Poems from Experience

[A reprint of some poems I posted a couple years ago]

Just for fun I decided to include some poems I wrote. The first two I think are quite witty. The first one I wrote in response to mine and Laurel's kidding about my tendency to repeat myself too much. The second one I wrote in response to my struggles to change in areas that would improve my role as a husband. The other poems are of a more serious nature and share some spiritual insight gained from experience and Bible study.


Vain Repetitions
My emails will say hello, communicate, and engage.
They may even dazzle you with eloquence and prose.
Expert tools of grammar will be utilized on each page.
But no trite phrases, and no repetitions. No. None of those.
Your heart will be warmed by thoughts so expressed
In simile, metaphor, hyperbole, and other additions.
But in the end you surely will have confessed
The thing has a glaring absence of those redundant repetitions.
His heart and mind are drawn with words
Telling revelation, his schedule, truth, and no fiction.
Impressing that pretty lady with things he’s heard,
Messages fresh and new, but no nasty repetition.
You can trust what I’ve said, you can trust what I wrote.
Repetitions are over, in the past, no longer to offend.
You can believe the truth of this note.
Repetitions are gone. As proof I’ve said it again.

A Husband’s Struggle to Change
The apostle said he had the privilege to “lead about” a wife.
I guess I’ve been trying to do that all my life.
But still I’ve had to deal with pain and strife
of only being able to be “about to lead” a wife.
I think about it and study on it which is what I usually do.
But the problem is being able to actually follow through.
And it’s not like I’m trying to learn a lot of something new.
I’m having trouble nailing down a few.
I look pitiful after failing a few tries,
She looks frustrated and rolls her eyes
Still I manage to give a little surprise
When occasionally I stand to the occasion and arise.
But It seems my progress is only brief
Enough to give hope but not relief.
Such little faith is beyond belief
What can I do to prevent such grief
But now after so much time has flown,
Through labor and grace I have finally grown.
Significant fruit from seed that was sown.
Thank God my wife did not leave me alone.

JOURNAL ENTRY: SPRING 2004 INSPIRED BY JOHN 12: 24-25.
The fires were hot and the waters were deep.
Would I drown or be consumed?
But I had forgotten how grace is reaped,
and life in Jesus resumed.
The weapons that pierce and cause us to bleed
and lay us in mourning and gloom,
No matter how fierce, still they cannot pierce
the pain and wall of the tomb.
For in that dark place, the light of His face
will show mysteries before unseen.
And all the bad will remain in the grave
while we are raised redeemed.

JOURNAL ENTRY: 6/30/99. INSPIRED BY JOB 29:1-6; ISAIAH 49.
Held in deep contempt, and stabbed by eyes of scorn,
Heart broken and rent, with dignity stripped and shorn,
The honor that was meant, to others has been borne.
But God's favor is not spent; why should I then mourn?
He has not changed His intent nor the reason I was born!
Laid aside and forgotten, no one calls for me.
Bereft of my begotten, none upon my knee.
But He shall lift His hand, and a banner shall the children see.
They shall fill the land, and they will come to me.
For God's favor is not spent; why should I then mourn?
He stands by His intent and the reason I was born!

JOURNAL ENTRY: SPRING, 2004 INSPIRED BY MAT 13:31-32; DAN 4: 10-12.
A tree stood before me thick with limbs and leaves all green.
Its branches were home, shelter, and food to birds and smaller animals unseen.
Its whole being, as if signaling to God, waved in the breeze.
And quietly shouted, "The kingdom of God is like these."
It is home, provision, and protection. It is God's rule, His love and care
to all who follow Him, love Him, and build their nests in there.

Billy Long

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