Chasing one’s shoe down a remote, mountain creek has a certain amount of romantic appeal to it, if not some strange contorted heroism.

I squinted through my drunkenness, though that didn’t accomplish much other than obscure my vision. There it was. I ran my clumsy hands over the rough leather, feeling that each little pock had its own story to tell, and I sat down in the old man’s warm chair….

I am but a small hobbit in a very large world, but I am loved in a manner greater than any I could ever imagine. God may use me to work His ways, and that is an encouraging thought.

Dear Peter Jackson: I’ve enjoyed the look into your imagination and how you envisioned everything from Mordor to the Shire. Congrats on yet another success with the Tolkien story.

In a quiet corner of Holland, a Catholic priest underwent a crisis of faith and conscience, which would lead him on a reformer’s path and give his name to an entire movement.

“If decent means getting rid of your life’s troubles,” the hero said, rising and catching the long arms that immediately went out to grab him, “If that’s what you think is decent, then you’ve learned nothing from life. It’s those troubles that shape us, and make us stronger. And it’s up to us to decide what to do with that strength.”

You are nearly certain that it has become pointless to go to a music store. You walk in, surrounded by atonal alternative, dance drivel, and hip-hop hype. But you make a turn into the heavy metal aisle and find Metropolis Part 2.

“Sex and sexuality is not the problem. It is the mindset and the heart attitude that doesn’t love God with everything and, because of it, won’t love themselves enough to want what God wants for them.”

Are the sexual metaphors explored by Pedro the Lion’s Control, Bill Mallonee’s Love Cocoon, and - dare we say - the Bible too much for contemporary Christianity?

Jonathan Allen and Davey Henreckson celebrate the beauty of myth and creation with a selection of original poetry.