A Hymn for Easter Monday

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Happy Easter Monday!  I wrote this hymn-ish thing over the past couple days, and I wanted to share it with you — because Christ is risen!  ❤

---

In the dark and still, a woman,

Laden down with myrrh and grief,

Turns her back to hints of sunrise

And stares ahead in disbelief.

Oh, where is He by evil slain?

Come and see where He has lain!

That, the stone that barred His graveside,

Hedged around with guards and seal —

That which no man dared to move is

Rolled away to there reveal

The haunt of death that fought in vain.

Come and see where He has lain!

–

Why do you seek for His body?

Conq’ring kings are not in graves!

In this tomb is left, defeated,

Only rags that bound His face.

Hail the Christ Who is Death’s bane!

Come and see where He has lain!

You who stand in wonder, awestruck

At this cave that could not win,

Know your Lord is but the firstfruits

Of those who rise to life again —

He leads His ransomed in His train.

Come and see where He has lain!

–

Here I stand, His ransomed captive,

Bound to Him, bought by His blood,

Freed from Sin, my former master,

Freed to follow where Christ led.

Here, I glory in His reign —

Come and see where He has lain!

NaPoWriMo// holy week

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This week, I’ve gotten to theme some of my poetry around that week 2,000 years ago that rocked the entire cosmos — the week Jesus died.

//day 9// triumphal entry

The day the king arrived,
The crowds burst forth in cheers —
Here was he who’d save them from
Their iron-fisted fears!

Hearts stirred thick with hope;
Lips broke forth with song;
Nothing could restrain the cries
As the rider came along.

Astride the beast, a man
Who brought the dead to life —
Could he be the promised one
Who’d crush the Roman might?

Hosanna, king who comes!
Oh save us, you who ride!
Conquer the black foe who has
Our heartland occupied!

//day 10// clearing the temple

The still before the storm
Came the night before.
Now tables hit the floor
Beneath His mighty arm.

The coins and creatures sprawl,
The temple-market closed,
The den of thieves exposed
By the fearsome God of all.

//day 13// the last supper
— a sonnet

{It Was Night.}

Around the table, thirteen men gathered
To celebrate a feast of life and death.
The lamb had died that men might draw their breath
A thousand years ago, but now it matter’d
More than escaping Death’s dark blade that once.
Unlike all other nights, unlike that blood
That dried, this blood is life, this flesh is food;
This is no wool-curled sheep, but Heaven’s Prince;

He rescues not a nation, but a race;
The sacrifice is not for once, but all;
If those twelve men had known their master’s face
Would bear the death and curse of Adam’s fall,
They would have trembled at the hope fulfilled,
For yet redemption’s path was steeped in red.

//day 14// the crucifixion

A ball is spinning blue and black,
a globe shrouded
in darkness,
as the Lord
Who made it
is rent —
body from soul —
and shrouded
in the heart
of the earth.

NaPoWriMo// part 5

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Last night, I wrote my last poem for NaPoWriMo 2016.  The fact overwhelms me a little.  31 poems, 31 days– and it’s over?  And it has been a journey that has blessed, challenged, encouraged, and grown more than just my poetry.

Throughout the month, I’ve really discovered and appreciated so much more the people who make up my ‘writing community’!

Mom and Dad, you’ve really encouraged me in writing this year — not just poetry, but the short story and other stuff, too.  And you liked what I wrote!  And that means the world to me.  ❤ ❤  Laura, thanks for encouraging me at 10 o’clock when I still needed to write something and for contributing ‘To a Fellow Poet’ to my collection.  😉  Thanks to A Glimpse of Starlight for the suggestion to do it May instead of April — I’m not sure I would have done NaPo this year otherwise.  I’ve really appreciated being able to share my poems in Halaran.  You all, readers, have been so gracious and and encouraging in your comments on all these weeks so far!  Thank you soo much for taking the time to read them and let me know what you think!  You all make up the Inklings of my writing experiments, and I am both humbled and amazed to see once again how much bigger my world is than just me.

Here’s my last 3 days of poems.  I definitely want to do a month of poems next year!

//day 29//

{a haiku}

the words allude me,
and if they won’t come to me,
pencils aren’t much use.

 

//day 30//

There are so many days
That I try, that I think I can,
think I can be strong;
–         I can be beautiful;
–         I can be wise;
–         I can be the hero;
–         I can make a name for myself.

I lean on my scepter
and find it is a splintering reed,
and it pierces the hand of the one who trusts it.
And I am left holding the pieces
of a picture of me–
what I thought I was,
what I really am.

on my own,
–     I am weak.
–     I am dust.
–     The only name I can make for myself is Babel.

Because of my brokenness
You bled.
— not because You leaned on falsehood,
but You gave Your hands to be pierced
so that my hands might be whole.
and
Your hands bear the scars of my making.
You say a bruised reed You do not despise,
and a smoldering wick You will not snuff out.
It is You Who makes dead bones
come alive.
It is You Who breathes on stone
and makes it breathe.
It is You Who is strength and glory and wisdom.

Please,
take away
my flowers
that
I would look
for Eden.

//day 31//

Redeemed by Your blood and its atoning power,
All that I have is because of Your life.
Could I dream in truth of anything more breath-taking?
Hold my heart fast to You and You alone;
Ever let me seek my hero and story in Your words,
Lest I search for eternal life in words of death.

 

 

Chapter 9!

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By the way — chapter 9, Life and Death, is up on the novel blog!