What is this blog about? You might say it's an odd mix of poetry, social commentary, and spirituality. Here is how I described my intentions when the blog was first launched:
“Not Dark Yet…” you may remember this as the title to one of Bob Dylan’s songs on his Time out of Mind CD. I have borrowed that phrase for the title of my blog because I like the imagery it evokes. My interests include poetry, religion, politics, nature, conservation, and striving toward the common good. This blog will cover observations of life and shared events. If the political and religious aspects get too heated, there is always the mediating influence of poetry.
On this blog, you will see social commentary, personal observations, spiritual questions, maybe a poem from time to time or some pertinent literary references. My emphasis, I anticipate, will always be on the “Not dark yet,” but in the background, there is always Bob Dylan’s reminder (as any good poet will affirm) “Not dark yet, but it’s gettin’ there.”
About the Blogger
Charles Kinnaird, known to his friends as Charlie, enjoys writing but makes a living as a registered nurse. His work experience includes cardiac nursing as well as psychiatric nursing, so he calls himself a "heart-and-soul" nurse. Charlie has a somewhat checkered past which includes ministry, teaching, and social work, in addition to nursing. A graduate of Samford University, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, (and later, the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing) he served as a missionary in Hong Kong where he taught English at Hong Kong Baptist College. In the mid-1980s, he left the Southern Baptists to find liturgical worship, social ministry, and progressive theology at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama. In the 1990s he and his wife enjoyed fellowship and growth as friends of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Birmingham. With the new millennium, they returned to the liturgy when they joined St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Birmingham. Charlie is at home with the Christian mystic tradition which allows for intellectual exploration and interfaith dialogue without forsaking one’s own spirituality.
