Tag: poem

poetry

“Who am I & What is My Purpose?”

Sally7 Comments

Lord, let me be a ten-tug worm
That stands its ground as best it can
Or grips its ground as case may be
While robin works as worm hit-man
Though odds are stacked against me e’er
Though I can’t win — not with this plan
Though life is ever hopeless for
The principled who’s no yes-man
Give me fight ‘gainst the stronger-than

It’s rare these days when I miss the W3 challenge, but I did this week.

The challenge was to write a nine-line poem under the title of ““Who am I & What is My Purpose?”

I am frustrated with my job. So. Freaking. Frustrated.

Today, I had a conversation that I walked out of shaking my head and saying, “I can’t.”

Then I vented to the HR person.

Then I went for a walk. On my walk, I saw a robin tugging a worm that wasn’t giving way. It was a losing battle for the worm. I think it always is. But, for half a second, I was rooting for that worm. I knew at best, though, it would get torn in half. Not much of a best, eh?

The worm gave way.

The robin ate it.

I continued my walk.

Who am I? I’m the kind of person who fights a losing battle because I believe in it.

What is my purpose? To (hopefully) make the yes-man think.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · Faith · poetry

Judge

Sally5 Comments

“Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” — John 7:51

people are
quick to judge
then often can’t
even budge

when they hear
facts that tell
another
tale. Lord, quell

my judgment
change my mind
let me be
open, kind.

This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · poetry

Identity

Sally2 Comments

Who are you? John 1:19

Who are you?
Who are you
Really? What
Do you do

That makes you
You — unique
Distinctive
So to speak

Why are you?
What is your
Purpose? What
Are you for?

Who are you
Really? Know
Yourself. Be
You. Now go.

This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · poetry

How

Sally3 Comments

How can these things be? John 3:9

Don’t explain
Don’t even
Try to — Just
Believe in

Mystery
“The wind blows…
You hear it…”
But who knows

Where and why
It begins
And ends, or
How earth spins

This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have a big problem with people who think they know everything, especially religious people.

The more someone thinks they know God, the converse is true. I know less about God today than I did last year or five years or twenty-five years ago. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · poetry

Grumble

Sally1 Comment

 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves...”
John 6:42-43

When something
Doesn’t make
Sense — grumble,
Complain,  take

Offense. Right?
Life revolves
Around you
And involves

You even
If it does
Not. We’re so
Blind because

We can’t see
We can’t know
We think we
Do — but no

Take a breath
Take a sec
Think a bit
Doublecheck

Open eyes
Open heart
Grumble not
That’s a start

This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have a big problem with people who think they know everything, especially religious people.

The more someone thinks they know God, the converse is true. I know less about God today than I did last year or five years or twenty-five years ago. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.


A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · poetry

Free

Sally2 Comments

But we’re not
Slaves! This makes
No sense. Free?
But it takes

Shackles to
Make a man
A slave! Us?
No one can

Enslave us!
We are strong!
We are free!
You are WRONG!

Ah, dear one —
You protest
Too much
In me rest

The truth will
Set you free —
Free indeed
You shall be

They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
John 8:33

This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have a big problem with people who think they know everything, especially religious people.

The more someone thinks they know God, the converse is true. I know less about God today than I did last year or five years or twenty-five years ago. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · poetry

Explain

Sally2 Comments

Hey — do you
Understand
What this is?
Please expand

My knowledge!
My small brain
Cannot grasp
(all in vain)

Mystery
And You are
Conundrum
Far afar

Yet You are
Also near —
In my dreams
You appear!

But I am
So perplexed
Please tell me —
What comes next?

So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.”
John 16:18

I love this confession by the disciples — “We don’t know what he’s talking about.”

And I love even more that Jesus didn’t force them to ask the question. He knew what they were wondering and tackled it, explaining to them what He meant.

This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have a big problem with people who think they know everything, especially religious people.

The more someone thinks they know God, the converse is true. I know less about God today than I did last year or five years or twenty-five years ago. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · poetry

Desire

Sally3 Comments

Dear Lord God,
Do I miss
The questions?
What is this

That I want
Most? Am I
Afraid to
Ask You? Why?

Yet You ask,
Sally, do
You want this?
Though You knew —

Long before
Your query –
You’ve known I’m
Too weary

To even
Realize
How good You
Are — and wise

Do you want to be healed? John 5:6

This is one of my favorite exchanges in John.

We’re introduced to a man who has been an invalid for 38 years. Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be healed?” which is a simple yes or no, but his answer is haunting and heart-breaking — “Sir, I have no one…”

So Jesus heals him.

This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have a big problem with people who think they know everything, especially religious people.

The more someone thinks they know God, the converse is true. I know less about God today than I did last year or five years or twenty-five years ago. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · poetry

Condemn

Sally9 Comments

High-minded
People may
Make others
Shrink away

Feeling not
Enough, not
Worthy, an
Ugly thought

“Neither do
I condemn
You.” Peace in
The mayhem.

John 8:10 Has no one condemned you?

This is one of my favorite stories — the woman caught in adultery, the scribes and the Pharisees who want to stone her, and Jesus there, writing in the dirt.

Don’t you want to know what he was writing? I do. I think about that question a lot.

But we’ll never know. We only know that He didn’t condemn this woman when it felt like the whole world was.

Pretty amazing.

How can I be like that?

This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have a big problem with people who think they know everything, especially religious people.

The more someone thinks they know God, the converse is true. I know less about God today than I did last year or five years or twenty-five years ago. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

poetry

Love is

Sally14 Comments

Constant
Begun with sleep loss
Cleaning up bodily fluids
Listening
An umbrella of security
The gift of time
Hard work

This is my response to the W3 prompt this week given by Murisopsis.

She asked us to write a Cameo whose form is Heptastich (7 lines), Syllabic (2-5-8-3-8-7-3), and unrhymed. Also, she wanted the theme of love and added “try to incorporate some other kinds of love for a change.”

My youngest daughter called the other day because she had food poisoning or a stomach bug or some such thing. She spent the night on the bathroom floor.

Had she been closer, I would have gotten her ginger ale and saltine crackers, and taken care of cleaning out the throw-up bucket for her.

I’ve done it.

Love is cleaning up vomit.

One time, when I was taking care of my father, he collapsed on the way to the bathroom and wet himself quite thoroughly. We called the ambulance, but he wanted to be presentable when they arrived so I helped clean him up and got him dry clothes.

“You shouldn’t have to do this,” he said, over and over. “I’m so sorry.”

Love is cleaning up urine.

My oldest daughter is expecting her first child. I remember as a young mom going to a baby shower for another new mom. We were all supposed to write advice for the new mom on little cards. Everyone write things like, “Tell your child you love him/her every day,” or “Live, laugh, love.” I had just had a horrible outing with my baby, where he did one of those poopy things that up his back and down his leg and got all over me when I tried to change him. We were an hour away from home. For the baby shower I wrote, “Always have a spare change of clothes in the car for you and your baby.” I was dead serious. It drew a lot of laughter at the shower.

Love is cleaning up poop that’s everywhere.

Can I say here that love isn’t candlelit dinners? It isn’t fun vacations. It isn’t bouquets of flowers or pretty jewelry. It’s the nitty gritty stuff of life.

Is that the kind of love you were talking about Murisopsis?