purified landscape
Cracked earth blanketed, now faultless

Lines, absorbing every drop
Until dirt-crust lace dissolves

A new embellishment, now
Let the coming green remember

Dross, may too, be vindicated
​ With a festal blanketing

--
Caroline Liberatore is a poet from Cleveland, Ohio.

https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/april-snowfall-a-mercy

Art: Ernest Lawson, public domain

22/04/2023

Beginning & Beginning
By D. S. Martin

After John Donne's 'Death's Duel'

Can we account for our
becoming our souls breathed
into tiny bodies by divine breath?

Did God weave soul into the fabric
of your embryo to protect it
from being broken?

Each response from your tongue
when spoken has its beginning
on your exhaled breath

Every breath rising from our lungs
is a gift we lift
along with every song we're singing

Though soul is far more
than the breath we breathe
& spirit far more than the soul

we receive all three thankfully
each an intricate part
of the whole

Yet when Christ faced death
& released unseen all three
into the Father's hands

(spirit soul & final breath)
he knew that's where
they'd always been

--
D. S. Martin is a poet and academic from Ontario.

https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/beginning-beginning

Art: Kandinsky, Crucified Christ

16/04/2023

On the Nature of Forgiveness
By Linda McCullough Moore

The bad guys came for him
His friends all ran away.
They crucified him.

He came back to life
(It’s what God does)
He told the lady
At the tomb
On Easter morning
Go tell the guys,
And then he
Made them breakfast.

At rising from the dead
To save the world
He was pretty good.

At resurrecting sins
Maybe not so much

--
Linda McCullough Moore is an author and mentor to writers.

https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/on-the-nature-of-forgiveness

Christ is risen!

16/04/2023

New episode!

Will, Jarel and Josh review the first three conversations of the season. In response to the conversation with Ryan Keating, they discuss intentionality and attentiveness in worship and our daily lives. In response to the conversation with Jessica Walters, they discuss being fully human and alive in Christ as the goal of our faith as well as the church's engagement with the arts. In response to the conversation with Roger Belbin, they discuss the strengths and weaknesses of communal participation and how joining communal activities can draw us out of ourselves towards those around us.

With Will Shine, Jarel Paguio and Josh Seligman

06/04/2023

A Jew and Her Cross
By Sandro F. Piedrahita

Based on the life of Edith Stein, a German Jewish philosopher and Christian nun martyred in an Auschwitz gas chamber

--
Excerpt:
The train is crowded with people, sweaty, dirty, disheveled, with fear and despair painted on their faces. They come in all ages and from all stages in life: doctors, lawyers, poets, plumbers, carpenters and even the occasional religious. Sister Teresa Blessed by the Cross looks at the crammed multitude inside the train – there is barely any space to move – and feels a deep sorrow. She had tried to help them, even sent a letter to the Pope seeking his intervention, wanted to be a modern Esther delivering the Jews from the hands of the Antichrist, but it had been to no avail. Now she sees how some huddle in groups, those who are fortunate enough to be with their families, and how others stand alone in the crowded train leading each and every one of them to their deaths. And yet in some of their faces she sees courage, strength, resilience. They are the people of God, and they have not forgotten.

--
Visit the link in the bio to read more

https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/a-jew-and-her-cross

06/04/2023

Giotto's Kiss of Judas
By Jessica Walters

Torches, clubs, and spears
gripped by disciples and soldiers
slant towards the centre
of the painting, where Judas in jaundiced
yellow, silken, garment
places a hand on Christ’s
shoulder. The cloak
enfolds the two, their eyes meet.
Christ is unsurprised as Judas
puckers up. The betrayer’s
face reveals uncertainty—as if
the moment he hoped to savour
fluttered out of reach.

It’s too late to backtrack now.
Pursed lips inch toward the mouth
of Christ. But the kiss, he knows,
will kill them both.

--
Jessica Walters is a professor of creative and academic writing.

https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/giottos-kiss-of-judas

Art: Giotto's Kiss of Judas, public domain

Poetry by Jessica Walters

06/04/2023

The Scent of Creation: On Gardens and Greetings from Beyond
By Sarah Rose Pryor

Something caught my eye in the garden. Pulling at oregano stems for dinner, my hand grazed over an orange lump just cresting over the soil. Excitement and surprise arose in me, joining together in elation – to see, after all this time, growth.

I hadn’t gone out to dig for sweet potatoes that day. Most of my garden plants had already reached peak harvest by late September; the potatoes were the only ones left untouched, partly because of my theory that sweet potatoes are an autumnal vegetable and partly because I didn’t know the first thing about harvesting them. Sweet potatoes, like regular potatoes and most other things, were foods we just bought from the market growing up. This year was different: the first year of my own garden, at my own house. Planting potatoes was a spontaneous act, christening new ground for new life with new plants...

--
Visit the link in bio to read the whole essay

https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/the-scent-of-creation-on-gardens-and-greetings-from-beyond

Art: The Garden of Eden, Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain

06/04/2023

New Forecast!
Journeying in Community: Roger Belbin and Pilgrimage
Ep 44

Roger Belbin describes a pilgrimage he and his late wife used to go on in honour of St Alban, the first martyr of Britain, joining their local church and culminating in a worship service. He also describes walking some French portions of the Camino de Santiago. Roger reads a poem recently published on Foreshadow about virtual worship during the pandemic and describes the influence that a devotional book and music have on his faith.

Co-hosted by Josh Seligman

06/04/2023

S***m
by Matthew J. Andrews

It’s not such a bad place. We work
hard all day, manning our shops,
raising our towers, forging iron

into sharp points. We have parades
on weekends to honor the heroes
who came before and the brave ones

who still keep an eye open for danger,
for the faces of strangers on our streets.
We love our children like the stars

and look out only for our own. We like clean
streets, flowers of every color, shady trees.
Of course we’re not perfect, but we

know how to transcend ourselves, how to
stand erect with hands on our hearts
and our eyes only on our flag, and to sing.

--
Matthew J. Andrews is a private investigator and writer from California.

https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/sodom

Art: Henry Ossawa Tanner, Public domain

06/04/2023

A World for Abimael Jones
by Sandro F. Piedrahita

Torn between allegiance to his parents and the demands of his conscience​, the son of two ruthless guerrillas makes a dangerous pilgrimage to become a peaceful soldier for Christ.

--
“Don’t forget everything I’ve taught you,” says Winnie. “Your faith is going to be tested. Remember what the good Lord said in Genesis: ‘I am with you and will watch over you wherever you may go.’ Don’t do anything that will stain your soul. And in the most difficult moments, know that God is with you, know that God is still with you, know that God is always with you.”

--
Read here: https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/a-world-for-abimael-jones-part-1-of-2

16/03/2023

A new Forecast!

Poet and writing professor Jessica Walters describes her journey from a tradition that overemphasised external achievements, such as rote Bible memorisation, to a contemplative reintegration of scripture and personal involvement, faith and creativity, word and silence. One of her formative experiences was working in solitude as a medic in the forests of British Columbia. Illustrating her journey, she reads two of her poems, 'The Sunday Blues' and 'A Liturgy of the Wilderness'.

Listen here:

Co-hosted by Josh Seligman

13/03/2023

Distance
By Miriam Riad

In the distance, I see
Promises making their way
Toward me.
They’re not running, like I thought
They’d be.
But I can see them, blurry,
Arms raised, ready to greet.
I hear them shout with jubilee,
“We’re on our way—get ready!”
I stand to my feet, hands stretched out
Eagerly.
Is it time? Have they arrived?
And I hear a voice.
It’s right next to me. Not off in the distance
Like I thought it would be.
You’re smiling, of course,
Your hand reaching for mine,
And you say, “I’m here with you now.
Wait with me.”
And I know I’ve already
Been given
What I need.
I don’t have to worry:
These promises will reach me.

--
https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/distance

Photo: Elavarasi.v, CC BY-SA 4.0

13/03/2023

Strength by Noah J. Craig

Dear God,
Don’t let us fall.
Keep us strong by resting in Your peace,
Without which we are suffocated by anxiety.
Troubles on earth will not cease
Until You come back in majesty
So keep us strong,
Don’t let us fall.
Uproot the thorns that twist into my heart
And destroy the arrows that pierce my mind.
We have been Yours from the start,
Hold us close even beyond the end of time.
Keep us strong,
Don’t let us fall.
Hear the words that my mouth cannot utter,
Interpret every tear that falls from my eye.
Whatever the lot, let the will be done of the Father.
Remember us in Your kingdom when we die.
Keep us strong,
Don’t let us fall.
We have no strength to stand by ourselves alone
And worry seeks to pull us into depths below.
Prop us up by replacing the sand with stone,
Hold us to resist the strength of the undertow.
Keep us strong,
Don’t let us fall.
Deliver us from thoughts that we can’t control,
Deliver us into the understanding of Your sovereignty.
When the aching heart cries out in anguish, do console,
And in Your pierced hands hold my soul when it’s hard to breathe.
Keep us strong,
Don’t let us fall.
​Amen.

--
https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/keep-us-strong

Art: Konstantin Bogaevsky, public domain

06/03/2023

Drawing from Deep Wells: Ryan Keating and Pilgrimage

Pastor, poet and winemaker Ryan Keating reads and describes two original poems about wine and communion soon to be published on Foreshadow. Then he describes how he has, in retrospect, understood his exilic journey to Cyprus as a pilgrimage, one in which he has discovered deep wells of healing. Finally, he shares how ancient Christian prayers and cooking with his family have provided nourishment.

Listen here:

Forecast Ep 42

05/03/2023

'The Widow's Psalm'
By Bryant Burroughs

An imagined prayer of the Widow of Nain (Gospel of Luke chapter 7)

How long, how long must we kneel
and cry to you, until our appeal
is heard and you are stirred?
Do the ears of God hear no sound?
Are the hands of God bound?
Are the eyes of God blurred?

I had heard that you are Heaven’s Breath
blowing into us a life that stops death.
Yet here am I, bereft of all save sorrow.
You, son of a widow and the Spy
of God, you didn’t even try.
Does your mother have another son I may borrow?

God’s only Son, why is my only son here
on this dreadful God-forsaken bier --
This son of unquenchable tears?
But for no good have I wailed,
and I wonder: who else have you failed?
I’m left with sorrow to fill my years.

--
https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/the-widows-psalm

Art: In the Beginning by Daniel Heller, public domain

01/03/2023

The Counting
By Linda McCullough Moore

It will be five years Friday,
Sarah said,
since my sister died.
Yes, I think, five years, and thirty years
since my father died,
and a million different days
since we were
daughters, sisters.

But shall we count
that way?

Will eternity be
Measured?

Does not memory
say it won’t be marked
by years,

and does not love refuse accounting?

--
Linda McCullough Moore is the author of two story collections, a novel, an essay collection and more than 350 shorter published works.

www.lindamcculloughmoore.com

https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/the-counting

Art: John Haberle, Public domain

22/02/2023

The Sunday Blues by Jessica Walters

On Sundays after
church while the adults
had coffee and pie
we played in the barn,
the cornfield, the forest.
We played kick
the can, capture the flag,
we played pretend,
imagining the most elicit
thing we could think
of—that we were orphans.

It changed slowly
the way things do.
Friends left home,
moved away, had marriages
their families disapproved
of, had kids outside marriage,
chose the wrong job,
started asking questions.

It was the questions,
in the end, that led
us away.
But we didn’t foresee how
they would unspool us and
the old life.

We asked questions as if
those Sundays would house
us when we returned--

--
https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/the-sunday-blues

Art: The Prodigal Son in Modern Times, the Departure, by James Tissot (public domain)

21/02/2023

Worship in Covid Times
By Roger Belbin

Now we don’t need to go out on Sunday.
We can stay at home and view the screen.
Our morning service is ready to play.
We dress as we like, as we’re not seen.

We can of course just sit at our ease,
But we wonder if we should be standing
Or sometimes should be down on our knees.
Perhaps it’s all just too demanding.

We miss the chance we used to take
To greet our friends as we could then do,
To celebrate peace with a handshake,
But now we are learning something new.

Yet, if you started late, don’t worry.
You can skip a bit, if you’re in a hurry.

--
Roger Belbin lives and writes in northwest England.

16/02/2023

The Call of the Piet-my-Vrou: Remembering South Korea while on Safari

A thought-provoking and insightful personal essay by Sara Kyoungah White

When the people of southern Africa hear the call of the Piet-my-Vrou, they know the rains are coming and begin to plant their seeds. I had journeyed to the other side of the world without knowing that it was this call I had come to hear. In the middle of Pilanesberg National Park, on a safari, I remembered the orphaned children in South Korea I spent a year living with and the songs I had sung over them.

Prayer is like bird watching, says Rowan Williams. You sit for hours and wait for the burst of wings and color to flash before your eyes. Or prayer is like a game drive. Sometimes you go for hours without seeing a thing, and then you round a bend to find a serval in the road. Sometimes you stare off into the trees and feel the prick of eyes—a kudu with whimsically twisted horns is cautiously looking back.

Day and night, you wait for the moment when the radio crackles to say there are lions in the east field; when you flash a beam of light into the night and a pair of shining eyes answers in return. Day and night, you wait for the moment when you hear a call sounding. You wait for the moment when you call in return, and the answer is not rejection but love.

Read the whole personal essay here: https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/the-call-of-the-piet-my-vrou-remembering-south-korea-while-on-safari

Photo by Dominic Sherony, public domain

14/02/2023

Our first podcast of the season is up!

To introduce the season, co-hosts Jarel, Will and Josh each answer the two questions that they plan to ask their guests this year:

1) Can you describe a physical or spiritual journey (or both) that you have been on? and

2) What are the text(s) that strengthen and nourish your faith and life?

These questions follow the theme for this year, 'Songs of Ascents: Pilgrimage and Worship', exploring the journeys we take in search of wholeness in God and the resources that fuel us.

To introduce the new season, co-hosts Jarel, Will and Josh each answer the two questions that they plan to ask their guests this year: 1) Can you describe a physical or spiritual journey (or both) that you have been on? and 2) What are the text(s) that strengthen and nourish your faith and life? The...

07/02/2023

Woe is me! My sojourning was prolonged; I dwelt with the tents of Kedar.
From Psalm 120

This week: new poems by Steven Searcy and Alan Altany https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine

31/01/2023

We have launched our new season! Here is our introduction to our theme of the spiritual and physical journeys we make in search of wholeness in God.

https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine/foreword-2023-journeys-to-thin-places

We hope the works we share this year provide courage, insight and inspiration for the path ahead.

From the foreword:

Heaven on earth, we need it now
I'm sick of all of this hanging around
I'm sick of sorrow, I'm sick of the pain
I'm sick of hearing again and again
That there's (never) gonna be peace on earth

These lyrics come from U2's song 'Peace on Earth', which came out in 2000.* The world was a different place twenty-three years ago, but the lyrics remain timely, expressing a longing for God's peace to come in the face of personal and global evils.

Millennia earlier, the Psalmist described a similar longing in different words:

O Lord, deliver my soul from unjust lips
And from a deceitful tongue....
Woe is me! My sojourning was prolonged;
I dwelt with the tents of Kedar.
My soul sojourned a long time as a resident alien.
With those who hate peace, I was peaceful;
When I spoke to them, they made war against me without cause.
Psalm 120:2, 5–7

As pastor Eugene Peterson writes about this psalm, 'Such dissatisfaction with the world as it is is preparation for travelling in the way of Christian discipleship. The dissatisfaction, coupled with a longing for peace and truth, can set us on a pilgrim path of wholeness in God.'

Such a quest for wholeness in God has motivated pilgrims -- travellers with a spiritual purpose -- for generations. A few hundred years after Christ, the desert fathers and mothers left their possessions and status in single-minded pursuit of God. Their journeys led them into the wilderness to pray and wrestle against evil: in Egypt, they moved to the desert, while in the British Isles, where I live, many of these monks and nuns settled down on wind-swept, desolate islands off the Irish and Scottish coasts.

Photo: Lindisfarne Castle, Holy Island, by Derek Voller, Public domain

Editorial by Joshua Seligman

09/12/2022

Writings for Advent and Christmas

1. kneeling at the Manger (Poetry by Carl Winderl)
2. Review: The Gospel According...to Mary by Carl Winderl (Book review by Rachel Fulton Brown
3. gazing at My son (Poetry by Carl Winderl)
4. "Carvered" for Christmas (Story by Michael Lyle)

Read them here: https://www.foreshadowmagazine.com/magazine

Art: Ludvig Christian Møgelgaard, Public domain