Affliction

For One-Liner Wednesday, I have a Bible verse and a poem to go with it.


 

Every tear
Is agony when love
Is unrequited, turns one-sided.

Every tear 
Is grief for what could be,
Is pain that the happiness has passed.

Every tear
Is worth its weight in gold,
Because suffering is not wasted.

For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (NRSVCE)

Meet Us

meet us in Your peace
out of the anxieties
inundating Earth —
hold us in eternal Now
all but Love is swept away


Another short poem that I’m only sharing because it’s NaPoWriMo (day 16), but I hope you like it.

Identity

A shadorma that I probably wouldn’t share if it weren’t NaPoWriMo, but since it is day 14, here you go!


who I am:
baptized into Christ
created
uniquely,
to live with love, to be loved
to eternity

Applause

I finished a décima just now and am sharing it for NaPoWriMo day 11.


 

Give glory to God, all peoples,
He has restored my soul to life,
Rewarded me after all strife,
So that my joy may soon be full.

In deep darkness I felt a pull
To life, was rescued from Death's jaws --
So I would like to take a pause,
My great Deliverer to thank,
Helped me to float when my boat sank.
Give all of Heaven some applause. 

Something Strange

NaPoWriMo day 8 is also Holy Saturday, so I have this ninette. I’ve been wanting to try more complicated forms this month, but so far it has not been happening. Well, I hope you enjoy anyway. 🙂


Great
Silence,
Something strange:
For God has died,
The king is asleep,
The whole world waits
Weeping in
Silence
Deep.

Bitter Tears

This is for NaPoWriMo day 7 and is inspired by FOWC: Dismay and the fact that today is Good Friday. It is a reminder for today but also for every day of my life.


truly bitter tears
yet no need for pure dismay —
eagerly await
the space of a couple days
bridged because of patient love

I Thirst

I thirst —
Love is water
Quenching hatred; the one
Who drinks will never be thirsty
Again


Today’s Gospel passage was the woman at the well (see John 4), but I wasn’t even thinking about that when I wrote this little cinquain this morning.

timelapse photography off water fountain
Photo by Gabriel Peter on Pexels.com

The Healing Waters

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and is also considered World Day of the Sick because the waters at Lourdes are thought to have healing properties. In 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared there to a girl named St. Bernadette, and she desired that a chapel be built there. Due to the apparitions, the spring at Lourdes appeared, and countless people claim that, by visiting Lourdes, they have been healed of their ailments. If you want to know more, click here. 🙂 Anyway, I wrote a sijo to honor this day and Our Lady.


Once thought to be a poor place, now a source of miracles,
Led to the healing waters, where many have been restored,
Lasting remembrance belongs to Lourdes, Heaven’s Lady, and her Lord.

“Perfection” and a Poem

The prompt word for today’s SoCS is “perfection.” Perfection is illusive and elusive; I think it is hardly possible for a human to achieve true perfection. For example, an eating disorder manifests by fixating on one’s body and trying to make it “perfect.” Perfect doesn’t exist, and even if one were to achieve it, the difficulty is in keeping it.

I write about that because, I am embarrassed to admit, I had a lot of difficulty with eating-disordered thoughts and behaviors this morning. I could hardly get my mind off of it, and it was so prevalent in my thoughts that I started to cry. Thankfully, the worst of it has stopped, and I did not cancel going out to lunch with a friend. I think that companionship was what I needed, to not be alone, even if the activity involved food.

I was able to write this Chaucerian stanza earlier today, even in the midst of that horrific time being ridiculously triggered.


I will proclaim what God has done for me:
He has bestowed on me a sense of worth,
That He made me on purpose, beautifully.
Even in suffering, there is some mirth,
Knowing that it gives aid to friends on Earth.
God’s made this life worth living even now,
He helps me trust through all that He allows.

Source and Summit

There’s no excuse not to write something for the last day of Just-Jot-It January. 🙂


 

God with us,
Both human and divine,
Remaining until the end of time

God with us,
Emmanuel by name,
"I AM," always merciful, the same

Eucharist,
Thanksgiving for the gift,
Source and summit healing every rift