Good / Evil

I began this poem yesterday for the DVerse Poetics prompt about good and evil and finished it today in order to share with Open-Link Night. It is written almost like an inner dialogue. I wanted to vary the rhymes a little bit more, but I don’t know; maybe the monorhyme for half the poem works.

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Supposed to think of life as greatest gift,
But tired of trying hard to spirit life.
                                     Come and get a little lost,
                                     In the darkness, high cost.
                                     Come and listen to accusers.
Fight against that voice, that we won’t lose her.
                                      After a rest, the monster
                                      Stirs, peace it defers.
She tries to remember all that life offers.

Photo by Oyster Haus on Pexels.com

Joyful Hearts

A few days ago, I finished this coloring page and wrote an ekphrastic poem inspired by it. Because of the short verse, I am sharing with One-Liner Wednesday. I am curious: Does this picture make you think of anything or inspire you to write something? 

“A joyful heart is good medicine.” — Proverbs 17:22

Pierce my heart with a hole-punch, 
String it on a garland with some others; 
Perhaps we can create beauty in pain,
That amid these twisted patterns 
And circular paths, we might find
Ways to hope and cope, reasons to laugh. 

Death? Life

As I mentioned in my previous post, today is the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. This got me thinking not only about Jesus and his suffering on the cross but his life. We hear so often, “Jesus died for you” that it can get boring and trite, even for believers. What I think is much more radical is: Jesus lived for you.

People have pointed out to me, someone who suffers from severe, chronic depression, “The Bible says Jesus was ‘exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.'” True, but that was one night. Try about 50% of the nights in the past 2 decades. Also, yes, he suffered a TON physically on the Cross and on the way to it — but that was only a few days of his 33 years. I’m not trying to complain, but the truth is that sometimes I think I’ve got it worse.

What amazes me more than the dying and rising again, quite frankly, is that he did live for 33 years. And he chose to be born! If I had the choice, I wouldn’t choose to be born. Plus, he chose to be born into a poor family, rather than a rich merchant or a noble family. He easily could have had a life of extreme comfort (at least, relative to that time period), but he didn’t. He didn’t even have coffee! Or bacon, for that matter. Coffee is one of my daily consolations; I literally wake up to drink coffee, rather than drinking coffee to wake up. Also, Jesus never got married. If I live long enough and find someone willing to marry me, I hope to get married. He went without that.

33 years, in a time without all the technology and modern amenities that we have today. No running water, no air conditioning, and Jesus was poor even in relation to the society of that day. That’s what impresses me most.

Thoughts? I am interested to hear your take on this, even if you found it really offensive. 🙂

Much To Do

There’s a lot that I want to do before I go to sleep tonight (here in California, it’s about 5:30). I was writing in my journal about how I am “happy, just busy in my head.” That is, I guess, one way to define being anxious — “busy in my head.”

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busy in my head
so much stuff I want to do
before tomorrow —
including posting a poem
way better than this one here

Looks like that’s not going to happen! 🙂

One Coin

“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. 🙂

The Third Wheel

picture taken in my backyard in mid-April

For MLMM’S Saturday Mix: Lucky Dip, the poetry form is called a Septolet. It is 14 words over 7 lines, in 2 stanzas. Finally, I have written something to go with this photo; I’ve had a draft for 4 months!

"Third Wheel"

She
Forlorn flower,
Unchosen third wheel

Never preferred 
Second choice
Sees happy couple --
Sulks

This form was fun, so I write a second one (about a not-fun thing).

"Chronic" 

Depression:
Sustained assault
Sucking life dry

Vampyric leech
Underneath skin
Parasites away life --
Incurable 

Dive, Swim, or Waddle?

For the 3 Things Challenge today, the theme is still “ducks,” and the words are DIVE, SWIM, and WADDLE. My self-imposed challenge was to use all these words and not write about ducks. 🙂

This is barely a poem, but here is what I came up with:

Life is like a swimming pool
And I, an alleged swimmer:
Unable to dive, I am thrown into depths
Probably able to keep from completely
Drowning,
But my swimming is equivalent to waddling.

Yeah, I’m not good at this whole “life” thing. The good news is, I’ve been peaceful recently, and writing makes me feel alive in a good way. 

Fun fact: This poem does describe my actual swimming ability (or lack thereof).

FPQ #176

Each week, Fandango posts a provocative question and invites us to answer it. I don’t think I’ve ever posted a response, but I couldn’t help it with this one. this week’s question is:

What will your last day on Earth be like?

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So, without getting too dark, regular readers of this blog will understand that I’ve thought about this question quite a bit.

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

“Without getting too dark,” she writes immediately before inserting a very Memento Mori picture.

If I’m lucky, I won’t know that it’s my last day, but I am hoping that it would include not necessarily much that is different from what I usually do: writing, some reading, the rosary…. Ideally, I would also get to go to Mass and sit outside in the sun for a little while. One thing I used to do quite often was go to a coffee shop and sit outside. I enjoyed watching all the little birds. Sometimes they were derpy, and they were always cute and entertaining. I would want to watch the derpy little birds and drink some really good coffee.

P.S. There are little red squiggles under the word “derpy.” “Squiggles” is a fun word. It rhymes with “giggles.” Maybe I’ll write a limerick.

This Terrible Sea

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.

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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.

Photo by Taryn Elliott on Pexels.com

Answers

For MLMM’s new weekly feature, Sunday Confessionals, I wrote this poem today. Actually, I wrote it starting with the last line and worked forwards. I still haven’t written this week’s Sijo about dreams but happened to include that theme in here.

Poems got pretty dark today. So did a lot of my thoughts. However, I spent approximately 5 hours at work today, which was how much I was supposed to work — i.e., I did not have to leave work early. That’s a success today!

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How many childhood dreams come true?
How many nightmares do we need to view?

Can future Me a message of hope send?
Is it all worth the pain in the end?

Is there a way out? It's hard to tell.
What if we're all dead, and this is Hell?