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.

 

 

NaPoWriMo// week 3

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Week 3 already!  I honestly wasn’t sure how writing poetry for a month would go — especially since the whole novel writing month thing never really pulled together for me.  xP  But I’ve really been enjoying this overall!

This week turned out a little choppier, I feel like, just because writing poems at 10:30 at night after a long day doesn’t really foster creativity and coherent thinking. 😦

Earlier this week, though, I had a little more time and got a little more reading done. During my gap year, I’ve been doing a ‘book club’ with Mommy where we read a book a month and discuss it together.  This month is The Book That Made Your World:  How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization by Vishal Mangalwadi.  It’s a thick book, but it’s actually one of the most fascinating non-fiction books I’ve ever read.  It explores the differences in mindset between Western and non-Western culture and why they produce such different results.  But specifically it looks at why they are so different and the astounding role the Bible played in making Western Civilization — its thinking, its writing, its art, its heroes, its ideas.  Like I said, it’s fascinating.  It makes you wonder and look at and appreciate the world and the God Who stepped into it so much more.  O.o

But all that to say, it inspired these first two poems.  🙂

//day 15//

How could I know night
–   unless there was a day?
How could I know blindness
–   unless someone could see?
How could I know toil
–   unless I’d once known joy?
How could I know brokenness
–   unless I’d once been whole?
How could I know death
–   unless I’d been alive?
How could I know darkness
–   unless I’d felt the light?
How could I long for something
–   that doesn’t exist?
— unless it does

also used here, but so perfect I had to…

//day 18//

Books hold something because of
a Book.
Words have meaning because of
the Word.

They say a pen is mightier than
a sabre.
But why?

Because there is truth
Because there is something
–             to know,
–             to communicate,
–             to discover.

They say words are doors.
But when they are unknown,
–                                uncommunicated,
–                                undiscovered,
They are barricades,
–         separating freedom from ignorance.

But if there is truth, there
is something to know,
and words become jars
to carry torches.

If there is truth, there
is something to tell,
something to communicate,
and pens become fountains
of a wellspring.

If there is a truth, there
is something to discover,
a reason to search,
because those who seek
will find.

Take away the truth
– and what?
– Don’t look —
It only hurts to want
–   a story
when there is no Teller.
Words are nothing
–  if there is nothing to tell.

//day 19//

Pouring out words
Over paper — just one more tribute that
Everything stems from
The mind of the Maker:
Rarest beauty in purest ecstasy.
You breathed them first,
–      and our attempts are just
–      sparks lit from Your
–           flame.

NaPoWriMo// week 2

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Week 2!  I should have posted this yesterday, but I was out of the house for almost 11 hours with work and a birthday party….  I actually wrote a couple of rhyming ones this week, which I wasn’t planning — bonus!  Do you prefer rhyme or free verse?

//day 8//

a bud is something different–
beyond a leaf,
not a fruit,
not a flower–
just a tight
–         pale
–         promise

of a heart
of a root
of a being.

a whisper of beauty
–     knotted within.

Yet if there is something inside,
it
cannot
but
unfold
into glory.

//day 11//

sitting on the edge of my bed
as the morning rain falls,
wondering
about so many things,
feeling like I’m
sitting on the edge of my future
as the predictable comes to a close,
and I’m left to glimpse and greet from afar,
excited, thrilled,
but almost scared of hoping too much.
will it be what I’m wanting
–               or more?
will the story unfold like I might hope?
what do I hope for something so distant?
so many doors swung open,
and I’m standing on the threshold
as the morning rain falls
wondering
what the day will bring.

//day 12//

Some days my mind is full
– of stars and swirls and lights;
Some nights I lie awake
– with castles and heather and sprites;
Sometimes my soul is dancing
– with stories and heroes in ink;
And then my head will go blank
– like a pen that ran out of think.

//day 13//

What is it about music
That dances through your ear
And makes your heart sing back
Because of what you hear?

What is it about the notes
Flowing through the scales —
Dripping, rushing, tumbling,
Like water in the vales?

How does one array of sound
Make moods and hearts to swell
At the delight of things unfolding
Beyond what words can tell?

For who can explain the feeling,
The surge inside one’s veins,
That makes a prince arise
And men forget their pains?

— A precious gift, a power,
A broadsword’s strength to wield
In that sweet-strong spell
On an invisible battlefield.

spun: a reverso

Creation.  

You’ve spun into existence
music,
feelings,
colors,
creatures,
characters,
heart, mind, soul
–poured out in the power of
Words.

---

Words:
poured out in the power of
heart, mind, soul–
characters,
creatures,
colors,
feelings,
music.

You’ve spun into existence
creation.

---

My first attempt at writing a reverso — a poem which tells one story one way, and then, when you flip the lines, changing only punctuation, capitalization, and such, tells a different story.  I think it worked out alright.  Have you ever tried something like this before?