Saving Two Birds with One Poem :)

Today’s FOWC is Idiom, and I wasn’t sure if it was possible to use the actual word “idiom” in a poem, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and participate in Fandango’s Flashback Friday. 😀

This is a poem that I posted exactly 5 years ago. The original post is here. I’m grateful for this one. Good job, Jenna from 5 years ago!

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When life is hard and full of sorrows,

You hold them in Your hand.

You, who with all grief acquainted,

Are stronger than this world’s sand.

Hold me tightly my dear Savior,

And redeem this day,

May I be safe in the Beloved,

And in Your goodness stay.

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Jenna from 5 years ago then adds, “There is always, always hope.”

Putting Words in Order

One thing that is extremely frustrating for me is when I want to respond to a specific prompt, but I can’t seem to think of anything at all, let alone anything good! Sometimes, I feel stuck and can hardly write anything, with or without a prompt! I didn’t write much today that’s post-able, but here you go, a poem about this frustration: 

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Words and fragments floating in this mind
In a fashion frenzied and unkind —
How difficult to with coherence write,
Before this day sleeps, and turns to night!

Exhausting Indecision

This décima is for Ronovan Writes’s prompts this week (street in the C line) and last week (go in the B line) because I did not post one last time.

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A thousand possibilities —
So many directions to go
And it’s tough to travel solo.
This does not free but makes her freeze.

Abundant insecurities:
At the intersection where meet
Two roads, how does she know which street
To follow, when there is no map?
The journey already has sapped
Her energy — rest aching feet.

Munchkins!

Inspired by the Sunday Writing Prompt at MLMM (it might be a little too late), “The Little Things.” Also for FOWC: Realm. The other day, I was in my backyard and noticed a beautiful flower, so I took a photo of it. I posted it to Instagram with the caption (in part), “How can you be sad when you are looking at a flower like this?”

Ubi Sunt

This is a free-verse “Ubi Sunt” poem for Linda’s paint-chip poetry prompt. The given words are pictured below the poem. This was inspired by the way that I write so much and so small that I often forget about poems that I have written or where / when I wrote them.

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Where are the words erased,
Written lightly in graphite?
Even the words put down in pen
Are difficult to see, crammed
Without pizzazz in tiny spaces,
In need of illumination.
Where are the poems that I
Remember writing, remember liking
But can no longer find,
Buried as they are under years
Of other poem-filled lines?

Panic

Another poem for the Immersion prompt, this time a Rondeau in response to the photo challenge #374 from MLMM. The photo is below and is by Marta Bevacqua.

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Ghazal: Life and Freedom

I’m a bit obsessed with ghazals right now, so here is another one, which I worked on yesterday and today, and which was partially written for FOWC: Repose and this prompt about immersion.

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You know better than I what’s died in me.
My God who’s living still, abide in me.

One dream not dead has been this poetry,
Ideas are a spring ne’er dried in me.

A verse which starts despairingly finds hope:
See, these two sides have always vied in me.

In words’ expression there is some repose,
Despite immersion in emotions –strong tide in me.

A life not merely written nor read, but lived:
Sparrow-song calls, may freedom be satisfied in me.

Yesterday to Tomorrow

The bridge between two days is called “Today,”
The past and future merge when it is Now:
Although this moment cannot ever stay,
And in a blink will need to take a bow
Without an encore, let Hope allow
A smooth transition to the moments new.
A brand-new land waits barely out of view.

Hidden Treasure

This is a little silly, but it happened the other day. I may have hundreds of dollars in unused gift cards at this point. For FOWC: Redeem.

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Unused
Gift cards waiting
Hidden, to be redeemed:
Forgotten in my old wallet
Now seen.

HOORAY!

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

P.S. Before posting this, I was thinking about how I’m kind of surprised I didn’t write anything about Jesus. 🙂 “Redeem” is an easy word to use on that topic. One of the major themes of Christianity is redeeming a broken life (and we all have a broken life to some extent) so that even one’s mistakes, when admitted, can be used for good. (see Romans 8:28). Okay, my sermon is over. 🙂

Hope flows to the low spot

For SOCS: Hope and FOWC: Slope, and yes, I am quite amused by the fact that those words rhyme. 🙂 Not to mention, that makes it easier to combine them into one poem.