Best Replenishing Poems
Beside the still waters he leadeth me
Shepherd of my wandering soul
I do not want for anything, you see,
My shepherd has made me whole.
I have walked the treacherous path
But I did not need to be afraid
The rod and staff my shepherd hath
I can lie down in both sun and shade.
When I am tired and, oh, so weary
He renews my spirit, replenishing,
Restoring my spirit when I am dreary
Goodness and mercy are my finishing.
I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
And drink of the living water of life
The shepherd gives to all his adored
Who seek peace and flee from strife.
Written June 3, 2021
#40 on Best New Poems List
Poetry Soup
June 10, 2021
Ten Thousand White Butterflies
Soft walls undulate like liquid steel
Metamorphic pulsations
Iridescent glow
Spiritual guides
Ushering departed souls
Rippling contractions
From cocoon-like womb
Bringing forth new breath
Replenishing blown out candles
Eyes scrunched
Painful cry
Drowned out by the rustling
One thousand butterflies taking flight
Soaring
Luminescent
Snowflake-like beings
Spreading their light
Within the night
Eternity is born
A baby raises his tiny fists
Mother's tears turn to joy
Floating heavenward on delicate wings
Announcing
Beating
Singing
A child is born
Written with Monterey Sirak.
Thankyou for letting me join you in flight!
Tell me why you haunt me so.
I must admit that I don’t know.
But thoughts of you fill up my mind
And won’t be left behind.
You’ve entered into all my dreams,
A vague and distant hope, it seems.
A constant, almost subtle threat
That I cannot forget.
You fill me up, I overflow.
Tell me why you haunt me so.
Tell me why you haunt me so.
The planted seed must surely grow.
And thoughts of you just fill my head
Like vines they cling and spread.
They slowly creep up every wall
And crumble them until they fall.
Then cover all beneath their bloom,
A peaceful flowery tomb,
And there I sleep, so far below.
Tell me why you haunt me so.
Tell me why you haunt me so.
I know not where to turn or go.
You’re everywhere, an ocean wide
And I’ve nowhere to hide.
You beat upon my rocky shore,
Patiently break down my door.
You seep through every crack and hole
Replenishing my soul.
I’m dragged out by your undertow.
Tell me why you haunt me so.
My hands look worn, marked by the passing of time,
Of sunlight, cold, heat and work.
They have baked, cooked, gardened and harvested,
They have held the hands of devastated people sitting in front of a casket,’
They have soothed fevered brows, wrapped gifts with a smile on my face.
They have held many pudgy little hands of toddlers learning to walk,
And now hold the hand of my older, stumbling friend.
They are covered with sunspots, but they are happy spots.
A legacy of many bright hours spend in my flourishing garden,
Of romantic walks, of picnics with friends, of games played with children,
And of time spend alone, out in nature, replenishing myself.
My hands, adorned with rings, showing my commitment to my Love,
Carrying my birthstone ring, a present of my Sweetheart,
And in rememberence of my Mom, her favorite ring.
My hands are a mirror of my life.
In the stillness of the night, it’s you and me.
I read and weep and pray and pant for Thee.
I humbly bow and fall upon your mercies
And recognize the graces you have shown me.
Sweet and deep the drink I find in you,
Restoring and replenishing my soul.
Cherished and reviving is your wine
Poured upon me from Thy cup divine.
Hallowed is the quiet when we meet
And sacred is repentance at your feet.
Joyous too, are nights with lifted hands
Thanking you for blessings small and grand.
Altar nights: my prized and chief success:
Being near to God, yea pressed upon His chest.
Slain to rise because God never falters,
When I come and break my heart on Yahweh’s altar.
Psalms 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” NIV
January 1 Relationship to God Bible Meditations Based on Genesis 1-3
Key Verses – Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
LORD GOD, YOU ARE MY CREATOR
Lord God, You are my Creator, and my very beginning
Thank You for forming me from the void and darkness of sinning
You be praised for being my light throughout my morning till evening…
I submit to Your sovereign reigning.
Lord God, You are my Creator, and my water of satisfaction
Thank You for appearing to me by faith with Your salvation
You be praised for being my contentment with Your goodness-provision…
I yield to You my everything, including Your granted existence possession.
Lord God, You are my Creator, and my best great ruler
Thank You for offering me Your compassion to become a heaven-dweller
You be praised for being my abundance-source, making me graciously fuller…
I bring to You my desire to please You since You’re my sufficiency fulfiller.
Lord God, You are my Creator, and my replenishing and subduing might
Thank You for strengthening me to face trials’ fight
You be praised for being my faith’s author and finisher so right…
I rest in Your promises while in Your work, I delight.
Lord God, You are my Creator, and my growth’s perfect guide
Thank You for planting me in Your grace-garden where I should abide
You be praised for being my refuge against temptation to backslide…
I depend on You to help me, meeting my needs in every side.
Lord God, You are my Creator, and my nourisher for my faithfulness
Thank You for opening to me opportunities for ministry and service willingness
You be praised for being my wisdom along paths of truthfulness…
I hide myself in Your presence for my holiness.
Lord God, You are my Creator, and my protector from curses
Thank You for sanctifying me with Your pardon that cleanses
You be praised for being my gentle healer against evil bruises…
I place my trust in You, as Your love --- my soul experiences.
January 1, 2023
Sometimes at evening when the sun goes down
I light a little candle all ready for love
I am older than Luther, soul of soul unbound
I bridge desire with Bee Gees, and move
To your ears to whisper in hibiscus tones
Anticipating your wet and sweet delicious moans.
But you have the day still wired to your soul
Blisters and bruises from Monday’s blues
You sigh misshaped by the world’s callous mould
You need tenderness without the old cues
Silent massage of toes, and a listening ear
To the litany of woes wrinkling your heart with care.
I say softly to our son, your mother, child, is weary
She is human too … not just here to serve
Our needs … milk of our existence bright or dreary
Prattling visions of corrections on the nerve
Help me to do, what she alone so oft has done
Bring her to a state crowned in golden glows of sun.
O mother, woman, queen, eternal wife, behold
My soul is laid down as carpet for your feet
My heart the citadel replenishing love and gold
Defending your virtue from rough rain and sleet
I come with thoughts of kindness and the thrift
Of all my soul’s domain as your treasure and gift.
January 1 Scripture Meditations Based on Genesis 1-3
Key Verse - Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
MY GOD, THANK YOU FOR BEING MY BEGINNING
You created me wonderfully
You formed me marvelously
You shaped me amazingly
You filled me against my void, sufficing me abundantly…
I surely thank You wholeheartedly.
You are my light
You are my watcher at night
You are my day starter right
You are my firmament-guard so bright…
I really thank You with faith’s might.
You greet me every morning
You protect me in between lunch and evening
You secure me in my sleep’s dreaming and groaning
You keep me in Your goodness of feasting and dining…
I joyously thank You for Your constant intervening.
You made me in Your image and after Your likeness
You let me have dominion over Your creatures by Your greatness
You blessed me toward multiplying fruitfulness
You subdue my pride through Your replenishing gentleness…
I truly thank You for Your graciousness.
You give me product-yielding capacity
You bestow me with work-diligence ability
You sanctify me to labour in Your field of spirituality
You comfort me in Your rest as I cleave to Your presence-serenity…
I earnestly thank You along Your gifts’ bounty.
You defend me from the subtle serpent’s deception
You encompass me with Your assurance-sanction
You pull me against curses’ destruction
You drive me toward Your protection from enmity’s sorrow-infliction affliction…
I verily thank You, praising You for my soul’s eternal salvation.
You rule over me with Your commandment
You prop me from sin-caused miseries by Your encouragement
You love me, calling me with Your life-commitment
You place me in Your heart of genuine contentment…
I triumphantly thank You and Your sovereign control every moment.
January 1, 2022
Like a welcome Summer rain, humor may suddenly
cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.
—Langston Hughes
RAINING IN SUMMER
The little teapot leaned over, steam pours out,
sizzles on the pavement. Trickles, sprinkles,
waters the subsidiary gardens that sprout -
those pointed out by a grandson. My wrinkles
curve up as the rain skillfully waters my willow,
my patch of roses and lilies, scattered and rare.
With Summer storm, I ruminate on a long time ago.
This grand-generation of blessing, not yet a prayer.
Drip…drop…splosh! The hope of the window pane.
We dream, as the outburst streams down to spill
our dreams, like seeds giving more than the mundane.
God saturates our lives with more than we will.
It’s raining Summer all over this land of honey-wheat.
Though droll and gray, a grateful soak gifts a sun rise.
My flower petals, leaves and boughs bathed in heat
and nourishing drink, replenishing the owls, and other wise.
Ker-splash, the puddles of inky-mud, stain the shins,
leave me, us, them, refreshed and sodden with grins.
Conflicted, dressed like a Santa Claus, Ed ponders the magical delight of Christmas time. Is it only for Christians, or can it be for him too? He likes this time of year, people are nice.
Bethlehem, Wisemen, Prince of Peace born in a manger, a virgin mother, familiar story told. Sitting in this serene park, admiring the crystalline snowflakes, and the diamond-like cycles of ice.
Ed feels like he is in the middle of a slice of heaven himself, it seems mystical and surreal. Dazzling, replenishing, vital. He watches two snowflakes float gently down, near a bench, he calls "mine".
Kindness, joyfulness, humanitarians, and faerie pixie dust would not make this park any more ethereal. All for one and one for all, always more believable at Christmas time than any other, time.
It is Santa Claus! A child yells. Two children dressed in fat snowsuits with hoods are running toward Ed. He is off work, but their merriment is not going to be thwarted by him on this magical night.
They run up and one plops right square on his lap. The other one does also, they scoot for each other. Sorry, their mother says. I could not stop them. It is perfect, he tells her, better than all right.
Ed welcomed these two little giggly rosy-faced cherubs enthusiastically, as if they were wise men. A star in the east, he thought, as he realized which direction he was facing, it deserved an Amen.
There was a melodious, peacefulness here tonight, a humbleness, on this beautiful wintery slope. Two angels, sent tonight to sit on his lap and giggle, to bring God, and the Holy Spirit, and hope.
Ed reveled in the mystical, magical united feeling he had with the young family with the giggling girls, A night he had planned to do something horrible to himself, but now thanks to their curls,
Realized that God had sent two angels to him, tonight, to remind him that he was loved by the Son. He did not have to be a Christian to realize that he had a mission, and he was enough, won is one.
Earth is sleeping. It is dreaming in silent
technicolour peaceful and alone, calm and
gentle without the tragic crush of mankind
and its usual stampede. Nature noticed it
slowly - having time to stretch, to breathe,
to open its eyes wide and bright and luscious
away from smoke steam and smog. The sky is blue, clear.
Rivers are lapping, gently. Birds fly above in chorus.
The moon can be seen waving twinkling and white.
Earth is resting its patchwork body, its tissue of
grass and pores made from the exhales of trees.
Its legs are growing hairy, left wild and unshaven.
This time of solitude and watery reflection
is repairing habitats and watering oceans -
replenishing nature, whilst strengthening us.
Chanting from the spirit world enters my soul as I sleep, enslaving me fully into her familiar beat, I dance with abandon, tossing my hair, flipping my feet, in childlike wildness.
Boundless in its pursuit of me, my inner voice incorporates itself into my dream, terribly ethereal in true spiritual form, bringing my real self into the higher realms, ones not fully reached until death.
My joyful soul is soaring now, spinning, and whirling, transforming me into a dervish, insanely happy to have found my tribe, loving my inner sweet pureness which is gentled out of me nightly.
I seek her every night, my sleeping day soul, in my dream state, and she keeps me in her warm, loving grasp, replenishing me in bits and pieces, in smallish intervals, showing me my true delight.
I embrace my dream state with the innocence of a unicorn, and rainbow hope, knowing her truth.
River, like silver strip
Runs down from mountain slopes
Rides through planes and dales
Replenishing all lands
Replete with nourishments
Resonant with music
Roaring and romancing.
And then I see her she slides into my sight steals away my darkness then replenishing with light.
She heaves a heavy sigh head aloft toward the sky.
I know you've love to give me but I have to say goodbye.
I belong to no one, less resigned more so designed.
In a universe so vast I still feel so confined.
As timeless as all past and future left combined.
This realm it still escapes me therefore must be left behind.
Mortality, finality are both one in the same.
Death and fear and hopelessness to me are just a name.
Transcending the futility of hate and war and shame.
Though I'm not sad to be leaving I am happy that i came.
To know that one whom dwells below could capture one above.
Proving there's significance in what is known as love.
Weakening in mind and soul I feel her grip it shift.
Her hand it pulls away from mine to vanish in the rift.
Unknowing of her fate or in what endlessness she'll drift.
Only her in memory remains a precious gift.
In her softly spoken tone rings the echo of her sorrow.
I know you'll always love me but there will be no tomorrow.
My heart* is a secret orchard
welcoming the entrance of the divine Gardener
Whose tending grace cheers flowers of prayer delight
as He hears supplications that faith-filled white roses shout
along the plight of chrysanthemums and daisies for nourishment-radiance.
In my heart's garden thrive vines that strive to reach the top
vibrantly inviting sovereign sun-rays for illumination-triumph
with wise enlightenment for counsel against towering arrogance
while lingering in the warm presence of the Creator Who inspires
always checking selfish motives and directing victory toward His exaltation.
Opening my heart's blessed garden
is the perfect Tiller, supplying it constantly
with goodness-buds midst serenity blossoms
against attacking pests of dearth and weeds of fruitlessness
replenishing with blessing toward abundant harvests to share His love and kindness.
*Psalm 44:21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
April 27, 2026
Edited on May 20, 2026
2nd place, "My heart is a secret garden" Poetry Writing Contest
Sponsored by Silent One; judged on 5/21/2026