Poet’s Dilemma
I try to draw the searching word in sight
to speak a truth I hardly know is there,
or name a feeling that disturbs my night,
or bring a smothered fear into the air.
Sometimes I wake as words begin to cling –
it’s best to get a pen and let them out,
or they may circle ‘til I let them sing.
If I ignore them, they may leave, or shout!
I make a web of rhythm and of rhyme:
sometimes the strands will capture what I need,
or if I let the words, unbidden, climb
to fall in random heaps, what might I read?
Sometimes I wonder if too neat a verse
is just a box to keep truth in control
lest it affect my life. I am perverse
resisting what I guess might heal my soul.
Revealing truth in word’s a two-edged sword,
and Jesus must have known that as God’s Word.
There’s only so much truth we can afford.
God’s word still speaks. Can my words make it heard?
Barbara Messner 12/01/2023
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Barb, poet priest 
This is so wonderful and captures me so perfectly that I am going to to share on my blog as a guest post. It is just too “right.”
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The stanza:
“Sometimes I wonder if too neat a verse
is just a box to keep truth in control…”
really resonates with me. Thank you.
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Maren and Eric, thanks for letting me see what is shared. Writing something vulnerable is a lonely feeling, but worth it for the sharing.
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