Fifty favorite words...

All of us have images in our hearts.  Our emotional lives are rich with the images of those we love.  Our early experiences with love and loss are impressed on our imaginations.  We go back over and over in memory to those experiences. 

Poetry is not just words or information, but what's underneath the ordinary or inside it, or passing through it.

The following is a list of fifty words that rolled right off the top of my head.  What about you?  Write down the first fifty words that come to mind - and write a poem with them.

lovely

hindrance

peony

tights

hot pink

braids

conversation

prayer

tea

......

spiritual formation

mercy

laughter

JESUS

love

redeem

beloved

white t-shirts

comfort

tapioca

......

baking

meals

friendship

intrigue

adamant

multi-task

organize

.......

greens lawns

daisy

curious

sincere

awake

fascinate

Murphy

.........

resting

reading

writer/blogger

moving

folding

together

Night

Do you need time alone - time to think in complete sentences?

I borrow from the quiet of the night.

No one is standing by to interupt.

No one is asking for just one more...

will you...?

I am alone.

I work at my own pace.

The dark night inspires me with thoughts of creativity,

courage, and hope for what I will face...in the light of tomorrow.

At last my eyes become heavy and the long blinks begin.

But not before...

The laundry is done.

Renew my mind,

Restore my heart.  Take this painful place and make it a hiding place for you.

Winter has passed--flowers cover the earth.

I need your touch.

I need you.

Facing change in my life...

Walk to the edge of all you love,

leap into the abyss with outstretched arms.

You are enveloped by the dark

and mysterious promise

of trusting someone

other than your own might.

Your heart breaks open ---blossoming

with the birth of peace

that rains down all around you.

You are here to be fruit and seed.

Walk along the way...

I AM HERE: where my feet are.
A time, a place, an opportunity.
You are ministering right now where your feet are.

Remember:
This is the way; walk in it.

"And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love." 2 John 6

A prayer poem

Lord,
Troubles come and I lose my heart
     suddenly
without warning it is gone
     drifting away in pieces.
Beseiged.
Harassed.

I plead ~ renew me.
Remind me of my worth.
Bring to my mind what is temporal.
   Center me
         on the unseen and everlasting.

Secure my eyes to eternal things,
       not my heart's crumbling pieces,
but on You~
     dearest one.

c.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.  - 2 Corinthians 4:16-19

GOD be in my head, and in my understanding,

GOD be in my eyes, And in my looking,

GOD be in my mouth, And in my speaking;

GOD be in my heart, And in my feeling,

GOD be at my death, And at my departing.

-Walford Davies

"Go into yourself and test the deeps in which your life takes rise; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create. Accept it, just as it sounds, without inquiring into it. Perhaps it will turn out that you are called to be an artist. Then take that destiny upon yourself and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking what recompense might come from outside."

~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Catherine White, Rough Idea

"Have patience with all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and books that are written in a very foreign tongue.  Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them.  Live the questions now.

Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer...take whatever comes with great trust..."

~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Three friends

I sit and tell secrets to both of you.  Details I haven't revealed to a soul. 

I am propelled to let the words slip out by a mysterious force. God.

He is here: I know.
I can distinguish His holy presence in our exchange.

From deep within me, where only thoughts exist, words rise to the surface of my lips.  They lay stacked in rows of neat sentences.  It's conversation filled with a deep, rich, and meaningful language.

Acceptance. 
I feel it wash over me with a wave that catches my breath.
Thank you Lord.

Congratulations TESSA!

Tessa,


Graduation Day is a day to mark a tremendous accomplishment. You could not have come to this day without a lot of hard work. There may have been days when you felt that you could not continue, and yet you did.


The moment when you are called up to the stage to receive your diploma, your smile shining brightly in your cap and gown, is a moment to savor.


You can not lose what has now been given to you. Lookout INDIANA UNIVERSITY ~ here she comes!!!


Now go on and take on the world!

Time Flew By So Quickly

We can’t begin to tell you

Just how loved you are

We can’t believe how time has flown

And how you’ve come so far

Forgive us when we stop and stare

And tears fall from our eyes

Time flew by so quickly

Sure took us by surprise

We asked you to stay little

To always be our baby,

You said, 'I'll try if I can, but, I'll have to grow up ~ maybe"

Now here you stand before us

A confident, beautiful young woman,

Strong and determined,

Who always has a warm smile to give.

There are no doubts within our minds

That you'll indeed succeed

Your future holds so much in store

But that smile is all you need.

love,

mama and daddy

A song from Sovereign Grace,

It Is Not Death To Die

It is not death to die

To leave this weary road

And join the saints who dwell on high

Who’ve found their home with God

It is not death to close

The eyes long dimmed by tears

And wake in joy before Your throne

Delivered from our fears

O Jesus, conquering the grave

Your precious blood has power to save

Those who trust in You

Will in Your mercy find

That it is not death to die

It is not death to fling

Aside this earthly dust

And rise with strong and noble wing

To live among the just

It is not death to hear

The key unlock the door

That sets us free from mortal years

To praise You evermore

O Jesus, conquering the grave

Your precious blood has power to save

Those who trust in You

Will in Your mercy find

That it is not death to die

Original Words by Henri Malan (1787-1864).Translated by George Bethune (1847).Music, Chorus and Alternate Words by Bob Kauflin.© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI).

Even if you do not know what to say,

Even if you are afraid to shout,

Go now calling out to your God,

The Mighty One who is passing by.

Join with all creation in welcoming

the Creator and Sustainer of all.

Journey to the Cross.org

~Precious Intentions~

Everyday I dream about
a time to sit, ponder, and write.

DEADLINES...

Drop off's...

Phone calls...

~~~all urge this weary soul to blink
and suddenly it's....

Another day to to dream about...

Celebrating Epiphany

Look all around you and see what is real

Hear what is true and be sure what you feel

Touch someone near you in love if you can

Give all you have and be part of God's plan.

John Fischer

And then you...

We arrange our lives as best we can,
to keep your holiness at bay,
with our pieties,
our doctrines,
our liturgies,
our moralities,
our secret ideologies.

Safe, virtuous, settled.
And then you’
you and your dreams,
you and your visions,
you and your purposes,
you and your commands,
you and our neighbors.

We find your holiness not at bay,
but probing,
pervading,
insisting,
demanding.

And we yield,
sometimes gladly,
sometimes resentfully,
sometimes later or soon.

We yield because you,
beyond us,
are our God.

We are your creatures met by your holiness,
by your holiness made our true selves.
And we yield.
Amen.

(From Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann.
Edited by Edwin Searcy, Fortress Press, 2003. p. 3)

Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?

As we launch into Advent, a poem by William Blake...

Little Lamb, who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee?

Gave thee life and bid thee feed,

By the stream and o'er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,

Softest clothing, woolly, bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice?

Little Lamb, who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I'll tell thee,

Little Lamb, I'll tell thee.

He is called by thy name,

For He calls Himself a Lamb.

He is meek, and He is mild;

He became a little child.

I a child, and thou a lamb,

We are called by His name.

Little Lamb, God bless thee!

Little Lamb, God bless thee!

a bag of tricks

This is in honor of my friend, Jill, who loves words and how they look, sound, and fit together. This is a list of several 'tricks' to help you in writing or revising poems, stories, or any writing piece. The more comfortable you become with each of them, the easier it will be to pull one out when you need it.

1. Put your adjectives after your nouns.

"The tiger, marvellously striped and irritable, leaps..."

2. Delay the subject of your sentence.

"Because I could not stop for Death--He kindly stopped for me..." Emily Dickinson

3. An interruption: Put something between your subject and your verb.

"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" William Butler Yeats, 'The Second Coming'

4. Start with a pronoun and then give us the noun it refers to.

"What do they sing, the last birds, coasting down the twilight..." G. Kinnell, "Last Songs"

5. Double or triple your subject, but use one verb.

"The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna, are not very pure or true..." Sylvia Plath

Jill...which one do you like the best?

Borrow from the Night

Do you need time alone?

Time to think in complete sentences?

I borrow from the quiet of the night.

No one is standing by to interrupt.

No one asks for just one more...

I am alone.

I work at my own pace in peace.

The dark night inspires me with thoughts of creativity, courage, and hope for tomorrow.

At last my eyes become heavy and begin to sink...yielding to the quiet of the night.

But not before...i've gotten the laundry done.

--me.

a poem by Denise Levertov

WITNESS

Sometimes the mountain

is hidden from me in veils

of cloud, sometimes

I am hidden from the mountain

in veils of inattention, apathy, fatigue,

when I forget or refuse to go

down to the shore or a few yards

up the road, on a clear day,

to reconfirm

that witnessing presence.

--Denise Levertov