James A. Reeves
Journal Stories + Essays Books Installations Broadcasts About

New York City

Space

And so much space there’s nothing to think about except something resembling god.

New York City

Doubt

Now they’re saying the virus spreads by talking and breathing. We can kill each other just by being a person.

New York City

Kneel

I hear the undoing of a lock and her voice calling behind me. “Thank you, darling. Pray for me.”

New York City

Quiet

There was a time when I would count how many words I said each day. At night I logged the number into a notebook. Sixteen. Twenty-three.

New York City

Denial

A note on Barnett Newman’s portrait of “the agony that is single, constant, unrelenting, willed—world without end.”

Taiwan

March 6, 2020

Once again, the question that haunts me when I approach any kind of altar: Am I allowed to pray before you if I don’t understand you?

New York City

Cross

Ash Wednesday and people walk the streets with smudged crosses on their foreheads. A beautiful ritual, ancient and haunted.

New York City

Pattern

The machine says tens of millions of people will flood into Las Vegas as well as Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, and Houston.

South Dakota

Bow

Billboards along Interstate 90 tell me that God owes us nothing, love is an action verb, and the key to forgiveness was hung on the cross.

New York City

Ghost

The first gods must have been born while we slept.

Finland

January 12, 2020

I went to a 700-year-old church on Sunday morning and the service was purely tonal because I don’t understand Finnish. It was the most moving sermon I’ve ever heard.

Turku

Cathedral

Now begins the season of Arvo Pärt and private hymns for a better year.

Posts navigation

previous 1 2
Newsletter • Portfolio
Email • RSS • Mastodon • Search
  • Journal
  • Installations
  • Essays + Stories
  • Books
  • Broadcasts
  • About