Just over a year ago, I intended to post this poem. Tonight, it felt fitting. How easily I allow deceit to choke my peace! How easily I simply give up, rather than fight on despite the odds, frustrations, or fears. It’s just easier to believe the lie or kneel to fear. The Greco-Roman myths, fullContinue reading “Battling the Gorgons of Deceit & Fear”
Category Archives: poems
Stormy Cathedrals
When we were children, storms tended to frighten us. I’m not sure when the switch happened, but for me, they inspire reverence. Over the past week, we’ve had our share of storms where I live. This took me back to a poem I wrote almost two years ago, birthed out of a similar storm-gazing experience.Continue reading “Stormy Cathedrals”
Lessons from the Redbreast
A little over a week ago, a dead branch I was cutting knocked me off my extension ladder, causing me to fall seventeen feet to the lawn below. By the grace of God, I broke nothing. Once I got my breath back, I reset the ladder, climbed back up, and finished the cut. I evenContinue reading “Lessons from the Redbreast”
Elegy and Legacy: A Poem for Father’s Day
I have been waiting all year to post this one! Although I wrote this poem three years ago, I’ve had it lingering in the digital wings for a variety of reasons. I had big dreams of this being published elsewhere, in some “reputable magazine,” but a few rejection letters later, and I’ve put that thoughtContinue reading “Elegy and Legacy: A Poem for Father’s Day”
Figure Drawing and Freewrite Fridays: 2D Art and Poetry
Two years ago, one of the art teachers where I work approached me about getting a group of students together on Fridays during lunch for a bit of creative synergy we affectionately dubbed Figure Drawing and Freewrite Fridays. Students came after lunch (or during, in some cases) and sketched charcoal drawings of student or teacherContinue reading “Figure Drawing and Freewrite Fridays: 2D Art and Poetry”
Violet: Poems Inspired by Color
Finally! Of all the color poems I’ve written for this series, violet was the most challenging. Admittedly, part of the issue was simply a matter of time. As I’m sure you’ve realized, there never seems to be enough of it! If only Jim Croce could have put time in a bottle… Writer’s block, or thatContinue reading “Violet: Poems Inspired by Color”
Blackout Poetry: Breathing New Life into Discarded Books
It’s another one of those life seasons. Little time to be creative as I wrap up another school year. I’m working on my violet poem in any spare moments I can carve out of the day, but I must admit disc golf and time building dams in the creek with my younger boys has beenContinue reading “Blackout Poetry: Breathing New Life into Discarded Books”
Indigo: Poems Inspired by Color
Blue or Purple? That is the question. When I sat down to write my poem inspired by indigo, I didn’t know where to start. Looking at a rainbow, can you clearly pull out the color indigo like you can red or green? I can’t even go to a Crayola crayon box to find the colorContinue reading “Indigo: Poems Inspired by Color”
Blue: Poems Inspired by Color
Of all the colors of the rainbow, I fight with blue the most. Ironically, my closet is filled with dress shirts of various shades of blue, and it’s not even my favorite color! (For the record, I do have shirts of other colors, and my favorite color is actually orange.) We associate so many thingsContinue reading “Blue: Poems Inspired by Color”
Green: Poems Inspired by Color
Green began when I looked out my back windows and saw the new grass pushing up through the straw we laid down in the late fall after our addition was completed: fresh life sprouting on the new contour of our backyard. I then began meditating on the “evergreen” nature of the color – constant throughContinue reading “Green: Poems Inspired by Color”
