you stand in an empty field.
alone,
naked,
broken.
and
lost.............
even your soul left you
what happened to your beauty?
bountiful green leaves that once prospered
on beautiful bark
the life you once enjoyed
under endless skies.
the love you shared with nature.
why did you give up?
let someone or something
suck the life from you
or is this our lesson of reality
where empty souls gather to mourn?
The president’s bombing kids again.
Blood on the ground, ash in the air,
schools and playgrounds destroyed the same.
And I’m sitting in my ing rose garden,
silk garments pristine and
picking past the petals stained red,
nose clogged with the scent of flowers in the air
and not those that lie mangled,
torn to pieces,
eternally tormented on the ground.
What a privilege it is to be removed,
to have my head buried in this American soil,
ears chock-full of it so the only sounds
that bypass my earthen defenses
are high-pitched laughter
and commands to bend low
under the current state of affairs.
And bend low I do,
down to the bushes that haven’t been maimed,
the stems of elderly jade
that prospered by disturbing no one
and instead shining with untouched beauty.
My heart turns to stone with every headline,
that same jade replacing vein after vein.
Soon enough I’ll be a statue of enchanting green,
dazzling in the sun,
mouth open too late in a silenced cry
in my own damn rose garden.
The children of Gaza
Their faces a blur
They flit through the landscape
Avoiding the whir
Of the drones overhead
Where a city once prospered
Love is destroyed and
Hatred is spurred
Fighting for landspace
Drifting through knolls
Seeking out targets
Searching for souls
Families displaced
Scattered in fear
Hoping for placement
In a land that is near
Once cultural beauties
Now lay devastated
The destructions of war
Leave living abated
The children seek peace
In their world all around
But they lay in their masses
Piled on the ground
A future extinguished
With swift execution
Can their killers return
To life absolution?
So far from you yet I reach out like you were right here. Nothing shined brighter than you not even the sun.
And as bright as you are I still lost you, yet sparks brought me back to you but when I returned I was too late.
You shined so bright you became the moon to share your light.
No longer could I reach you, I could only watch as you prospered into something greater than I could ever be.
We were so opposite yet we worked. Life was greater with you and worse without you but even so, I’d still love you to the moon and back.
Raised by his grandmother,
He understood the depth of life at a young age,
He delved deeper into existence as he turned each page,
Life was like a book before him.
He often asked intriguing questions,
Ones that made people wonder and ponder,
His mind was a blooming field,
Time facilitated the yield.
His grandmother told him stories about the night,
How it had concealed people’s light,
She told him about the mysteries that traversed its meadow,
And the treasures that hide in the shadows.
He dropped out of school,
His hands became his tools,
Penury wasn’t a setback,
His grandmother cried that she couldn’t support his education.
He stood like an Iroko tree,
His hope was as solid as a rock,
Although turbulence sometimes rocked his boat,
He had learned how to keep it afloat.
He was devoted to his grandmother,
He kept her teachings to heart,
He was desolate when she transcended to the beyond,
Life became a still muddy pond.
Gradually, he sailed across the sea of his grief,
He prospered in his craft,
He found love along the way,
Together they embraced both the grey and fray.
March 30, 2025.
October 24 Praises to God Bible Meditations Based on Luke 6-7
Key Verse – Luke 6:12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
PRAISE BE TO GOD FOR EXEMPLIFYING
TO US THE VALUE OF PRAYER
Praise be to God for exemplifying to us
the value of prayer that:
Expresses our need for His help
Exposes our nearness to His heart
Exalts His nurturing toward our hoisting
Examines our naughtiness, hindering humility’s honesty
Expels our negativities, hurts, haughtiness and hopelessness
Luke 6:22 Praise be to the Lord for pronouncing
blessings for us while we:
Love Him with His compassionate might
Live for Him by His comfort and mercy
Let Him cover us around His marvels
Lead others to His magnificence
Learn from His miracles
Luke 7:9 Praise be to the Saviour Who
commends us of our faith:
Propelled by His Word
Propped upon His ways
Prospered with His wonders
Powered through His wisdom midst worship
Pushed toward His worthy work against worldliness. Amen!
October 10, 2024
It’s good, Lord,
just to meditate alone
and let your truth
my restless mind subdue;
unchanged while worlds
have ebbed and flowed,
your Word flows now
in soft assurance to my soul.
Storm-echoes of the thunder
fade to peace
and quiet blue
the rain-clean sky controls,
as you again, Lord,
demonstrate your power
through stormy wind and fair,
you rule.
Untroubled peace
would soon breed man’s contempt
and all-sufficient
seem his prospered ways.
Your care commands
the stormy cloud to rise
lest man unhindered, proud,
his soul destroys.
The storms of life, Lord,
come at your command.
At that same word
in your good time they go.
You care for me, my Lord,
in your great love.
I know that you’re in charge –
Be still, my soul.
Written after a thunder shower August 30th, 1992
Africa my Africa; of resources rich.
Aggressively wooed because her potentials enrich.
Africa the bride, historically bid for.
The continent dark with opulent fields to explore.
Your labour past prospered farmers of the Occident.
Your hidden value takes the gaze of the Orient.
Not even the world's giants can your 'dwarfness' ignore,
as they compete for potentials concealed therein.
You seek for succour but your abundance lies herein.
Your pleasant shores will no more the brain drain witness.
Your lush green will spring forth from your feigned wilderness.
Africa my home will her charming beauty unveil.
No more will your poverty stricken let out a wail.
No one will know how brightly she smiled
That it charmed her parents and beguiled
Those who loved her near home where she thrived
How she sang and danced, so full of life
How her innocent thoughts touched the world.
From now on, it will remain untold
What deeds they did, what insults they hurled
At her that caused an act of suicide;
No one will know ...
We have lost a beautiful child;
A destiny was rendered unfulfilled.
What she might have accomplished with her life
Who would have made her his precious wife
If she would have prospered and grown old
No one will know ...
Halcyon
brightly, tropical
charming, waves, calm
kingfisher, bird, sea, nest
favored, prospered, tranquilize, calm
joyful, carefree, thriving, flourishing
kingfisher
Not your usual
Not uncommon
The once upon a time
That line might be fine
Love of the heart at times being kind
A glass of wine being a story added divine
Line by line
Word by word
The distance between what happened
Extending to
Thinking through and through
Perhaps a notion having a thought
A pass dream remembered
Caught in a nightmare trap
Storms that became violent
One pause of silent
A past wonder
Sunshine suddenly appeared yonder
Emotions opened up
Joy prospered
Expiration had no tire
I know, but questioned
Opinionated but was a suggestion
Inspiration rang like a Philadelphia Liberty Bell
That moment, I felt like William Tell
I can do this
Encouragement spoke
Proceed told
You are mighty and bold
Heaven’s hand your threshold
The story within a moment’s notice of time
The life being m
I think big of a new day,
With expectations on my way,
Of being a better version,
Of what I was yesterday.
A new day begins, a few minutes pass
I hope for motivation to long last
But never does it happen, it's an ugly fact
My mind keeps on deviating from its actual track.
I spend a couple of hours
being absolutely unproductive
"I'll stop at the nth - hour"
That's a fake truth comforting
Watching pointless stuff on my phone
I have truly mastered
The art of wasting my time
It's an unpaid job where I've prospered.
But when asked about my productivity rate
by those relatives with whom you can never relate
I start panicking and create a whole mess
Of coming and going stories but still no progess.
I look back at myself,
the n - number of days wasted,
tears roll down my face,
and my heart is full of regret.
That's when I realize,
that I have a hard way to go,
and so my journey begins,
but just then something happens,
"A notification sound?" perhaps my best friend,
and I believe you have predicted what happens next,
by now I have made this journey for more complexed,
yet this cycle keeps on repeating itself.....
A mother and her four daughters
Travelled to a new land
Many miles across the ocean
To a place of golden sand
They prospered in their new country
Were happy as it was now home
The second eldest daughter later travelled
She felt the need to roam
She married and had children
In the land they had left behind
Eventually divorced
As her marriage declined
The five shared an unbreakable bond
Together always their destiny
Their love knew no distance
Connected by blood eternally
The mum and second oldest were taken by cancer
Their life journey no longer meant to be
The five are no longer
Sadly, now only three …
Downtown Dayton cityscape
can be seen clearly (on a clear day)
from the grassy knoll on top
of the Woodlands cemetery.
Most of the more fancy mausoleums
face any other way though,
as if the successfully dead
had prospered and were now
disinterested in local legends.
The bones of great men and women
are restless here however,
they turn over the decades,
pull time over their skulls
like overly stuffed quilts.
They won't look now
at that once prosperous and inventive city
they are done with fame
but on a clear night
the city lights illumine
their sad spirits
as they dream of the degradation
of their once industrious history,
watch the unfolding decay of their works
one dirty, burned-out city block
at a time.
The branching trees stand straight in evergreen forest
On the canopy clouds torn from the sky come to rest.
Moist leaves will get luster from morning sunrays soon
After the dust is washed by the night rains of monsoon.
Humankind spreads like forest in clustered population
Vibrantly nurturing the tenets of diverse civilization.
People prospered sharing the earth’s common resources
Developed kinship and trust as parts of survival process.
If the rains don’t come for some years as they should
The forest soil dries and the trees soon become wood.
Hit so hard by the current trying times people are busy
To find ways to merely survive for life is no longer easy.
Soil of humane feeling called kindness is drying up fast
The touch of empathy in desiccated hearts doesn’t last.
Life has turned into stagnant river, it doesn’t flow free
In felled forest people become soulless defoliated trees.
In vortex of turbulent time emotions dry, don’t ripple
Humanity is morphing into museum of wooden people.
July 25, 2022
A Brian Strand Premere Choice Contest
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