A Writer's Conference to Consider

The first annual Portals Writers Conference at Corban University (in Salem, Oregon) will be held  June 21-24, 2012.
Find at more at http://www.corban.edu/news/2011-12/0223WritersConference.html, http://www.corban.edu/wordworks/writers-conference.html, and related pages.

'My thoughts go circling round a tree...'

Books tumbled off a shelf I was cleaning this Good Friday afternoon, and spilled out a faded copy of an old cherished favorite, with perfect timing -- Ringwald's "Greater Love":
"He once hung there upon a tree,
A man hung there for love of me;
Upon a leafless, fruitless tree
They nailed Him fast for you and me.
Upon the bare and graceless rood
A young man, fearless, strong and free
They nailed unto the naked wood;
There God made man was stretched for me.
Upon the stark and straightened tree
A burden hangs in agony;
A criminal there pays His fee to politics and piety.
And when spring spills her gold to see
By sinners sad and stained as we
My thoughts go circling round a tree
Where Love spent all its wealth on me.
They nailed Him to the lifeless tree,
A young man, fearless, strong and free,
Who there, in willing agony,
Gave all His love for you and me."