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 —
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.
Today’s word for JusJoJan is “exercise.” I don’t so that much exercise but do really like walks and hikes, and I need to stretch out every day, or I get very tense very quickly. Having had an eating disorder, I need to always be careful that I’m not overdoing the exercise and aware of where the desire to exercise is coming from.
Many of my poems seem more like word games or brain exercises to me, rather than works of word-art. For example, today’s Gospel reading was the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), and I wrote about the Beatitudes using several different, non-rhyming forms. Here is one, a type of cinquain:
Meek,
Merciful,
Pure-heart peacemakers:
Poor in spirit shall see grace
Poured
This week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge is themed “Art for Art’s Sake.” I think my coloring applies, especially since I generally don’t do anything with it, except maybe send a photo of it to a few friends. The picture above is the one I am currently working on.
I’m not sure if coloring even counts as “art,” but when I sent a picture to my grandma-friend a while ago, she praised, “You are a master of this art form!”
Thank you, grandma, for making me feel better about my life, LOL!
Today being the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, I was going to repost a poem that I wrote a year ago, but — hooray! — I was able to write a new one this morning! This is a Pinch Poem, like the one I shared 2 days ago.
O glorious cross, on which the world’s Savior died,
And streams of immortality from His side flowed;
O blood and water washing sins away,
Through Him we are saved and set free.
Through Him we are saved and set free,
Awaiting the perfection of that Day
When we can share in life’s great triumph which He showed,
Which even now we taste, trusting His time, abide.
This pinch poem took me 3 days. As the days go by, it gets more and more applicable / honest.
A story which these days I have so often heard:
In Galilee Jesus was with his disciples,
Stuck in a storm on a turbulent sea —
He stilled the storm to a whisper.
He stilled the storm to a whisper.
There’s a powerful storm surrounding me,
I may be in the eye, but hurricane-wind pulls,
Even heartfelt poems lack the necessary Word.
“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful, lest you let other people spend it for you.”
— Carl Sandburg
My addition to One-Liner Wednesday. This quote happens to remind me of the Gospel story of the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). Short story shorter, the man who received only one talent (a sum of money) hid it in the ground, whereas the others, who received more, invested the money that they got. The man who received only one was afraid that he would lose what he did have, but that was the wrong choice. Don’t waste your coin, but definitely don’t hide your coin, and spend it well. 🙂
Today is the feast of the apostle Saint Bartholomew / Nathaniel, which inspired me to write this haibun:
I sit crying due to unexplained yet expected emotional pain. It’s not a surprise, but there is little I can do to prepare. The only way out is through. The only way through is to believe that some greater good may, through grace, arise from this half-dead and deadly place. “Can these bones live?”* “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”** Faith gives an unequivocal assent, even if one must wait for it.
greater things to see:
angels descending, ascending
as the journey goes
* Ezekiel 37
** John 1:45-51
Because of the resurrection,
Our hope is not in vain:
Hope – that Jesus’s Ascension
Can mirror our eventual raising,
The Spirit He sent bears witness
To this everlasting promise,
With Holy Mary, queen mother,
Among the firstfruits.
While I am not absolutely thrilled with this, I figured it was especially appropriate for Sunday. I was inspired by the set of Glorious Mysteries of the rosary. Hopefully Jesus and / or his mom like it.
I wrote this poem a few days ago and already shared it with my church “grandparents.” They are biased 🙂 but they really liked it! I hope this blesses at least one of you readers, as well.
Cast cares upon the Lord; He will sustain,
Upon this bed of loneliness and pain.
Hold fast to Him, hold fast to what is main,
Reward of highest worth shall be the gain.
Affliction shall not for forever last,
Soon this horrific hurting will be past:
Though this terrible sea is dark and vast,
The cross of Christ is as a sturdy mast.
Though now the way around is far from plain,
All the struggle striving is not in vain.
revivedwriter 