What is The Beauty of Things?

My name is Zina, and I am a Catholic wife, mother of five neurodiverse children, and a special education advocacate. I am also a graduate student, taking remote, night-time classes, at the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Houston.

I started The Beauty of Things in late January of 2023 in order to help fund a Masters of the Fine Arts in poetry. There is no way I could have applied without support from this Substack, and I would note have gained the confidence to even submit my application.

I write from view informed by great books and the poetic art. I’ve written about the crisis of modern masculinity, the limitations of autodidactic learning, and the dangers of cancellation culture.

Here is a more personal essay about how my severe depression robbed me of one of the only respites I had: Reading.

How to Read a Novel in 30 Years

Zina Gomez-Liss

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Jan 16

I am not sure if you’ve noticed, but my writing schedule has become less consistent lately. The kind, generous writer Sarah Styf had asked recently if I had posts that seemed “evergreen” for these occasions wh…

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But my life is really about Poetry…

The word poetry does from the Greek poesis which means to make, and we are all created to be creators. The art of poetry itself is just one form of poesis, but it is an art that has suffered for many years, for reasons I will explore at a later date.

One of my goals is to make the study of poetry more accessible and relevant to people. I believe that we need to simplify the teaching of poetry and part of that is to make it personal.

With that said, if you are a person who finds poetry intimidating, I created this very simple technique for understanding any poem. I’ve developed it to work for anyone, no matter what level you understand literature.

To Read a Poem Quickly and Easily

Zina Gomez-Liss

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Jun 20

I am popping on Substack —ever so briefly— with timely information that should be helpful to certain readers today, but now that I think of it this could be of use to…

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Why The Beauty of Things?

The title of this Substack comes from the California poet, Robinson Jeffers, who concludes his poem, The Beauty of Things, with these words:

Beauty, is the sole business of poetry.
The rest's diversion: those holy or noble sentiments, the
intricate ideas,
The love, lust, longing: reasons, but not the reason.

I think about what keeps us, no matter what our abilities, tethered to this broken world and netted to each other in all our challenges. And all I can think of is beauty—in the form of the arts and nature.

I hope you will find some beauty in what I share in this Substack.

The best forms of beauty are often hidden—but discoverable.

I hope you find something beautiful every day. I hope it calls your soul out of your corporeal being for a moment.

Maraming salamat!