Eternity Bides

Where hearts and souls meet
Whence the world would see us part –
Eternity bides

written in response to this week’s Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge #318 “Meet” and “Part”

‘No Longer Slaves’ – Bethel worship

‘You split the sea
So I could walk right through it
My fears were drowned in perfect love

You rescued me
And I will stand and sing
I am a child of God.’

Green Meadows Abound

O to rest e’ermore
Where the heavens drop their dew
Green meadows abound

written in response to this week’s prompt at Haiku Horizons, and drawing on Zechariah 8:12Zechariah 8:12

Love and Justice

His love and justice,
Both soft and hard sides of God:
Sacrifice; judgement –
Salvation through faith by grace,
Yet all are held to account

A tanka written in response to Colleen’s Weekly Poetry Challenge #28 – “Hard” and “Soft”

Your Promise Preserves #NaPoWriMo2017 #GloPoWriMo2017

Do not let me stray
From the steadfast way,
May the path of purity
Steer all my steps,
Let me always accord with
The law of my loving Lord;

Before, I was afflicted –
Arrogant, and accursed;
As a lost sheep, went astray,
I applied my own way –
Your Word admonished me,
Now I adhere to your words;

I rejoices in your riches,
I delight in your decrees,
Your promise preserves my life;
As I persevere to serve,
Let me not be put to shame,
Help me to glorify your name.

Day 12 of the Na/GloPoWriMo2017 challenge, and today’s prompt from NaPoWriMo.net is to write a poem that explicitly incorporates alliteration (the use of repeated consonant sounds) and assonance (the use of repeated vowel sounds).

This poem was inspired by the lines of Psalm 119, which employs a lot of alliteration in its original Hebrew text.

Follow the River’s Course

Caught in eddy pools
Swimming against life’s currents
Taken by the flow

Find the river’s course
As it flows through the desert
Oasis of life

written in response to this week’s prompt – “swim” – at Haiku Horizons

BOP #NaPiWriMo2017 #GloPoWriMo2017

B orn under a cloud
O vercast by fear and doubt –
P aradise awaits

Day 11 of Na/GloPoWriMo2017 presents a prompt challenge too far (for the moment) from NaPoWriMo.net: : the Bop. The invention of poet Afaa Michael Weaver, the Bop is a kind of combination sonnet + song. Like a Shakespearan sonnet, it introduces, discusses, and then solves (or fails to solve) a problem. Like a song, it relies on refrains and repetition. In the basic Bop poem, a six-line stanza introduces the problem, and is followed by a one-line refrain. The next, eight-line stanza discusses and develops the problem, and is again followed by the one-line refrain. Then, another six-line stanza resolves or concludes the problem, and is again followed by the refrain.

My acrostic haiku presents a problem, develops it, and provides the solution in rather fewer words.

Destiny Beckons

Destiny beckons
En route to Jerusalem
Eternity waits
History as prophesied
For the sake of mankind’s souls

Jesus comes to Jerusalem as king
The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival
heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.
They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
‘Hosanna!’
‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’
‘Blessed is the king of Israel!’
Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written:
‘Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
    see, your king is coming,
    seated on a donkey’s colt.’
At first his disciples did not understand all this.
Only after Jesus was glorified
did they realise that these things had been written about him
and that these things had been done to him.
– John 12:12-16

He Bore our Sins

He bore our sins
On his own body,
Upon the cross
By his manifold wounds;
That we may be healed,
He died man’s death;
Yet victorious arose
That we might live again;
Cleansed, renewed in faith, and
Cloaked in His righteousness.

written in response to today’s prompt at The Daily Post, and inspired by 1 Peter 2:24

Revelation Convicts

False comfort in the crowd
Who disown their Father
Revelation convicts
The heart as an outlier
Welcomed then into the fold
To become a branch
of the one True Vine
Adopted to inheritance
In the royal throne room

written in response to today’s prompt at The Daily Posttoday’s prompt at The Daily Post