I dug out some of my old poetry the other day and found so many poems I’d forgotten…I touched one up and decided to share it with you here. I hope it blesses you like it did me.❤
oh, My child…
I see the pain in the way
you hold your head so high –
stiff, afraid of being weak,
vulnerable, for you feel that
another scar would be a thousand too many.
I see you, love,
when you’ve crawled to a secret place
to let out the grief
when the sobs rise without bidding,
and you trap the muffled wails deep in your throat.
even when you weep, you’re guarded…
but I see you.
I want you to know that
you can stop tracing the scars,
running your fingers through the pains in your past
as if they were pearls.
I want you to look up…
see Me, love.
aren’t I more to you than your broken dreams?
will you risk it all just to sail with Me?
I need you to trust Me when I say
this does not need to be your last chapter.
I promise…one day you will smile again
without brushing the ghost of this sorrow.
I’m wanting to read some more cozy poetry this autumn…do you have any favorite poets/collections you would recommend? Please drop any ideas in the comments!
I’ve been hosting a poetry challenge over on Instagram with a dear friend…and man, challenge is the word for it! Some days it’s felt like pulling teeth to have to write another poem, but it’s stretched my creativity and given me some poems that I actually kind of love. Here are a few of them…
cinnamon
as the world slows down in
the north wind’s breath of
cinnamon and dust,
may my words fall short
and my life sing love
in each cozy autumn dawn.
sweater-weather
the wind bites hard,
swirling down from the north and
howling as it brings
a smattering of dry leaves and gravel dust.
I curl my arms around myself,
tucking reddened fingers into the sleeves of
my pilling sweater,
butting hard against the biting wind as
I walk a little slower.
(how delightful it is
to fight hard against something and
know that you’re stronger…)
mysteries
why the sky still blushes beauty at
the dawn on battlefields
why most of us have failed to
keep on crying at the headlines
why we say “you’ve got a lifetime yet”
when some girls die at 21
why we fight so hard for riches
we can’t take beyond the grave
Do you have a favorite of the three? If you’d love to be challenged yourself to write some more poetry, I’d love it if you would join the challenge!
In other words, we must make it our constant, conscious ambition and aim to be holy. We have to work at it, concentrate on it, as an athlete sets his sights on winning an Olympic gold medal: He focuses on his objective, he trains and strains to achieve his goal, he sacrifices for it, he endures pain for it, and he puts aside other pursuits for the sake of a higher pursuit.
Reading this while going through Leviticus has been extra convicting/challenging. I highly recommend it.
But wasn’t that what love looked like — loving and being afraid? Wanting the best for someone but afraid of what that meant, of letting go when everything in you still wanted to hold on?
It’s been a while since a piece of fiction has wrenched and strengthened my heart like this. This slower, introspective read is beautiful, and while some of the dialogue seemed a bit too eloquent (and because of that, slightly unrealistic) for my liking, I loved the way the author expressed the reality of suffering in an honest and hopeful way and wove so many pieces of the story together so masterfully. The dual timeline was also done extremely well! It lent so much depth to the main characters.
“If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.”
Oh, my goodness. I read most of this aloud to a sister, and half of the time was spent laughing. The humor, plot twists, and foreshadowing are all spot on, and I’ll definitely be reading this again when I need a good laugh.
I’ll never be a sparkling one but I hope I’ll catch your eye I’m dripping with mold instead of glitter oh how I want to be beautiful how I want to shine for you
I have mixed feelings about this book…I LOVED the gut-punches and “I feel seen” moments the author delivered in some of the poems, such as the one quoted above…you know, those words you want to roll around and savor in your mind for awhile.✨ Personally I feel that the poetry could have used a bit more clarity and proofreading, but it does contain some real gems for the ones who need to feel seen and known in the middle of grief/hard times.❤️
Their feet upon temptation, Their faces upon God.
Emily Dickinson
From the journal…
I know You are enough — always will be — but I’m coming to realize that sometimes You show up for those You love by sending them someone who will show them Your love in a very tangible way. (Make me this kind of person.)
The FOMO is hitting hard today…oh, give me a very real sense of Your ability to use me everywhere.
(On the Passover in Exodus 12) I love how God asks them to celebrate this victory of His before it even comes fully to fruition…much as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper in anticipation of the day when we will eat and drink with Christ in His kingdom.
Oh, Father! Keep my eyes and heart and hope fixed on You, not Your work or blessings.
What are you taking away from this August? Did you have a favorite read of the month?
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
Tell me I’m not the only one who tries to rush God…
I’ve started reading through the Old Testament chronologically again, and it’s incredible to me to see how God is not bound by time or hindered by the limits of human power and knowledge as we are.
Job spent nearly 40 chapters mourning and questioning and yet trusting God in the middle of a despair so deep that he wished he’d never been born…and in the 42nd chapter that Job never saw coming, God doubled his wealth and cheered his broken heart with more children.
Abraham, an elderly man with a wife who was barren, was promised what man deemed impossible when God told him, over and over again, that his descendants would be well-nigh impossible to count. Abraham clung to that promise for dear life, raising altars as visual reminders of that impossible promise…and in the end, he only lived long enough to see a glimpse of its fulfillment.
In Exodus we hear of how God provided manna in the wilderness to His hungry grumbling chosen ones. They called it manna (which basically means “what is it?”), and I find that intriguing because God’s provision was right there in front of them, looking nothing like what they had expected. When they realized what it was, they wanted to hoard and store it away for the days to come, but it rotted overnight…
And so they spent forty years surviving on God’s provision that looked nothing like what they had wanted or expected. They spent each day in the wilderness depending completely upon His mercy…
And how are we any different? God isn’t.
Can’t we, too, in our unspeakable pain, trust the Healer?
Can’t we, in our breathless impatience for miracles, trust the Maker and sustainer of time?
Can’t we, in our longing for more, trust the fulfillment of our desires to the Giver of all good gifts?
when I watch my dreams lie dying
while God’s healing others’ broken dreams,
give me the trusting heart of Jairus,
to open wide the door of my mourning soul
to the Master who tarried as
the light of my eyes slipped away.
(nothing…nothing is beyond His healing touch.)
And so, friends…here’s to trusting Him with each joy, each tear, each longing.
practice giving your time and flowers // practice giving more than required // expecting nothing in return // it mimics the Father’s way of doing things
This was such a lovely collection of poetry that focuses on the simplicity and beauty of living each day with Christ. Some of the poems did seem to get a bit repetitive by the end, but it’s amazing and definitely a collection I’ll be referencing!
(It’s also the first book I’ve colored in since toddlerhood…see the pictures here!)
The Dana girls had found the teacher’s car. But where was Miss Tisdale?
My teenage self would have loved this so much more than my current self did this summer. XD
Think Nancy Drew, but it’s two sisters at a boarding school instead with all of the fun no-gore mystery and adventure elements. It was a fun riveting read for a week and I’d hand it over to my little sisters with no qualms, but there’s no character development that would induce me to spend much more time on this series because my TBR is so long!
“I have, let me confess it in all humility, a pitiful human wish that someone should know just how clever I’ve been…”
I’m still not sure how I feel about this one…it’s an absolutely brilliant mystery, but due to the sheer number and type of murders, it felt extremely dark. It’s not really something on which I want to be dwelling.
But wasn’t that what love looked like — loving and being afraid? Wanting the best for someone but afraid of what that meant, of letting go when everything in you still wanted to hold on?
I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for so long! I’m still at the beginning.
Instead of oxygen and stress, Claudia thought now of hushed and quiet words: glide, fur, banana, peace.
I’ve been reading this one to my little sisters and skipping the unsavory parts. XD It’s been such a fun read with so much laughter.
“I know that You can do anything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.”
Job 42:2
From the journal…
The proof of the gospel isn’t in poetry or flimsy words; it’s lived out in a transformed life.
Oh, Lord, help me to remember that even my breath is Yours…Yours to recall whenever You so choose. Help me to live wisely in light of that! Show me where and how to spend my minutes.
and so I run…
barefoot, restless, reckless through the grass,
fingers splayed wide as they reach with expectance
for a warming horizon…
ready to catch the rays of the sun
as soon as they spill o’er
the edge of the world.
What were some of the highlights of your July?
❤ Laurel
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
Hello, friends! Let’s skip the intros I can never write well anyway and cut to the chase:
The giveaway
I’ve been wanting to do a giveaway for awhile and am finally doing it!
BUT.
It’s a trap.
It’s a newsletter-exclusive giveaway, so if you aren’t subscribed to my newsletter, you’ll want to now if you know what’s good for you and if you like free bookish goodies.
If you were around when This Will Not Last released, you may remember the Etsy shop I started so I could process preorders. After about a year of being sorely neglected, I’ve relaunched it as The Barefoot Poetry Co., and if you’ve been wanting a signed copy of either one of my poetry collections, now is the time to snag one (or two or three!) at a 15% discount!
I’m running a sale in the shop through Friday because it’s my birthday week and I’m feeling like bribing people into supporting an ink-stained wretch in her wild writing habits generous. XD Use the code HOBBIT15 at checkout to get the discount! (Another plug for the newsletter…you’ll find out why I chose that code if you subscribe to the newsletter before Tuesday evening.:))
Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Proverbs 29:20
What I’ve been reading…
Prince Caspian – C.S. Lewis
“Oh, I’m a dangerous criminal, I am,” said the Dwarf cheerfully. “But that’s a long story. Meantime, I was wondering if perhaps you were going to ask me to breakfast? You’ve no idea what an appetite it gives one, being executed.”
And so the journey through Narnia continues! I’m thoroughly enjoying it.
Wildflower Pages – Brittany Litster
there is so much more to God than what He can do for me.
This is the first book I’ve annotated, and I’m hooked. This collection of poetry is just so delightful and thought-provoking…I got together with a friend the other day to talk over some of the poems, as we’re reading through the book at the same time! 10/10 recommend doing that with a favorite poetry book.✨
Thank God I have learned how to deal with loneliness, then. I have written about it so many times. I have felt an ache that this world cannot satisfy for all my life. At times, I have thought it was a longing for certain places or people. Today it manifests itself as a longing for love and marriage. But I see it for what it is: a longing for fulfillment. And I know wherein lies my fulfillment.
I appreciated this take on the root of longing so very much. This blog post is well worth the read.
The only reason that we are ever scared of the will of God is because we cannot see the grace that will be there.
Elisabeth Elliot
From the journal…
Help me to go deeper in a world of short captions and fast-paced living. Show me how to live this season with grace.
God is still good when I feel left behind.
Well, June was a full month, and that means a not-so-full journal.😂
What memories/lessons are you taking away from this month?
Stay the course!
❤ Laurel
P.S. My quarterly newsletter goes out this week or next! Expect some secret info on my current writing project, Project Redemption! (and possibly a little writing snippet??) If you’re not signed up for my newsletter already, you can do so here!
This week I wanted to bring back a post from last fall that really embodies what I’ve been considering lately…I hope it challenges you like it’s challenging me.
Laurel Luehmann 