The Poetry Marathon

It’s finally here

Morning

Time to sleep

Recover my dreams

In a tipsy topsy turvy world

Those who do not know the story

Don’t know what’s meant to be

Or understand

Strange reality.

As I try to stay awake through the last hour

I glance at the window behind

Rip open the curtains

Who knew sunrise was so soon?

Glancing behind

The whole sky changes hue

With each look.

Pale pink to pale gray

To stormy blue

Until bright blue appears

With streaks of brilliant white.

Who else looks upon this?

Is anyone enjoying it?

Or do they sleep the Sunday mornings away?

Are those awake to see it too weary to appreciate it

Off to the daily grind?

I wonder,

How much beauty do I miss

When I do not stir myself to be perceptive of it?

Dear Lord,

Let my soul be at rest once more

Swallowed up in the contentment

Of resting in Your arms.

Please save me from the darkness

That I am so easily entrapped in

Stone walls towering in my mind

A maze I can’t escape.

The sins and fears that haunt me

I face over and again

The same old troubles which still stop me

To the point that I’m ashamed

Who is knocked down by the same monster

Again and again and again?

Lord, I know You’re patient with me

I know You’re by my side

Though I know I should rise when I’ve fallen

– Sometimes I just don’t want to try.

But You’re patient, kind, merciful;

You’re with me,

You won’t leave me here to die.

Not because I try my best

Or somehow earn Your smile

Will You carry me through.

You’ll lift me from darkness because You are faithful,

Even when I’m not;

That’s just what You do.

So my dear God, I thank you

I could never live without You.

Though sometimes I still try,

As I’m sometimes still a fool

And old ghosts in my mind

Lead me away from You.

Show me how to face the monsters, God

Let me see the Way

Using good to overcome evil

To see light brighter than the day.

The brightest light of all:

Please remind me that I’m loved,

And help me give that love to others

– That graced love from above.

In the peace and the silence of the deeps of the night

I find it in me to again trust

with full contentment

not fretting of the future and its shadowy fears

Trusting

In the Lord my God

My emotions still on mute at this late hour

But my inner heart at rest

At rest

At rest, oh be at rest once more,

Oh my soul,

for the Lord has been good to you.

Surely He has delivered me

From waters deep in which I swam, exhausted,

Surely, He has rescued me

From many unseen and unfelt falls.

The beast awakes, the beast in me
And just as unexpectedly, it sleeps
I should rightly call it
A gift from God
When it sleeps
But now it’s gone
I wonder
What is there left if me?
What does the beast take, when it sleeps?

Falling
Deep
And dark
Alone
Swallowed up
By night
Which took its time
But doesn’t darkness always claim us
In the end?

Wolf runs wild through the night.

She calls to us,

as the doe does not,

for we have learned to overlook her gentleness.

But wolf

runs fierce and wild

stirring ancient memories within us.

She lopes through crystal white fields,

silver under the moon, soft crunch under her claws.

The cold bites deep. She revels.

Her strength

her glory

her power

her song.

We hear it in our heartbeats,

her wildness,

the wonder of the untamed, undomesticable,

We remember what we have long forgotten.

We see her run, and she tells us, that beyond our concrete scraping sky and coating earth,

there is life and spirit and wild.

Wolf runs, and not only her body but her soul breathes.

She reminds us

of what we could be.

We sit with knees on cold concrete

To stare straight up into the sky

That narrow circle of the heavens

Not blocked by suburbia’s lights

Silver ice diamonds

Peeking through dark night

Reminding us of the wilderness

Where our souls may take flight

Not weighted down by concrete

Or the fuss of mundane life.

Every now and then,

God adds one more gift in His benevolence

The aurora borealis

Which stirs from deep within His children

The urge to join in freedom’s dance.

A closed front door

A stranger, neighbours

Possibly a friend,

Or a friendly neighbour,

Maybe one who is upon you a task fallen,

A message to deliver,

But whoever is inside,

It is a closed front door.

Possibilities and impossibilities abound,

Infinite stories waiting to unfold,

Or remain unborn, closed forever,

Stories of friends and foes and strangers,

Greetings and rejections,

All waiting for a knock.

We can extrapolate the universe

Of mankind

As we stare at a closed front door.

Shall we dare to step inside?

A streetlight on a city street

Pale circle in the dark

Offers haven to one mind,

Searching for an absence of shadows,

A place from which can come no hidden attack.

But to another,

The streetlight circle is no haven

But a dreadful spotlight

The bull’s-eye in the night

For those with villainous intentions.

What is the human mind,

And what powers does it hold,

That it in stark contrast

Presents the facts so?

The fact of a city streetlight.