Forever

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. ~ Isaiah 41:10 

 

Our hearts –

they ache – they harbor pain,

a pain of grief and loss.

Our minds are clouded by the tears –

and just can’t see the Cross.

Our searching thoughts –

they try to grasp

at whys not understood,

unable to accept this hurt

is somehow for our good.

Doubts –

they tend to make their home

right amongst our fears.

Days seem hard

and nights are worse,

fighting back the tears.

Desperate -

at times finally,

we get upon our knees

asking God to guide us here,

to hear our many pleas.

God –

He gently holds us up

and  never lets us go.

He comfort us with peace so whole

just like we long to know.

And along the rocky road from here

He leads us by His hand,

teaching us  His gospel real

and showing us His plan.

And gradually, we come to learn

that life is more than now

so in His strength we carry on,

slowly, strong, somehow.

And forever is our perspective

and  so, we long for home,

enjoying how He’s blessed us,

never left alone.

Cast

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you.

~I Peter 5:6

Uncertainty and worries, they

caressed my reeling mind.

A heartlessness pervaded – such

as I’d thought I’d never find.

The courage that I’d grasped before

I watched – it moved like sand,

that despite my violent protests

slipped right through my hands.

A whirlwind of “what if’s” raged strong,

the storm of “never” blew,

and every single question there

undid what I’d called true.

Faltering in oblivion

- a place I’d been before –

I searched in vain for sweet peace

to calm my essence flawed.

Yet anxiety: a begrudging friend

Had attached itself to pride –

an ego had now grown some more

and refused to leave or hide.

So upon my back I carried it:

a heavy, dreary weight,

and despite the call to cast it off,

I claimed it as my fate.

Too proud to leave such fear behind,

too fearful to let pride go,

I floundered, falling far behind,

grasping what I didn’t know.

It was only a humility,

worked by the Spirit divine

which tore the burdens from my back

- the ones I’d claimed as mine.

It was only Grace that taught me

that burdens such as these

are to be cast upon God, who hears,

who grants a true release.

Cast, rather than carried

is now my theme song for such fear,

And guided by the Spirit of Hope,

True peace is always near.

a dreamed resolve

Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning.
~ Gloria Steinem

Resolve seems sweet when near asleep,

When day has not yet broken,

When the mind – in grandeur – makes such claims

That have no merit spoken.

In dreaming a reality

That will never find existence

One finds a joy – a hidden hope

That in reality sees resistance.

The conversation within our head

That need no second party

With out the mess- or second guess-

Yet with conviction true and hearty.

It is only life that seems to stand

In the way of resolution

And only truth that guides to where

A hope can find solution.

cherry blossoms

“It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.”
  ~Edgar Allan Poe

There was once a time

she’d walked amongst

the cherry blossom fire.

She’d chased her dreams,

and touched suns rays,

floating even higher.

The sunsets glow –

it watched her

as she fastened on her wings

& flew beyond “what if”

to where

only happiness could bring.

Those days,

each distant memory

seemed to glitter compared to what

she saw there in the mirror:

silver hair

and things forgot.

The portrait that still

admired her

held a face she longed to hold:

one stolen by the sunset

and turned

to all things gold.

The future

in its scarcity

held days that had been numbered.

So she lived amongst

the cherry trees

& kept dreaming as she wandered.

the fire

“The fire had swept past them and was now far ahead, breaking across the distant stubble in a low red wave. Behind them, and all around, was a world of smoke and blackness - black for cinders, black for ashes, black for mourning. The smoke and the stench still covered everything; and dotted all over the landscape like bitter red roses on the black earth were burning things - logs and fallen trees, stumps and limbs, fence posts and farm buildings.”

-Colin Theile, February Dragon

The putrid wind, it kissed my lips

with all things death and dire.

The sullen, sluggish, smoggish fog

-aglow- was rising higher.

A strange sense of serenity

encapsulated fear

as not a voice, but a fiendish roar

was heard by all those near.

The sky was very fury:

an intoxicated parade

of smoke and ash and embers

that drifted in its haze.

Leaping higher for a moment

and then back down to earth,

each searing flame seemed to dance

in a test of will and worth.

And when at once resided

the blackened landscape wept

and spilling into a greenery

of secrets left unkept.