The Winter poetry theme is posted on Burnside’s website. I welcome submissions for the theme of transience. As we enter a new year, I believe it’s a healthy meditation. Please submit your poetry on Burnside Writers website through the Hey Publisher form. Poems submitted with this theme will be given priority over others.
Thanks and Happy New Year.
I’m curating a poetry carnival on Burnside Writers Collective. Link a poem to this page. I’ll include your submission in the year end round up in December. I’m going to organize the poems, including excerpts from each and bios on poets, so we can learn more about each other as a community of writers. If you don’t have a site or blog you can paste your poem in the comments section on Burnside’s site. Thanks for supporting this cause and making us know more about your passion for written beauty.
I’m delighted to join the editing team at Burnside Writers as the Poetry Editor. I’m not going to be posting here as frequently, but I’d welcome you all to visit Burnside Writers Collective and read along as I promote Christian poetry there. Thanks for reading, liking and sharing together the beauty of art and joy of great thoughts.
If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.
–David Carradine
Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.
–Khalil Gibran
I did not fully realize what I signed up for when I submitted my work to a poetry contest. I failed to read the fine print. I’m glad I did.
My first two published poems are in RAW: A Poetic Journey edited by Aimee Maude Sims with a forward by Jennifer Knapp. My public writing journey began with a piece on Burnside that discusses Knapp’s lesbian lifestyle entitled “Protestant Planks: A Lesson in Grace.” It is divinely ironic that she introduces a book that has two of my poems. RAW is what I have been for a long time. My life has been truly unorthodox so when I read the contest guidelines for real prayers and heart cries, I knew that I needed to be among them.
A perusal through the list of contributors reveals a group of men and women whose faith has carried them through some very hard times. Despite the raw and unorthodox nature it possesses, they cling to a good God who loves. His love is so vast and variegated that it encompasses the fringes. Jesus came for the outcasts, and I believe he would be named among these, too. For his mission reaches into the broken places. And such are we.
Atheism?
My second poem is currently on Burnside. In “A Prodigal Embrace” I explore the mind of the Father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. I relate so much more to this parable now that I have a son. My father used to use the cliche, “This hurts me more than it hurts you.” I now understand what he means and on a cosmic scale how the Father’s heart aches for his children.
I always love Rembrandt’s “Return of the Prodigal Son.” I hope to capture just a glimpse of this in my work although I could never imagine being able to equal the Dutch master in emotive quality. If you missed my first poem, you can read it here.
I have a poem on Burnside about God’s love entitled “pierced.” Please read it here and comment as you feel led. This is one of the more vulnerable pieces that I have written, but I really feel that it may resonate with others who are likewise amazed at the power of God’s gracious pursuit of us.
Seeing you on my TV right now.
How many outlets,
how many photo documentaries, paparazzi . . . madness?
Can we handle this?
My soul aches.
My mind wanders, wonders.
You – the face of a gossip hungry nation.
You – the hero that we all admire.
And yet, I aspire to be a hero.
A hero to my family, my friends, myself.
Could it be? A celebrity?
What kind of hero, may I be?
Certainly not the one who gloats,
the one who seeks the fame, the money, the freedom . . .
The one who needs you like I need you right now.
I see myself looking in a mirror with a Sony logo on it.
The celebrity I despise is my own reflection
American Idol, idle my oh my.
Why do I want this?
How can I be a hero?
I would be a heroic celebrity.
yeah, I would not compromise.
I would not waffle at the tough questions.
false confidence.
self-reflection reveals this interwoven dependency.
I need you looking back at me right now
to show me what I can be -
only better.
Maybe, it is time to start today
to be the hero I need to be?
a faithful husband
a patient father
a hero
a celebrity at home
to those who see me as a hero.
Selah.
