Poetry – Page 25 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Red Sea Dawn

The Red Sea’s calm.
The riddle’s gone.
We praise the Lord
who brings this dawn.

Eugenia offers for this week the prompt “dawning”. As background to the poem see Exodus 14.

We ask and yet we don’t receive.
Let’s drop some plans. Let others wait.
I wonder: Were the corners straight?
What wayward missteps did we weave?

I won’t let fear take root to grieve.
Dreams are cooking? Let them simmer.
Dusk is growing. Light gets dimmer.
Take time to find the righteous way
avoiding what led us astray.
Morning sunlight soon will shimmer.

Ronovan Hester challenges us to write a décima with the rhyme word “shimmer” in a C line with a rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC.

Morning sunlight through the trees and to the pond

Ronovan's Decima Poetry Challenge Image — Ronovan’s Decima Poetry Challenge Image

Sunday Walk

I am grateful to P. A. Oltrogge for bringing Psalm 27 to my attention this past week. Here is the concluding verse about waiting and courage:

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
Psalm 27:14 King James Version

I found Michael Wilson’s post on the use of the Greek word for slave, δοῦλος, helpful. He noted that the word is often translated as servant although it means slave. The distinction is that a servant is hired but a slave is owned. When I think about it I’d rather be owned by Jesus than hired by him for my good works. I am grateful that He bought me.

Float

So whom do you rely upon?
You’re at the Red Sea. Where’s the boat?
How long in water can you float?
That’s when a way was made. At dawn
the charging enemy was gone
except for corpses flushed to shore.
You still have doubts? You’d like one more
experiment to test what’s true?
You see the dead? They’d like that, too,
but they have lost their strength for war.

Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “float” to be used in a B line of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC for this week’s Décima Poetry Challenge.

See Exodus 14 for an account of the crossing of the Red Sea.

Shades of Gray

Dale offers the challenge “shades of gray” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge. Above are gray clouds coming in during sunset. Below is a leaf on a gray sidewalk.

The first blog I read this morning was Dianne Marshall’s The Marshall Report. It contained links to two videos, both of which I enjoyed.

Contrast

Repentance cringes at the past
since God detests the rot of it
that reeks of death. The blot of it
warns us beware of each contrast.

We’re thankful though that didn’t last.
We saw in time our wretched ways.
Where would we be if all our days
continued on mechanically
when seeing meant we didn’t see?
Such gratitude’s the source of praise.

Ronovan Hester offers the challenge of using the rhyme word “contrast” in the A line of a décima where the rhyme pattern is ABBAACCDDC.

Losing Darkness

Turn the light out in a cave
and feel the dark come crashing in.
Gratitude. Beyond the grave
such darkness does not get to win.

This is a “dribble” which is a poem of 100 letters (excluding punctuation such as periods, apostrophes, spaces or dashes). The title is not part of the count. See Abigail Gronway’s Happier New New for another example. She challenges us to write one and post a link in the comments of her post.

Spiny Orb Weaver

Its spines stood out in shiny red
with body black against white wall.
Its web seemed barely there at all
but formed a sticky prison bed.

The traps effectively were spread
to catch deception in midair.
The truth exposed each lie out there
and everywhere we heard the crash.
The busted celebration bash
had cursed repentance, scorned good prayer.

Ronovan Hester challenges us to write a décima with the rhyme word “bash” in the D position of a rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC.

Last Week’s Christmas Walk

Dale asks us to “show us your Christmas” for the Cosmic Photo Challenge. On my walk on Christmas day I spotted these flowers among others.

My smile this week for Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile is much the same as it has been. In particular I was wondering if I would find anything to photograph on December 25th worth posting to meet Dale’s challenge. Sometimes I’m too distracted. There are times I am so preoccupied I forget to take photos. I smiled with relief when I spotted these flowers. I don’t know why I saw them. I must have missed them on previous walks. Perhaps they weren’t blooming then.