Thoughts on Writing Poetry

Writing is communication. Yes, poetry is art. Yes, poetry emotionally expresses the things that prose cannot (theoretically). Yes, poetry can be ambiguous. But first and foremost, poetry should adhere to the central rule of all good writing. It must communicate. If your poetry is gorgeous but incomprehensible you have failed in the number one goal […]

Orange Flames and Firewood

Shadows stretch across the stone to grasp the crisscrossed spears and rounded shield. A nearby fire, fighting back the dark, and glistening on the spear tips’ hardened steel casts its glow upon a wizened man. He sits beside his grandson, gazing at the flame. The boy is playing with a map. “The Empire of Assyria,” […]

Do Not Go Raging Into That Bright Day

While I can never claim to equal Dylan Thomas’s powerful poem, I have long felt there should be a Christian counter to it. This, then, is my answer to “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.” – Do not to raging into that bright day, for death will collapse and burn at close of […]

Mountain Trails

The path forks off and goes another way, nor you nor I know where the trail will trend. It leads up high into the misty grey. – And full of ardor, friends line up to say that they will join our journey to ascend the path that forks and goes another way. – But curving […]

My Light

The air sparkles with tiny drops of day. Flashing colors play everywhere in glass. I follow the light that calls me far away, Closing the door as I eagerly pass. Flashing colors play everywhere in glass Like a child. I don’t notice Him there, Closing the door as I eagerly pass. I chase rainbows for […]

God of Words, God of Promise

God of words, God of promise, God whose truth will never die, Faithful Lord, Great Forgiver, Word of Life that cannot lie. – Ages past You formed the mountains, placed the bound’ries on the sea, Out of nothing, unimagined, through the Word they came to be. Looking down with righteous pity, on my lost and […]

Dictator Diaries 3—Political Meeting

A true dictator would just seize power. Gather a group of followers, smuggle some bazookas into the Government Palace, or wherever our president lives, and spring ye ole coup d’état (yes, I used spell check for that). From what my exhaustive Wikipedia research has turned up, starting a coup almost requires a population of numskulls […]

Sonnet V

How patiently He waited for the hour To give the perfect token of His love, The pardon for our guilt, enliv’ning pow’r, By perfect wisdom wrought from heights above. In time the Son was born as man to dwell— The sinless One—beneath our own sin’s curse. He knew our pain and sorrow, felt it well, […]

Evening Drive: Tennessee Edition

I like to take the long way home, The road that strays among the hills And wanders in and out among the trees. I like to feel that southern breeze. Its gentle touch and simple thrills Invite my car and me to roam. The sunlight scatters through the air To settle on the maple limbs […]

The Five Solas

Sola Scriptura “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17 Our minds misguided by our sin, We could not know the truth, And fettered by the thoughts of man We stumbled from our youth. The hope of setting bound hearts free With eyesight cursed and blurred, Was never in […]