Poetry Sunday~ Grace

Grace
***

Darkness seeps in like a creeping fog,

drawing my energy to the pit it came from.

Sweeping my essence off the floor trying

to carry my spirit below the surface of my soul.

***

I stand firm with my faith as my strength

desires to be pulled in an upward flow

from an unnamed force; beckoning me

to come and be one with the Holy Grace.

***

I see the light shining in the far off place

I outstretch my hand in hopes that someone

grabs hold and pulls me into the warmth so

I can be free once again right where I belong.

***

He never left my side the whole time, standing

where I last saw Him with bright eyes shining.

Singing to my soul with the voice of an Angel

His embrace is all I ever seek in the looming fog.

Quotation Saturday

It is all very well, when the pen flows, but then there are the dark days when imagination deserts one, and it is an effort to put anything down on paper. That little you have achieved stares at you at the end of the day, and you know the next morning you will have to scrape it down and start again.
~Elizabeth Aston, The True Darcy Spirit, 2006

Let each man exercise the art he knows.
~Aristophanes (450 BC - 388 BC), Wasps, 422 B.C.

So you see, imagination needs moodling - long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering.
~Brenda Ueland

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers.
~Charles W. Eliot (1834 - 1926), The Happy Life, 1896

The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.
~Henry James (1843 - 1916)

I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.
~Martha Washington(1732 - 1802)

The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.
~Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC)

A Power to Writing?

Dissecting your writing?

Are you the kind of writer who dissects every word? Do you find yourself not enjoying writing because of the nit-picking that you’re doing?

I’ve seen people take a sentence and rip it apart until it is perfect to their eyes. There is a course called Masterful Sentences and I just can’t find myself taking that class. I mean is there really a MASTERFUL sentence? Do you think all of the Master writer’s before us took this course, you know to make sure their work was perfect?

I don’t think so. I think one can put too much time into mastering the perfect sentence all the way down to the point of not finding a natural rhythm and flow to their writing. Something is lost along the way when your eye keeps picking out the wrong adjective or adverb or lazy modifier.

As writer’s we are in a state of wanting to get the story out and on paper. Type, type, type,click click goes the keyboard sounding like rain on a tin roof. We get the story out in a storm of words then it’s time for revisions. Now is the time to dissect your words. BUT and this is a major but, do you want to pick the story apart, sentence for sentence word for word and make it as perfect as you can? Sure you do.

Are you going to dissect it at a workshop and have everyone point out your weak modifiers? Poor use of adverbs? Sloppy use of an adjective? Did you write your story with the reader in mind or the grammar queen in mind who is going to read and dissect instead of enjoying the story?

I write a story so everyone can enjoy the flow of the words that feel right to them. Sure grammar usage is important but I really don’t want to lose the flow or the natural rhythm that I have going. I love writing! I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t write. But to think of dissecting my writing making it so illegible that not even I can recognize it as my own makes me cringe at writing. It literally causes me NOT to write which kind of scares me because it is something I love doing.

I write a lot of poetry. Now hand it to the pro’s in a workshop they can find words that are too redundant, they can find words that sound too forced, or they can pick a pair of alliterative words and say they don’t work. Change any one of those words and the poem loses its rhythm. It loses the heart and soul which once again, scares me. I won’t write a poem to be dissected. If it doesn’t have the iambic meter that your looking for then don’t read my poetry.

Now if you’re going to read my words because they touch you or make you feel something deep inside, then my writing is for you. Continue reading my friend.

Poetry Sunday

To love all is the end all...


In a world of misconception
a deceitful nation endures.
To love all is the end all...
It’s the end all of the world.

We should be coming together
instead we’re drawing nigh.
To love all is the end all
it’s the end all of the pain.

Death and destruction arises
we’re scattered in our faith.
To love all is the end all
its the end all of our lives.

The Word is in your heart
The King of Kings declares
To love all is the end all,
it’s the end all of the world.

Quotation Saturday

Publishing a volume of poetry today is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.
~Don Marquis

"Many people may listen, but few people actually hear."
~ Harvey Mackay

I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.
~Joan Didion

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
~Cyril Connolly

There are three difficulties in authorship: to write anything worth publishing, to find honest men to publish it - and to get sensible men to read it.
~Charles Caleb Cotton

I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.
~Edgar Allen Poe

Poetry Sunday

Music Divine

***

Divine is the dancing pirouette of sound.
Bathing in the luminosity of space.
A bastion of baubles blazing boldly.
Rhythm masking in the ticker-tape of time.
Reverberating in reverent chime.
Compliant to the composer of conceit.
Fastidious to the feasible feast.
Notorious notes nourish in sync.
Melody meets a measure combine...
Divine is the dancing~~pirouette of sound!

***

Poetry Sunday

Alone

In my ideal world
I isolate myself from the society
that has let me down.
I run through the fields of
golden streams.
I play in the solitude of bliss.
I long to hear the sounds
of rustling leaves.
No voices to distract me;
just peace and quiet.

Even the quiet carries a hum;
a rhythm of cascading nothingness
that takes me to a place in my mind
where I alone can talk to God;
and He can talk back.

I yearn to be left alone.
No cares or wares for me
to treasure; just the basic
needs of food and water.
I need to be alone for it is
where God cradles me and allows
me to cry in His arms.
My eyes unleash a river
as my world gets muddled;
He caresses me as His robe is
puddled ...by my tears.

Am I home yet, Lord?

Quotation Saturday

But virtue, as it never will be moved,
Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
So lust, though to a radiant angel linked,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed
And prey on garbage.
~William Shakespeare

On books:

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."
~ Groucho Marx

"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island... and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life."
~ Walt Disney

"Everything you need for your better future and success has already been written. And guess what? It's all available."
~ Jim Rohn

"The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read."
~ Abraham Lincoln


On Writing:

If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.
~ Natalie Goldberg

Writing a novel is like heading out over the open sea in a small boat. It helps, if you have a plan and a course laid out.
~ John Gardner

The ideal view for daily writing, hour for hour, is the blank brick wall of a cold-storage warehouse. Failing this, a stretch of sky will do, cloudless if possible.
~ Edna Ferber

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
~ G. K. Chesterton

On Me:

There will never be another now -
I'll make the most of today.
There will never be another me -
I'll make the most of myself.
~ Helen Keller

Don't take life so serious. It ain't no-hows permanent.
~ Walt Kelly

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
~ Isaac Asimov

Poetry Sunday

Temptations Garden
***
Slithering along the garden path,
evil lurks the ground.
Hunting for the perfect host.
the soul of woman found.

Placed upon her soft-toned breast,
sweet petals she adorns;
A scent of misconception,
the rose with all its thorns.

Perched on top her flowing hair,
she wears a crown of lure.
A man now present within her sight,
leads to thoughts impure.

Brazen with her nudity,
her taunt and tease begin.
Drawing the inner mind of man,
unleashing the first sin.

Evil bridles the stolen path,
relishing the prize.
The goal of lust and greed defined.
now sewn in human's eyes.

Guilt and shame are evident;
the garden sighs and weeps.
Humans bound to Lucifer,
the soul within them sleeps.

Rise up now you vacant souls,
a thundering of grief;
Rays of sun will shower down,
Offering relief.

Lay claim to all the light bestowed,
behold the skillful presence;
slay the dark with purity,
capturing true essence.

Do not let the garden die,
singe the weeds within.
Fight the gnashing of his teeth;
spurn the tempting sin.

Steadfast in the pursuit of love,
a measure of true beauty.
See it not as a burdened chore,
but humankind's real duty.

I share with you my wisdom's words;
against the evil harden.
Awaken now in the realms of heaven,
leave Satan to his garden.

Poetry Sunday

Reflection
***
I rest upon a sunset dream
aglow in wondrous light.
I sat upon a misty stream
alone in somber night.

I sang a song and it did seem
a melody of flight.
I sat by sand and saw a gleam;
a rhapsody of sight.

I basked amidst a brazen beam;
a fountainful of fight.
As to arouse my sunset dream.
To mornings marvel of white.

***
*** Lead me, stairway ***
***
MY heart aches; severed it breaks
I am torn from limb to limb.
Branch by branch my life is quaking
as a storm in the sand; whisking the dust to heights
away from my eyes or into them
for my sight seems hindered.
I squint to see through darkened clouds
billowing like the tidal waves across the sand.
Bustling around my head as if to keep me in a
silent reverie.
I let out a harrowing scream for to let,
just one person know I am amid this raging storm
And I need assistance in clarification
of the icicled granules
that pierce my skin.

Reach out for me like rays from the gleaming orb that
drapes the sky in crimson glory.
Draw me from this cavernous abode;
out of this blackened pit;
spew me forth into the great flaming meadows
of intricate bellowing blossoms.
Hold me in everlasting beauty and guide me
to the stairway
that leads me to the peace that will blanket my soul
and comfort me in harmonious bliss!!!

Writing is only boring to the people who are boring themselves.
Anonymous

May I never grow to old to treasure 'once upon a time'.
Anonymous

IMAGINATION

"I shut my eyes in order to see." -- Paul Gauquin

"There is a boundary to men's passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination." -- Edmund Burke

"Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier." -- Charles F. Kettering

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." -- --Albert Einstein

Many of us are afraid to follow our passions, to pursue what we want most because it means taking risks and even facing failure. But to pursue your passion with all your heart and soul is success in itself. The greatest failure is to have never really tried.
--Robyn Allan

We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.
--Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

It is a lesson which all history teaches the wise, to put trust in ideas, and not in circumstances" -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle.” -- Ken Hakuta

"Take all the training you can get; one good idea is all you need to save yourself years of hard work." -- Brian Tracy

"The Bible says, ‘If you wish to find, you must search.’ I believe that is true, rarely does a good idea interrupt you." -- Jim Rohn

I love men, not for what unites them, but for what divides them, and I want to know most of all what gnaws at their hearts.
Guillaume Apollinaire

When you meet a man, you judge him by his clothes; when you leave, you judge him by his heart.
Russian proverb

"People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.” -- Steve Jobs

“Only through focus can you do world-class things, no matter how capable you are."
-- Bill Gates

"Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential." -- Barack Obama

"Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it." -- James Allen

Poetry Sunday

Gone Away… from Home

The angel swept across the miles,
a duty on her shoulder.
A quest she didn't understand.
Knowing God would hold her.

Leaving behind all she stored;
every material treasure.
To walk the road the Lord had set,
one without true measure.

Her family mourned for she was gone;
no longer by their side.
Her work for them was now complete;
Faith her only guide.

Firmly implanted, she walks alone,
a shield of grace adorned.
Everyone needs to let her grow,
Through the woman about to form.

Quotation Saturday

Only through art can we get outside of ourselves and know another's view of the universe.
~Marcel Proust

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.
~Samuel Johnson

The best style is the style you don't notice.
~Somerset Maugham

There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes.
~William Makepeace Thackeray


No man should ever publish a book until he has first read it to a woman.
~Van Wyck Brooks

He that uses many words for the explaining any subject doth, like the cuttlefish, hide himself for the most part in his own ink.
~John Ray

I do not like to write - I like to have written.
~Gloria Steinem

A notepad by the bedside accounts for half the earnings of my livelihood. If it weren't for bedtime, half my novels would still be stuck at dock.
~Ever Garrison

I keep little notepads all over the place to write down ideas as soon as they strike, but the ones that fill up the quickest are always the ones at my nightstand.
~Emily Logan Decens

I even shower with my pen, in case any ideas drip out of the waterhead.
~Graycie Harmon

To withdraw myself from myself has ever been my sole, my entire, my sincere motive in scribbling at all.
~Lord Byron

HOPE (quotes)

HOPE


"Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let them." ~ William James

“Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success; for who so hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles.” ~ Samuel Smiles

"Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again.” ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

"Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent." ~ Mignon McLaughlin

He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hope for the human condition is a fool. ~Albert Camus (1913 - 1960), The Rebel (1951)

Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,--'Wait and hope'. ~~Alexandre Dumas (1802 - 1870), The Count of Monte Cristo

While there's life, there's hope. ~Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), Ad Atticum

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul.
And sings the tune
Without the words,
and never stops at all.
~EmilyDickinson (1830 - 1886)


Remember, no matter how hard the times are that you are going through,
no matter how low you fall...
there is always hope!
~joni~

Put off until tomorrow...

...what you should be doing today.


The real quote is “Why put off until tomorrow, what you can do today.” ‘Why’ being the operative word here, but lately I’ve missed the boat and have been putting off until tomorrow the things I should be doing today.

Like my writing. Some would call it procrastinating, but I am in a serious deficit of putting things off until tomorrow. Like this post, it entered my mind last week, bubbled there a bit, and I thought, I’ll wait until tomorrow. It is a week later and I’m just getting to this post, and believe me, I have tons going on in my head that make me want to stop writing and put it off again until...tomorrow? Next week perhaps?

My dilemma? Well most of you know that I’ve moved recently and almost all of you (who follow religiously) are aware of my situation. Recap: Fiancé going blind, no medical help, being forced to move to another state in hopes of getting help, then...the farm. A city girl born and raised, who yearned for the country life, and now, it seems my life is all that I’ve dreamed of.

I’m on a farm, I have a garden and I have well over 3 acres of land to mow and tend. We’re renting, but it still is an awe inspiring emotional time for me. So where does that leave my writing? It is in my heart, always, that’s where! Don’t worry, I may get behind in my blog, I may forget to help you all in your writing journey, but please know, the only things that I put off until tomorrow, are the very things that I HAVE to put off for the moment.

I’ve mentored this F2K session and I wasn’t even there in my heart. I have two rooms that I facilitate at WVU and luckily it is a slow time in the U or they would be having my head and taking over my rooms. Everyone understands what is happening in my life so they understand what things are more important to me at this time. If I worry about everyone else, who is going to worry about me and my family?

I have a strong faith that carries me through every single day, and when He says, “Joni, get back to your writing this instant!” I will surely adhere to His voice and come back here full steam ahead. I think in the Fall I’ll have tons to write about and maybe my mind will have absorbed all that is going on here and maybe, just maybe, I’ll write about it and tell you all how it plays into my writing life.

For you, the new writer, I’m not putting you off, I’m not putting off my writing or my blog, I’m just inhaling the glorious beauty that the Lord has surrounded me with. Whatever you do, “Don’t put off until tomorrow, what YOU can do TODAY!”


"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.Dream. Discover!"
-- MARK TWAIN

Poetry Sunday

Life’s Chained Prison

Am I alone in this chained prison,
all by my own fruition?
Do I idly cower in fear,
it's never clear;
problems have nearly risen.

To heights unforeseen, I am alone;
on a quest not yet shown.
Do I scamper all about,
I try to shout.....
but silent is my tone.

Confusion has impeded my sight.
I often buckle; no strength to fight.
Will anyone hear my cries,
unveiled lies,
The blind now see the light.

Free me from these sheltered walls,
I hear the sacred angels calls.
Not alone I am defeating,
now completing;
HIS arms will catch my falls!!!!

Quotation Saturday

Proust speaks of "an illusory magical power in literature".

It is not possible that a piece of sculpture, a piece of music which gives us an emotion which we feel to be more exalted, more pure, more true, does not correspond to some definite spiritual reality. It is surely symbolical of one, since it gives that impression of profundity and truth. Thus nothing resembled more closely than some such phrase of Vinteuil the peculiar pleasure which I had felt at certain moments in my life, when gazing, for instance, at the steeples of Martinville, or at certain trees along a road near Balbec, or, more simply, in the first part of this book, when I tasted a certain cup of tea."

This passage links together two of Proust's main ideas: the idea that art reveals deep truths, truths that daily life doesn't reveal, and the idea that unconscious memory, the memory of a sight, a smell or a taste, can also reveal deep truths.

Like most outstanding writers, Proust had a low opinion of literary critics. Proust said that critics always overrate certain authors and underrate others: "This constant aberration of the critics is such that a writer should almost prefer to be judged by the public at large....For the talent of a great writer--which, after all, is merely an instinct religiously hearkened to (while silence is imposed on everything else) perfected and understood--has more in common with the instinctive life of the people than with the superficial verbiage and fluctuating standards of the conventionally recognised judges."

Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.
~~Neil Gaiman

You can take for granted that people know more or less what a street, a shop, a beach, a sky, an oak tree look like. Tell them what makes this one different.
~~Neil Gaiman

Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.
~~Edgar Allan Poe

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? ~~ George Orwell

You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist. ~~ Isaac Asimov

If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul.
~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

America's greatest strength, and its greatest weakness, is our belief in second chances, our belief that we can always start over, that things can be made better.
~~Anthony Walton

Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.
~~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Poet," Essays, Second Series, 1844

When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect.
~~Adlai Stevenson

Have a SAFE and GLORIOUS Fourth of July in the Land of the FREE

A Poem for Monday

What is Love?

There's more to love than meets the eye.
Give it wings and it will fly.
Sow it in the richest soil.
A tree burst forth with little toil.
Hold it in the palm of your hand,
mold it, shape it so it will stand.
Drop it in the widest sea,
it will flow through you and me.
Make it an instrument and it creates song,
carry you gently your whole life long.
Release it to the fragrant air;
surely it finds a heart to snare.
Give it freely, if for no reason;
it takes the form of the changing season.
Breathe it in and it will seep,
into your soul for you to keep.
Plant it firmly within your heart,
the seed of love will never part.

Happy Father's Day

The Storms We Watch
***

A thousand miles away I may be
the love of my father sweeps through me.
When storms they pass overhead;
my father and I watched with dread.

We knew the storm held danger within
but we stood there watching thunderheads spin.
I looked up at him with childlike zeal
knowing the lightning’s crash would peal.

Scared as I was I clung to his hip
his arm on my shoulder, I was tight in his grip.
The rain would fall in rapid procession,
we stood amazed, the storm our obsession.

All through life I road many a storm
knowing his love would keep me warm.
I carry his arm wrapped round my shoulder
with every storm as I get older.

I know he’ll love, protect and keep
the storms at bay so I may sleep.
In peace I’ll grow, his strength by my side
for me he’ll always have arms open wide.

Though we don’t see each other too much
you can rest assured I feel his touch.
With every raging storm that goes by,
I’m out there seeing him look in my eye.

A thousand miles away I may be,
The love of my father always sweeps through me!

Quotation Saturday

Many suffer from the incurable disease of writing and it becomes chronic in their sick minds.
~ Juvenal (AD 60-130)

The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say. ~Mark Twain

The expression "to write something down" suggests a descent of thought to the fingers whose movements immediately falsify it.
~William Gass, "Habitations of the Word," Kenyon Review, October 1984

Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum.
~ Graycie Harmon

When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence.
~ Samuel Butler

When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.
~ Enrique Jardiel Poncela

I asked Ring Lardner the other day how he writes his short stories, and he said he wrote a few widely separated words or phrases on a piece of paper and then went back and filled in the spaces.
~ Harold Ross

The ablest writer is only a gardener first, and then a cook: his tasks are, carefully to select and cultivate his strongest and most nutritive thoughts; and when they are ripe, to dress them, wholesomely, and yet so that they may have a relish.
~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827

Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it 'the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.' The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of 'Artist.'
~ Edgar Allan Poe