And still the Light abides
and the darkness has not overcome it:
though rabbit-wild my exiled spirit roams
where bare limbed shadows
squawk of quasi-subliminal maws
in which the world in mammoth caves
watches figures on Olympian walls
cavorting corporate-jet-fueled
and calls them gods.
Written for dVerse Quadrille 117: "The Dude Abides" A quadrille is 44 words, and this time Lisa asks us to use the word "abide." Click on Mr. Linky and join in!
In November the sunlight
dapples over dead leaves
wind rustles memories free
storms sweep tombs, unearth bones
beleaguer dead valleys to awaken
an exiled Ezekiel’s breath:
“The end is not night
Sleep is not death
Your seed-borne husk betokens
Jerusalem’s dawn is nigh.”
For dVerse’s MTB this week, Frank asks us to write a Jisei (Japanese Death Poem) in either a haikai or haikai-esque form of ten lines or less. Click on Mr. Linky to join in!
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3: 21-23
This unfurled bud, precursor to a beauty that can now only be imagined, will one day cause our glance to linger on its warmth of color and its uniquely fashioned design. And it will bring us joy that our world contains such bursts of beauty, radiant under the sun’s gaze.
So it is with human souls. Many of us go through each day like unopened buds, self-contained vessels of worry and apprehension, busy with thoughts, chores, the daily pressures of life.
But what if we began each day unfurling our petals? What if our day’s beginning was one of consciously seeking joy, the light of heaven’s gaze upon us, rejoicing in the God who loves us and hears us?
If you’ve ever studied the face of someone who is in the throes of an unadulterated joy that spills out of every pore of their being, what strikes you is how in that instant that person seems to be the very embodiment of what they were created to be. You see them as they “really” are, unique in beauty, uniquely created to enjoy and be enjoyed. Their joy becomes contagious.
Yet such joy has to have a beginning somewhere, a source. That source is God, our Creator. When we like unopened buds, turn our gaze to Him every morning to drink in His love in thanksgiving, our joy in Him floods our hearts. We begin our day fully ourselves, free to praise and adore the God of providence who has blessed us with life and all its beauty, free to confront our worries and our circumstances with courage and fresh joy.
These daily beginnings are monumental. And they give us hope and strength for each new day. More than that, they spread hope in every beholder’s heart. We begin to spread joy and give comfort.
There is nothing more exciting than such a beginning. And any one can do it because it’s simple, priceless, given freely by the God who endowed us with this capacity to rejoice.
So begin again, begin with joy!
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Philippians 4:4
For Cee's FOTD. Join in! Michael's Tale Weaver – #302 – "Beginnings"
I am not averse to reimaginations
Given you walked out of my conversation
As a noetic effect of its distillation
I am not chained to inharmonious juxtapositions
When salubrious angels gather in celebration
Of a desire prayed and given manifestation
I am simply thankful for your gravitation
Towards me, bindingly, irradiate sub-atomic fusion
Where once I envisioned only solitary annihilation
Yet this I wonder, and this in never-ending fascination
How in moments your eyes gray meet my brown it’s recreation
Of a space-time-matter continuum of conflagration
For dVerse's "Poetics:Look into my Eyes" Click on Mr. Linky and join in!
Foreboding
gathers the dark and mist
demons race in droves
we wrangle quotidian ruminations
beneath a hornet’s nest
while a rush of wings draws closer
the prophetic voices cry:
“Mark, oh mark, the hour!”
Aloft green and gold
we crowd dull bottles to ward
faitours of darkness.
We dye clarity
for gaudy tranquility
but eyes move skyward.
You are not hidden
in magnificent sky-breadth
your glory beckons.
So even pigs graze
under Your eyes, contented
while we root clamor.
For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.
Psalm 36:9
These photos are from the Shenandoah Valley where light seems to reign in Edenic beauty.
Written for Rochelle's Friday Fictioneers Genre: Realism Word count: 100 words PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson Click on the frog and join in the fun!
When Christmas Comes
As a child, Christmas decorations made her sick with excitement. Now they made her sick for those gone missing since the lock-down. They showed up in little boxes the home projected onto a screen, but she knew they were impersonators. She watched, but refused to speak to those teary-eyed strangers. Her own family was naturally cheerful, even boisterous. “Lord, where are they?” Every day she recited their names, rolling them in her mouth like hard candy. Every day there was less of them to remember. But Christmas came. Her heart burned. There was a Light to investigate in the heavens.
Every day I see her there
child by the chain link fence
imagining friends and school games
her mouth forming an O at the clouds
as if they were breath-formed
to shower the blighted with dreams
dragons incinerating fences
between a million small figures
as time passes like wind over grass,
blown green now brown,
while the limitless sky watches
unblinking.
dVerse Poetics #428, “Poetry as Witness”: Frank writes, “So tonight poets, let’s bear witness in our local neighbourhood.” I chose to write on the harm that is being done to our children during this time of enforced social isolation.
Check out Mr. Linky and join in!
This week’s CFFC topic is Dark Red including maroon and burgundy colors. Be creative and mostly have a lot of fun. Thanks, Cee. Check out all the photography and join in! So here we go!
This Jolly Beggar 