Real Love Hurts

A Passion Week reflection I wrote last year as I was meditating on the events of Good Friday. Real Love is the roses and the thorns…Real Love hurts….I hope this poem helps you encounter the One who is Love.

Lightning Bug

Photo by Doug1021 | CC BY 2.0 License

Real love hurts
Bruises
Beneath heavy blows
Wind-knocked
Lungs wheeze, gasp, burn for air
Choking on hot tears

Real love hurts
Breaks
Splits open, gaping wide
Red-raw
Flesh torn from bone
Exposing fiery nerves

Real love hurts
Bleeds
Stumbles to the earth
Battle-weary
Sweat-soaked hair dripping
Stinging open wounds

Real love hurts
Claws
Crawls along broken roads
Dirt-caked
Blood under fingernails
Dragging lifeless limbs

Real love hurts
Pays
Ransoms ruined hearts
Life-emptying
Demands drain reservoirs
Turning skin cold, blue

Real love hurts
Stays
Through bitter, brutal ends
Bare-backed
In the dust, forsaken
Whispering final mercies to the sky

This poem was written in response to the WordPress Weekly Writing Challenge: Time for Poetry.

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March 26, 2015 0

Unbreak Me

Memories reach up and out of
the dark places
long fingers that
grasp and grab and wrap around
the tendrils of my thoughts
tangling some together
binding others apart
tinting truth the shade of shadows
nagging me, dragging me
down, down, down
until I’m drowning
in mud that sucks at my skin
and I shiver
cold to the bone.

Like the night we played
tether ball in the rain
until we were mud-caked
from hair to toenails.

But that was fun, wasn’t it?
We ate pizza at 10:30 and I said
it was the best night of my life.
I was six, so that was probably true.
Besides, the mud washed away
and I had a towel
and someone to cook me dinner.

But the downing, drowning,
sucking, mucking mud
pulls with all the weight
of leaded memories. Continue reading “Unbreak Me” →

February 25, 2015 7

I Will Stay

A poem about heroes, most often found in ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

He stood upon the front porch
Watching his daddy walk away
His mama stood beside the boy
His mama, she would stay

The boy, he heard her swallow hard
Watched one tear slide down her face
The boy took her by the hand
And said, “Mama, I’ll stay”

She stood upon the front porch
Watching the boy smile and wave
In the dust from the tires of the yellow bus
His mama, she would stay

He watched, as his mama grew smaller
He watched, as she faded away
As the bus jostled onward beyond
Where his heart would always stay

Continue reading “I Will Stay” →

February 23, 2015 10

Trust is a Verb

Tell me, what does it feel like?

Death.

Really? Death? Why do you say that?

Because it’s like giving part of myself away.

Um, can you explain? Continue reading “Trust is a Verb” →

February 18, 2015 18

Success!

Watching the Red Sox in San Francisco | Photo by N. Perreault

My husband and daughters and I
Drove the car almost 10,000 miles
From east coast to west
And then back again
Still everyone came home alive!

Inspired by our 32 day cross country road trip, which I chronicled here.
Written for Writing 201: Poetry;
Day 2: Journey, Limerick, Alliteration.

February 16, 2015 2

Holding Summer

Cup of Tea | Photo by nicholeq.wordpress.com

Steaming mug of tea
Burns against my palms, like hot
Pavement on bare feet

Written for Writing 201: Poetry;
Day 1: Water, Haiku, Simile.

February 16, 2015 8

Out of Darkness, Light | A Christmas Poem

Special Stars by James Wheeler| CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being told how to do Christmas better, how to get it right, how to rethink it or turn it upside down or make it count or What. Ever. Not that that those aren’t worthy endeavors, but rather at this point, I just want to enjoy Christmas for what it is. And when it came to writing a Christmas post, I was practically gagging on my own words. That’s when I know it’s bad – when I can’t even stand to listen to myself. So I gave up and wrote a poem. No commentary. No lectures. No exhortation. No opinions. No judgments. No assertions.

Just a poem. A painting, if you will, of words. Merry Christmas.

Out of Darkness, Light

We walk in darkness
Stumbling, feet slipping
Grasping for something, anything to keep from falling

We scrape our hands on broken branches
Our knees on stony paths
In trying to save ourselves, we are wounded

Continue reading “Out of Darkness, Light | A Christmas Poem” →

December 24, 2014 2

Not Mine to Keep | A Poem of Love and Loss

For my girls:

Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh is this child
this woman
who now walks away from me

Always she is walking away…always, she is going

I wish she had come with a note,
like a present with a ribbon tied ’round her wrist
and a card attached
with the words:

“Just passing through.
I will come to you,
into your body, into your home,
into your wallet, your schedule, your dreams
and most of all
into your heart.
But I will not stay.
I’m just passing through.”

Continue reading “Not Mine to Keep | A Poem of Love and Loss” →

October 7, 2014 17

Real Love Hurts

Real love hurts
Bruises
Beneath heavy blows
Wind-knocked
Lungs wheeze, gasp, burn for air
Choking on hot tears

Real love hurts
Breaks
Splits open, gaping wide
Red-raw
Flesh torn from bone
Exposing fiery nerves

Real love hurts
Bleeds
Stumbles to the earth
Battle-weary
Sweat-soaked hair dripping
Stinging open wounds

Real love hurts
Claws
Crawls along broken roads
Dirt-caked
Blood under fingernails
Dragging lifeless limbs

Real love hurts
Pays
Ransoms ruined hearts
Life-emptying
Demands drain reservoirs
Turning skin cold, blue

Real love hurts
Stays
Through bitter, brutal ends
Bare-backed
In the dust, forsaken
Whispering final mercies to the sky

This poem was written in response to the WordPress Weekly Writing Challenge: Time for Poetry.

April 17, 2014 12

Surrender

I sink underwater
Eyes open
Looking up at rippling glass
Shapes of light
Blue and white and gray and sometimes yellow

I think
I should panic
But I don’t
I bob, watching colors
The bubbles rising around me
Moving up, up,
Air finding air

I see his face
And I am not alone
Even here
Beneath the waves

No words exchanged
Silence, like water, fills every crevice
Locked on steady, serene eyes
I think…I feel
Safe
Good
Perfectly placed

Everything moves, waves
The water
Our hair
But time pauses, motionless

My lungs burn in my chest
Heart pounding, salt stinging my eyes

Pain and peace
Fear and comfort
Love and heartbreak
I choose to feel them all

And so without breath
Without borders
Without answers
I rest
Beneath the waves

This poem was written in response to the WordPress.com Weekly Writing Challenge: 1,000 Words. I chose the photo Relaxation as my inspiration because it helped me to put into words some ideas and impressions that have been floating around (no pun intended…but nice right?) in my mind for the last couple of weeks. The song below also significantly influenced the poem. (Thanks to our church’s worship team for introducing me to this song!) If you’d like to better understand my perspective when writing the poem, have a listen. It’s a beautiful song. But if you want to let the poem speak to you without more of me involved, that’s cool too. As always, thanks for reading.

February 6, 2014 7