Author: Tom

Thomas Allbaugh’s stories, poems, and essays have appeared in a variety of journals, including Writing on the Edge, In Touch Magazine, Broken Skyline, and Relief. He is a professor of English at Azusa Pacific University, where he teaches advanced composition and creative writing. Apocalypse TV, his first novel, was published in 2017 and is available from eLectio Publishers. A chapbook of his poetry, The View from January, was released by Kelsay Books in January, 2020.

“Hey, It’s an Election Year!” When Opinion is Supposed to End the Discussion but Shouldn’t

Posted on by Tom

The comment came up again the other day. “It’s just my opinion,” this person said. “And everyone has their opinion. The thing is, you can’t argue with someone about their […]

Maybe a Different Take on Prayer Would be a Dialogue

Posted on by Tom 2 Comments on Maybe a Different Take on Prayer Would be a Dialogue

I occasionally hear people talking about how God is the last defender of absolutes. It is as though the Greek way of thinking about philosophy, where we move in a […]

Poetry as Enrichment, not Code-Breaking*

Posted on by Tom

I think I said this before, or something like it: Poets don’t write with the intention of making their poems hard to understand. They do not write in code that […]

Why We Should Allow Students to Scribble First

Posted on by Tom 2 Comments on Why We Should Allow Students to Scribble First

Recently, I tried writing a poem on the COVID-19 Pandemic. As usual, at the start I felt the way I imagine that my students do when I give them writing […]

Offering a New Synonym for What 45 is Doing in 2020

Posted on by Tom 2 Comments on Offering a New Synonym for What 45 is Doing in 2020

Over-use lessens the impact of any word. Even our most cherished f-bombs and terms of sacrilege can, with over-use, cease to shock. As with cliched metaphors, we cease to hear, […]