Jason - Nature

On the Writing

When Justin suggested we do something nature-y, I instantly thought of Haiku's, as a very traditional nature poem structure.  It wasn't quite what I was looking for.  The idea, though, a poem based in syllables or stresses, with less emphasis on rhyme and lending itself to thought fragments was what I was looking for.  Cinquains fit the bill.  There are several varieties, all with 5 lines and some variation.  The American varieties tend to be iambic with a rhythm of 2,4,6,8,2.  The version I opted to use is called a mirror cinquain, because it is actually a forward and then a backward cinquain stuck together to make a single 10 line poem.  My three, as titled, are for seasons.  I would be curious to see what you would write for the forth.

Fall

Dry blades
Like whispering
A chanting children’s song
Music of curling wind and husks
Cast off
Decay
Makes vibrant orange and muted reds
The canopy explodes
On greying trunks
Until

Winter

Cool bite
Numb needling
Air wisps through loosened fist
Like ungrasped spirits fleeting free
Of Ice
Snowflakes
A dance of spins and crystal lace
Then caught on outstretched tongue
No taste just melt
Again

Spring

Bouquet
Of fresh cut lawn
The recalled squeals of hope
Are thoughts adrift on fragrant twists
Refreshed
Like rain
Which bathe the seeds in soil nests
And cause green shoots to inch
Awakened sun
At last

Justin - Nature Cinquains

About the writing
I had to do some research on this one. I have never written a cinquain before and it is clearly so uncommon that Word is marking it as a misspelled word. Simply a cinquain is a five line poem with each line having a specific length of words or syllables. As I tend to be a bit slaving to the sound of poetry, I chose the American form of which the lines in order have two, four, six, eight, and two syllables.

I like the elegance and simplicity of the form. The topic was “something nature-y” which was me not being sure what to pick but being inspired by the beauty of my surroundings. Some people title cinquains which allows them essentially to add a line. I chose to leave mine untitled. I think the subjects are fairly evident, so what’s the point of a title anyway? Also, with such an elegant form, why mar it with silly punctuation marks?

I don’t have a particular suggestion for font, but I do recommend finding a nice forested campground, building a fire, and reciting them while roasting marshmallows for smores.
 
Three Cinquains
 
Floating
Hovering near
Wings a blur of motion
Her head bends to drink the nectar
Zip, Gone

Flowing
Playing o’er rocks
Singing a merry song
Like the laughter of a child
Splashing

Swaying
Bent in the breeze
Waltzing the wind’s rhythm
Immovable and yet dancing
Breathing

Jason - Laughter

On the writing

This week we had the subject a laughter. I picked it because on one had to laugh is something simple, a bubble of released joy. A response to a joke, a happy reunion, a funny memory. On the other hand it is more complex than that, there is a deeper meaning inside of that simple sound. With my trio of limericks, the style this week, I have tried to capture a little of that depth.

Three Laughs

As a family we found our marked seats,
Soon the hero accomplished his feat.
It resolved in a gaff,
Which then made us all laugh.
So our union by mirth was complete.

From the couch at our show we both stared.
At the jokes our small cheer became paired.
So to you I held tight,
My grin lasting all night,
For the joy from the joy that we shared.

In the basement it felt like tomb,
Til a prank my amusement exhumed.
So my voice I heard soar,
But it fell to the floor.
Again silence reigned over the room.

Limericks of Laughter - Justin

About the writing

This week we did limericks about laughter. Most of you surely are familiar with the form and could recite one or two, though possibly not in polite company. As they are a simple and short poetic form, when I selected limericks as the form it was to be a trio. So I give you three limericks covering laughter from three angles.

The first is about the person that cannot tell a joke without breaking up laughing thus making the joke itself unintelligible (Joke.) The second is about when you are struck by a funny memory at an inappropriate moment (Inappropriate.) And the third is a meditation (if a limerick can be a meditation) on the adage “laughter is the best medicine” (Medicine.)

I had the ideas for two of them fairly early after we had chosen the assignment. The last came after I had written one.

A note about font, as limericks do tend towards humor and these are about laughter, when you print these for your Brother’s Weekly scrapbook, I would recommend Comic Sans.

So here are some limericks you can recite in polite company. Spoiler: Nantucket is not mentioned.

Three Limericks on Laughter

Joke

I once knew a jovial bloke

Who could not reach the end of a joke

By the end no one heard

An intelligent word

Still we’d laugh as up further he broke

Inappropriate

When all that surrounds you is black

From tedium the mind does distract

You recall some old gaff

And aloud you do laugh

‘Til stern glances do summon you back

Medicine

With the possible exception of rest

For medicine they say laughter is best

Though it might be a strain

To guffaw through the pain

If achieved you may count yourself blessed

Justin - Prayer

About the writing

I am not going to be exhaustive here. There are a lot of issues that I see with America today, most f which could be solved with “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is a prayer for those issues.

A Prayer for America

Father, we come to you a broken people. You created all things and called them good and you made us in your own image. We destroy your creation and kill your image bearers and pretend that we honor you in doing so. We ignore the cries of the less fortunate and pretend in piety that we help them learn by letting them do for themselves. We point our fingers at other countries, condemning their treatment of women and minorities, and ignore our own treatment of the same. We romanticize our country’s days of prosperity, built on the backs of slaves, and idolize our founding fathers who called a black man three fifths of a person all while yelling “all lives matter” to drown out the cries of the continually oppressed. We have beholden ourselves to political parties as if they were our salvation and held their platforms as scripture so that we might deny the possibility of moral or intellectual standing of those who oppose us. We pretend to strive to make things better while refusing to face our own sins against you and against our brothers and sisters. We do not understand and we do not try to. Heal us, oh Lord.

I pray that you will teach us to care for your creation as you charged Adam to do and to see your image in all people regardless of how they may look, speak or believe differently than us.

I pray that you remind us that it was a Samaritan, one of mixed race, in your parable helping his neighbor, a stranger in need on the road. That we would remember that our neighbor is not one who necessarily looks like us, but one in need of our help. That we cannot cross the street ignoring his need and obey your command to love him. And that we cannot say we love while we ignore his cry for help.

I pray that the cry of “black lives matter” should cease because an empowered majority finally, willingly sets aside its privilege in love and fights to fix a system that disproportionately targets people of color. That we should live remembering that violence begets violence; that inequality begets resentment and hate, and need begets desperation.

I pray that you will embolden good police officers of this country to stand against those that abuse their power; that there would be just accountability for excessive force and for unfair targeting of people based on their skin color or style of dress. That you will not allow the corruption of some to taint the whole and that “protect and serve” is recognized to mean ALL people.

I pray that we can have civilized dialogue about our issues and make strides to correct our errors instead of blaming and demonizing those we disagree with. That we would search for common ground to build from instead looking for subversive motives. That we learn to listen to understand rather than listening to respond.

God, we are broken and I am broken. I pray that you would show me where I have bought into the lie of a broken system and what I must do to be part of the solution. Show me where I am racist and sexist, where I use my privilege and what I must do to lay it down and work for the betterment of all people regardless of their color, gender or creed. Help me to have the courage to say to my friends and family that they are wrong when I hear them voicing hate against any group and help me listen when I am called on my own bigotry. Help me love all people, as Christ did, sacrificially.

I believe that there is nothing that we have damaged that you cannot fix and I believe that you work through people to your will. Heal us, oh Lord. Make us want to be healed.

Amen.

Jason - Prayer

On the writing

The writing these few weeks has been hard.  I have been on tour, which mean my normal writing time is completely gone and I have to give up sleep to get the time I did.  This though, was a prayer, so I used my evening to focus on what my prayer was before God, heavily about my children, and tried to write segments of it in a cohesive way.  So, the final result feels a little disjointed, but is my prayer as a Father, for me and for my children.  Probably not my best work, but it is honest and hopefully makes a little sense to a reader.

My Prayer

God the Father,

I lift these difficult words to you as a Father. I am a man who is broken and worried about his children. It is like my brain engages, but the gears are stripped so they spin and smoke, work but make no progress. I know it is because it is not your spirit I have clung to in this regard, but my own fumbling control. As you know I feel the great weight of responsibility, but in trying to take control, I sin. I ruin the very gifts you have given me. I pray that you will take control of my thoughts and actions, that you will change the fruit I bear.

I ask that you increase my love for you. That I can be genuine in my appreciation of all you do for me. That the heat of the sun and cool of the night become your embrace. That you would soften me, make it so I can feel your love for me. Show me the love of a father for his children and then show me how to show that love. As the basis of all I do as a Father, let my heart overflow with pure love for my children.

You know that we have hurt, that we walk the graveyard and grieve. I wonder how you feel, if you feel when you see our sorrow. I imagine that you have compassion and cry with us, but I know this is not your plan, not the fruit you want me to bear. Let that sorrow, those dying dreams, be replaced with Joy. Let me be invigorated with your promises. Let that joy spill over onto my kids. Let our lives be characterized by laughter, as opposed to tears. We will never forget, we will never be unwounded, but let it not rule us.

You see my restlessness, the sleepless nights. You see the churning of my mind over all I can not control. You watch me grip and plan for nothing. You watch my worry and know how it is so wrong headed. I know how it too could hurt my children, damage their trust, push them away. That they imitate my worry or shed it by shedding me. I pray that restlessness would be replaced with peace, that I develop complete trust in you. I want to be transformed by you. I pray that that peace will characterize who I am as a father, that when my children need comfort they would come to me as I am trying to relearn to come to you.

You know my heart and how quickly it lashes out when I am disappointed, how rarely I wait for you when I should. You see how it causes me to backpedal and the apologize. I pray for the patience to wait for you before I act or respond. That you would hold my tongue so I would not hurt my friends, or family. Let me be patient when I must desire action and answers. Let me learn how to wait on you, to be obedient to your direction.

You know the pride I have taken in my insensitivity. How I favored, even before I lost my wife, to not feel, to rationalize. In some way, some good ways, that has changed. I feel the ways you are transforming me. You have used this to make me a better father to my children and friend to those nearby. In some ways though I can see that hardness coming back or even growing. That the scar of my loss becomes the excuse. I pray that you would peel the hardened scars and make me sensitive to those around. I don’t want my words to lose the wisdom or truth you have given me, but i want them to be covered with kindness. Let me not just council my children, but comfort them as well.

Lord you know all of my wrongs, how they are rooted in Selfishness and Pride. I ask you to reveal them to me and cause me to hate them. Let me see them clearly, the way you see them. Let me see them without the clouds of a twisted mind. I want you to take those many sins and show me how to twist them back into something good. Let my sins not become the sins of my children. Instead show me how to teach them your ways, ways to honor you.

You know the way I used to take pride in the way I trusted you, scoffing at the worry of others, how I would point out your sovereignty in the face of their fear, You know how the security of that foundation has been damaged, the way I have so strongly come to distrust you. You know how it breaks me to think about the pain of enduring your “good”. This loss of faith cripples me. It causes me to seek to gain control for myself. I tear myself in two, and my convulsions of distrust hurt my relationship with everyone, especially my children. Hold back my fingers gripping for that control and instead let me learn to surrender to you again. Let me not just desire to be faithful, but be overflowing with faithfulness. Let that faith be not just the cornerstone of my relationship with you, but also of that with my children.

I know in the way I handle things I am often rough. Lord you watch me as I speak not just directly, but sometime without consideration. You see me hurt people, when I don’t mean to. You watch me fumble with compassion when it comes to the pains of my children. I ask you to plant in me a seed of gentleness, that I might be able to temper my words, that I can handle rightly those that are hurt. Let me use wisdom that I might offer that gentleness to my children when they need it, that I can see when they are hurt or sensitive. Also, I ask, that they too learn to be gentle with each other, that they can be each others support in times of need.

Lord you know the way my mind takes my impulses, the way an idea will give birth to an ill conceived action. I say things I should not, flirt with danger and corruption, drive for what I selfishly want. You know the way the can cause me to say things to my children I should not, let my anger vent when I don’t know the details and how I can judge them when I should be a listener. Take this impulsiveness away, remove that desire to act and implant in me self-control. Let that be how I parent my children and let them too gain the discipline.

I ask that you take these broken words and hear my heart, that you allow me to bear the fruit you would have me to bear and as a father you show me how to train up my children that they too would bear the fruit you desire. I ask in all these things your will be done. Amen