Tag: stafford challenge

#8 – The Stafford Challenge: Threads

Another poem for the challenge.

Below is the verse that I used for a prompt, if you would like to use it for your own writing prompt. My notes from this verse were also inspired by recently reading Corrie Ten Boom’s book “The Hiding Place” (I highly recommend it if you haven’t read it).

“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.” — John 15:5

Threads

I sew flowers along the hems of my garment.
Bright red thread curls around my fingers,
crudely and inexpertly grafted onto filthy, white cloth.
I get bored with daisies, so I switch to peonies, roses,
then move on to giant, red grapes.
I will sew without skill or abandon,
seeking all the while for my mind to be still,
to be focused on nothing but Your face and meager
imitations of your creations.
A black flea lands on the petal of a grand lily—
full-flowering and majestic in wobbly red outlines—
and I bless the flea. For his callousness.
His thirst for blood. His desire to spread a sickness so beyond himself,
that will soon course through my veins
as I course through the garment with thread.
All are for a reason. A break in solitude.
A reminder of filth, of death, of enemies’ darts,
of the precious red winding through,
leading life imperfectly toward You.

#7 – The Stafford Challenge: Coming Back

So … after a seven-month break (yikes) from the Stafford Challenge, I feel the Lord guiding me back to writing poetry. Not only writing poetry, but continuing this challenge (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out this post). I know most of the year has gone, but the beauty of this challenge is that it’s never too late to start. Even if you don’t pick up a pen until the last week of December, you will have accomplished writing seven brand-new poems for the year, which is a lot more than zero.

Here’s my poem for the day. It was based off a devotional journaling prompt I came across: “I’m coming back to you, Jesus.”

Coming Back

Dark days cover like a hard blanket, worn out from much use. No longer soft or enjoyable to the touch, a comfortless reminder of the past when sin used to feel home-like. The dog in me wants to return to its vomit stains, live that carefree life of self, where I could laugh so hard that I couldn’t see the pit where I was kept, mucking around in filth. Like a pig with brains, but the brains don’t help. Just makes you aware of your pigginess. And then, the day’s blanket got a little warmer, covering my cold, naked skin. It reminded me of something else, like if I dug a little deeper into those folds, shrunk down and climbed into the fibers, some sweet, gentle voice would find me, telling me that I’m His child and that I need to come home.

The Stafford Challenge: Day 1 (+ starting up this blog again)

I signed up for The Stafford Challenge this month to get to writing poetry again after a pretty long slump (you can read about what The Stafford Challenge is here). So far it’s been like grinding rusty gears together trying to get the poetry flowing again, and after wrestling with God with all my feelings of lameness and talentless-ness, I finally got a poem down.

Is it a good poem? Not really. But it was fun to write poetry again.

One part of the Stafford Challenge is to write down an aphorism before you start. I decided to Christian-ize this challenge by starting with a Bible verse that pops out to me during my daily Bible reading, or a thought that God has placed on my heart that morning. If you like writing poetry, and would like to try the Christian-ized version of the challenge, it goes like this:

  1. Get a blank paper.
  2. Write down the date.
  3. Write down your Bible verse/Holy Spirit-inspired thought.
  4. Write a small diary entry, just jotting down some thoughts.
  5. Write your poem.
  6. Do this every morning, for one year.

Honestly, this only takes about 15 minutes. And then you have a poem to work with. And even if you don’t like your poem, tomorrow you’ll have another poem to work with.

I’m recording these rough-draft poems here because I’ve always wanted this blog to be a space where I experiment with poetry—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and maybe the Holy Spirit will send these to someone and use them for the kingdom in some wonderful, unexpected way.

So, let’s do it. One year of poems, Day 1.

Miss Fishie

Struggling on a line right now, wriggling like a fish. Set myself free—painfully, but only for a moment—or stay hooked and get pulled further and further away from God? Yeah, that’s not really an option, is it? Black nets, hands churning and groping, then waiting. You gave everything: gills to breathe even when things got deep, scales shining against a summer sunbeam—beauty in a blue wilderness. Something shiny pretty made by man will tear open flesh—first your greedy mouth, then your heart—lay you on a slab of unholy sacrifice to carnal appetites—serve you up pierced, scaled (and found wanting), and fried up with some french-fried potatoes and a stale beer at Pete’s Seafood Shanty. (The grip of you much more gentle, like being gripped by Love itself. Can’t slip through those fingers, no matter how slimy I am.) So grip, Father, rip. Until these wide eyes see.