Christmas

I hope that every one of you has a blessed Christmas. My gift to you is three poems I have been saving for months for just this time. God bless!

Finest Gift

Mother of God

Wondrous Night

Mirage

I am really proud of my recent string of poems. My writing has evolved quite a bit over this year, and things are going deeper as I create. The rhyming has passed except in rare cases, and I am very happy with the changes. The latest poem, Mirage, is about being tempted by all Satan can offer us in the world.

As we enter the holiday season, things get really busy, and I hope you all can keep perspective through it all. Above all we have to remember why we celebrate. In the week, leading up to Christmas I have several new poems to add, all related to the holiday. I look forward to sharing them with you all.

Have a great weekend everyone and God bless!

Thanks Be To God

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Have a blessed weekend!

Broken Trust

Broken Trust is an inquiry to God about what to do when someone hurts us. I had a real rough period where I grappled with that question.

We have added a very exciting feature to the website! You can now sign up to receive newsletters from me about new poems, new features on the website, or any other exciting news about the poetry. And no worries about spam. You'll only get the periodic newsletters I send out.

My pastor sent me an e-mail the other day about a writing contest through our church's affiliated denomination. I have to tell you I am absolutely terrified about the thought of any of my poetry being "judged" for anything. Prayer would be appreciated while I consider what to submit. The deadline is December 31st.

Finally, I've been very pleased with the response to the new posting schedule via Twitter and Facebook. Thank you all for your support!

God bless and have a GREAT weekend!

Lost (John 14:6)

I don't really know how to introduce this poem. My husband told me it was the best thing I had ever written when I showed it to him. I can't even tell you how I wrote it, because honestly, I didn't. God took ahold of my pencil that night and guided my hand through every word. I've had a feeling of His presence when I was writing before, but never like this. God had His way with me. Mark Hall from Casting Crowns said once that he was writing songs he wasn't good enough to write, and now I know what he meant. These words aren't mine. They are His.

Speaking of Casting Crowns, their new album, Until the Whole World Hears, comes out in about a week. I won't push products here very often, but this album ... it is amazing. You can preview the whole thing at Yahoo Music right now and I would highly recommend that. I can tell you that this album will inspire many poems in the future, particularly 'At Your Feet' and 'Blessed Redeemer'.

Have a wonderful rest of your week and may God bless you all.

The Time Has Come

It is time to get back on track!

I am back and (hopefully) better than ever with clarity and a simple plan. I am going to be posting to my Twitter account every weekday. At least one of those will be for a brand new poem. The rest will be archived poems that you may or may not have seen before.

I won't be perfect. I'll miss a day here and there. But I will do my best. And that is all that counts.

So, without waiting another second, here we go! Cursed is up on the website for you to read.

Also, coming soon will be an e-mail list you can sign up for to receive notification when new poems go up, and a monthly review of blog posts and poems in case you missed something. Making prints of poems available to buy as well as a year-end anthology are in the planning stages.

I hope that you enjoy the poetry, and as always, God bless everyone!

Long Time, No See

It's been two weeks since I posted a new poem and a week and a half since I posted to the Twitter account. I've been sick the past few days, but that's not the reason I've been absent. I could blame it on being busy or any number of others things, but I won't. It's not a lack of poems or ideas for poems. No, it's simpler than that.

God told me to slow down.

I had been getting the feeling I was simply going through the motions with my poetry. Write, post, blog, write, post, blog, and so on. God confirmed this for me during one of the recent meditation sessions my husband and I have been doing. I needed to regain my focus and passion for what I was doing. I was no longer doing it for Him, but just to be doing it. There was no longer any grace on it and it was not succeeding.

So, I'm rethinking all the planning I've done (and frankly I should have known better than to plan months ahead) to see what exactly He wants for this ministry. And in His time I will return to it. That maybe tomorrow. That maybe six months from now. I suspect it will be sooner than later, but only He knows.

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Psalm 5:3 (NIV)

³ In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait in expectation.

Angels on Earth

New poem up on the website called Angels on Earth.

Have you ever had a week where you just feel one step behind? That's me this week. I didn't get curriculum done until Monday morning. I woke up this morning with tasks to finish, but could not get organized for anything. I have not been able to write in a couple weeks now just because of my schedule and how tired I've been.

I pray that your week is going better than mine! God bless everyone!

Back in the Saddle

Well, here I am! I'm hoping that you missed me.

Last week was absolutely crazy as I prepared to sponsor my brother for an Emmaus Walk, and my husband got ready to work at the same. Anyone who has been to a Walk knows how fun it must be to juggle three kids and the responsibility of being a sponsor. I don't know what I would have done without my mother-in-law and my pastor and his wife.

Anyway, I am back and this time with two new poems to make up for the lack of one last week. The first is called Let Go and is about releasing your hold on anger and frustrations that come up in life.

The second is called The Gray, and was inspired by a message our pastor gave recently. The poem talks about those areas of life that aren't black and white.

I'm hoping the normal schedule will resume now, so keep checking back for new stuff. Have a great week and God bless!

Be Still

There is a new poem on the website called Be Still.

I'm not feeling well today, so I'll leave it at that. Have a good rest of the week everyone and God bless.

A Hobbit Birthday

Here is my hobbit gift to you on my birthday. A bonus new poem, written specifically for this occasion. Have a great weekend and God bless.

Armor of God and New Features

There is a new poem up on the website called Armor of God based on Ephesians 6:10-17.

Also, I am thrilled to announce there are two new features on the website. First, you can now browse the collection of poems by tags that have been applied, such as prayer or hope or Bible verse. You will find the link to do this on the right hand side of the main page. Every poem also lists its tags at the bottom of its individual page. You can click on those to go to the page with a list of tags as well.

Second, poems are now listed by publication date rather than composition date on the main page. This way you can see what was most recently added to the page, not what was most recently written. It also lets you know the page has been updated within the last week, instead of showing dates from July. On the full collection page at the bottom, you can choose to sort the poems by composition date, publication date, or alphabetically.

I wrote four new poems last night, which was very good, but has left me very tired. I am glad that the creative flow has started again though. I've been mired in administrative stuff for a while now.

Finally, there will be a bonus new poem this week on Friday, my birthday. So keep your eyes open for that. Have a great week and God bless!

Refresh Me

There is a new poem on the website called Refresh Me.

I've been writing sporadically lately, but it's not for a lack of ideas. I literally have a notebook page filled with titles I want to use. It's more for a lack of concentration. I'm having trouble zeroing in on one poem to focus on. I want to write them all at once!

So I've started putting together a binder of my poetry "supplies". One of those supplies is a schedule. I can plan ahead some to see what's coming up and help me focus rather than worry about that. I have this month tentatively planned, and it's already helping me relax a bit.

Yesterday was an amazing day for our family. God really showed His presence and it was special. I pray that you all have an experience like that soon. God Bless!

Loss

There is a new poem up on the website called Loss.

I apologize for being late with the update. I'm just overwhelmed right now.

God's Gifts (Romans 12)

There's a new poem up on the website called God's Gifts.

I apologize for the lack of posts the past week. As I wrote in a post on my personal blog, beginning Thursday my week was a whirlwind. Monday continued the trend, and there seems to be no real end in sight. However, there's a thunderstorm raging outside as I write this; the second of the night. That makes me very happy. I have a candle lit and I'm listening to music on my Zune. Tomorrow evening I'll be alone for a few hours. Peace and quiet comes in little bits right now.

Another thing that's been plaguing me is a lack of closeness to God. My husband and I had a good long talk about it last night, and He reinforced things during the WVIHOP service at our church this afternoon. So, I may be in and out of the blogosphere for a while as I seek my Lord.

God bless everyone!

Night

There is a new poem on the website called Night.

This is actually my least favorite of the new group of poems. My husband however thought it was the best of them all. It's funny how everything is relative to your own perspective. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder definitely applies to poetry.

Trouble in Paradise

You will have to forgive any rambling I do in this post. I was awake for unknown reasons until 4 AM, so I'm a little tired.

I have entered a phase of struggle with my poetry. I have too many ideas. Now, you might think that would be a good thing, but having too many ideas can be just as bad as having none. I am having trouble concentrating on just one thing. Several concepts and poems are pulling at my brain every time I try to sit down and write, and I end up confused and scattering my attention. The administration of the website and Twitter and Facebook are also causing me issue.

However ...

I still love what I do. I don't want anyone to think that I am giving up, because I'm not. I just don't want everyone to think it's all great, all the time. I like to be honest and realistic. As much as I wish it wasn't so, life gets in the way sometimes. The nice thing to know is that God's still there and is only a prayer away if we need Him.

New poem up on Wednesday as usual. God bless everyone!

Explanation and Preview

Something that I am sure some people are wondering about is why the titles of my poems are so short. They are short because I like to be concise. I want people to know what they are about to read about in my poetry. Something that annoys me when I am reading is a generic or vague title.

Speaking of titles, here is a peek at the titles of some of the upcoming poems:

• Night
• Be Still
• Loss
• Mirage
  
• Refresh Me

I'm putting pressure on myself, since some of those aren't even written yet, but that never hurt anything, right?

God Is

There is a new poem on the website called God Is.

I took every notion I could think of for God and put it in this poem. Part of the "creative download" was the concept of 'Who is God?'. I think many people wonder that these days after all they've been told in church. I see a lot of misconceptions out there, but in Christians, not the lost!

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God said to Moses, "I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' " - Exodus 3:14

More Than I Could Chew

I think perhaps my ambition to try and post three times a week was a bit too much. Our homeschool year began today, taking up much of my time. So, here I am, getting ready for bed, and I realized I missed Friday and today. I also missed my projected date to send out the monthly update on Facebook.

Oh well, let's pick up and try again. There will be a new poem on Wednesday and a blog post to accompany it. I will attempt to get the Facebook recap update out tomorrow. By the grace of God, I'll get this figured out yet.

Remember My Name

There is a new poem on the website, as promised, called Remember My Name.

I wanted to let those of you who follow me on Facebook know that at the end/beginning of each month, depending on how the days fall, I will send out a recap update of poems and blog posts from the previous month. That way if you missed something you'll be able to catch up at that point. I will always post on Twitter when anything new happens as well.

My webmaster and I have a couple new features in the works for the website, which I am looking forward to, so I'll keep you in the loop about those.

Have a great day everyone, and God bless!

My Modus Operandi

I thought that those of you who read my poems might be interested in how I write them.

If not, my apologies.

A majority of the time ideas for a topic or title come to me randomly during the day, as I'm sitting at the library or driving down the road or things like that. I try to always keep my notebook with me for that reason. The "creative download" was a unique occurrence.

The writing, however, almost exclusively happens at night. Late at night. My husband and I spend time together until around 11:00 each night, and then he starts getting ready for bed. I am rarely ready to sleep at that point so I sit on the bed and try to write.

The funny thing is I usually can't. For some reason, my husband has to be asleep and I have to be writing by a little book light clipped to my notebook (yes, I still write my first drafts by hand) for it to work. My best concentration comes in the silence between 12 AM and 2 AM it seems. After that, my brain is mush and nothing gets used that I scribble down.

My husband used to work from 11 PM to 4 AM when our kids were in bed because that garnered him the most useful time and he finished more in that time than in 8 normal work hours. I think I get that now.

I am going to attempt to blog on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, using Wednesday as my new poem day. (Yes, I'm posting this on a Tuesday. I know.) We'll see how the schedule pans out and go from there. Three more poems in the book last night!

God bless everyone.

Christmas in July

I'm sure everyone has been in this position ...

You've got something really great that only you know about, and you desperately want to share it ... but you can't.

That's where I am. I've got two new poems written that I'm SO excited about ... but it's not time for them. So I have to wait; something I am in no way good at.

I do have three others finished though that I can post, and I will do that soon. Right now, to not exhaust what I have to offer and not put pressure on myself to write faster, I'm planning to post a new poem once a week. If I find myself with a huge backlog I will change that, but this schedule is something I am comfortable with for the moment.

Thank you to everyone who has added me on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook, or just visited the website to read my poetry. I appreciate your support and your interest. God bless you all!

Best Friend

There's a new poem up on the website called Best Friend.

Something you will find as you read my poetry and get to know me is that I am very influenced and inspired by music. Music has been a huge part of my life since I can remember. I was always in choir, there were were always records playing at home, and it just became ingrained in me. There are songs that define an event for me, even a time period in my life.

Last week was full of havoc, so I didn't get much writing done. I hoping to have something to put up later this week, so stay tuned! God bless!

Bringing You Up to Speed

Here all the posts from my personal blog containing anything about my poetry if you're interested in the history.

• Love Letter
• Constant
• Holy Sacrifice
• Transfixed
• Slave
• My Webweb
• Valentine's Day (Part 2)
  
• Forgiven
• Doubt
• Dichotomy
• Wilderness
• Missing Piece
• Isn't It Amazing?
• Update
• Arisen
• Masterpiece
  
• Seven for Heaven

Now, I don't always write Christian poetry. I've written a poem for each of my children that you won't find on the website or here on this blog. For those poems, you have to check my personal blog under the tag poetry. That should get you all caught up on the journey since January!

Guilty

A new poem has been added to the website called Guilty.

I'm going to create a post soon that will include a link to every post from my personal blog containing a poem I have written. Hopefully that will help everyone get caught up to where we are now.

Not much else to say right now, so God bless and enjoy the poem!

Your Download is Finished

I've been worried lately because I was coming to the end of my list of God granted inspirations for my poetry. It's taken about five months, but on Friday I wrote the final poem I had any ideas for. Needless to say, I was a little concerned.

Oh, me of little faith.

Last night as I laid down to sleep at about 1:30, I prayed that God would refresh me and grant me new ideas. And the creative "download" began immediately. I spent the next half an hour constantly writing as wave after wave of topics, titles, and ideas flowed into my mind. I literally filled a page of my bedside notepad with these things.

Wow. Talk about instant gratification.

I continue to be amazed at His grace and desire to give if only I will ask. I was living under a misconception for a long time that you should never ask for a blessing for yourself. Boy, was I wrong!

I'll get the new poem, Guilty, up tomorrow. It's a style I've never done before so I am anxious to see what others think. God bless!

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"For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." - Matthew 7:8

Quick Update

I just wanted to pop in real quick to let everyone know there is a new poem up on the website called Wanderers. Now back to my Sabbath!

New Additions

There is a new poem up on the website called Scourge.

Also, the website has a new header lovingly created by my webmaster. There is a Facebook feed on the front page where you can sign up to be a fan of my poetry, and as I mentioned in my last post, you can now send a poem to a friend.

I have added a poll here to get an idea for how people found out about my poetry. Please take minute to answer it. I am also adding links here as I think of them, so be sure to keep an eye out for those too!

Share the Love

My fantastic webmaster added a new feature to my website yesterday. You can now e-mail a link to any of the poems to a friend by using a form at the bottom of every page. I've been wanting to do this so that if you see a poem that really strikes you as being helpful to someone you know, there's an easy way to pass it along. I hope it ends up being a great way for you to connect with friends and encourage them in a new way.

As always, let me know what you think of the website and the new feature. I'll keep you updated as new things go up!

Beginnings

So, here we go!

I wanted to differentiate my personal stuff from my work with words, so we're starting anew with a fresh blog, a Twitter account, and renewed vigor. You'll find links to a Facebook page, the Twitter account, my personal blog, and the website that is the basis for this blog to your right. If you have comments, complaints, suggestions, feel free to log them. I can't promise I'll accept them, but I'll at least listen.

God's been telling me for a while that poetry is my ministry. I've been passively working on it for a while, but I get the feeling it's time to kick it into gear. So, here I am, pulling stuff together, doing everything I can to get my message out there. We'll see what happens. Thanks for joining me on the ride.