Living Water

I think I've become the only person who posts on here... The curiously poetic Altoids has kind of died but I still like writing poetry and I wrote this for a Sunday School challenge they had.

Living Water

Another day, another chore, another empty bucket
I hear a distant splash as I let the pail plummet
Then heaving, yanking, pulling, tugging
Sweat dripping, hands burning
The bucket slowly reappears,
I take a sip, my weary heart cheers
Cool clear water, fresh and sweet
Is pure relief in the desert heat

Then I notice him staring at me
A Jewish man travelling to Gallilea
He ask if he too may have a drink
I simply don't know what to think.

"I'm a maid of Samaria, its plain to see.
How is it you ask this task of me?"

His eyes sparkle, his smile grows broad,
"If you knew the gift of God
And who I am, you would think
To ask of me for a drink.
I would have given thee living waters and then
You would never thirst again."

"How could you draw this living water?
You have no vessel, the well is deep.
Are you greater than Jacob, our father,
Who dug this well for his kin and sheep?"

You'll never thirst again,"
He spoke, "for those who drink this water that I bring"
Shall have a well spring up in him
Into life everlasting."

Dear friends, I bid thee, come and see
This man, this prophet, the Messiah He coule be.
My heart whispers to me its so
For all things he did truly know
And though my soul felt withered through
His words refreshed my spirit anew.

Lets cast away our water pots, lets test the living waters,
Discover for ourselves the truth of what he freely offers.

Scuba Poem

Its been a while since we've had poetry club. Heres a post from tonight though. :D


Scuba

They say it’s like breathing for the first time.
I don’t know how they’d that since they’d be too young to remember,
But I recon it’s probably so.

You feel out of place, awkward.
Big and bulbous, like a beached whale
Fins flop as you enter the water.
You take your role, don your mask, and become a fish incognito

Air fills your lungs.
The initial panic dissipates with each breath.
You take control.
You’re an acquatic Vader, dark and suited
Keeeesh Koosh
You are the master of a new universe.

With the touch of a button your suit deflates and you descend like an astronaut into the great unknown,
You lean forward and flutter forward,
What was once ugly and sluggish is now graceful and beautiful
Like a butterfly taking to the air
Your life as a caterpillar is completely forgotten

A few poems

Hope Chris had a good b-day today (well, yesterday... missed by a half hour). Hopefully other people will remember to post their poems on the blog too. The first poem is about my fish tank. Second poem is about a comment Josh made at the very beginning of poetry club. Last poem is about a comment Jackie made at the end of poetry club.


The Tank
Blue above, blue below.
There’s a whole world I can see out there.
The grand, the exotic, so green and alive,
I want to see it all.
They tell me it would take my breath away.
I would do anything to escape,
Forsake my stripes,
Get away from my fellow prisoners,
Escape their bullying and darting,
Hide from the monsters all around me.
If only I could cross these walls.

No Poetry for Joshua
You’re not allowed to write a poem tonight.
It’s forbidden.
Give up your hopes of coupling couplets, of making rhyme or reason
We won’t tolerate any of your limericks about the green plaid shirt you’re wearing
You have no permission to record your thoughts on name recognition
Mexican Holidays stanzas are illegal immigrants in Poetry Clubia
Haiku’s about ninjas? Ummmm.... No.
Say nada to sonnets about Trombones-a
The rhythm and words streaming into your mind from elsewhere cannot be put on paper.


Not a poem about Jackie
I won’t ever ever ever ever ever write a poem about Jackie
I simply won’t write a rhyme,
About how I think she’s sublime.
I won’t let myself ramble about her quantum chemistry, tree climbing, mad Frisbee catching skills.
No, I won’t remind everyone how intimidating her awesomeness can be,
Especially to the guys.
I shouldn’t sneakily slip in lines about Jackie’s sinister laughs, her well executed pranks.
I’ll stop thinking about all the stanzas I could be typing about her perfect sense of humor.
Let’s face it, her intellectual brilliance radiates like a thousand suns.
I simply won’t recite the epic victory of when she successfully ate ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I’m only allowed to pretend I’m writing a poem about how much I love her face.

No… I can’t write a poem about Jackie so I’ll write about something else.
How about cheese?!? I love cheese.
Cheese is… well, cheesy
There! Wasn’t that a great poem not about Jackie?

Greetings from Georgia

Hi everyone! I hope you have continued to poeticize in my absence. There have been far too few blog posts for your absentee members.

Since I am no longer an Altoid, I've started my own blog for my poetry and other writings. Currently I am finishing up posts of previously written poems, including those that debuted right here, but I plan to continue writing and posting poems or works in progress.

If you promise to post something here, I will let you read my blog.

-Chris

Coming Back Home

This is something I was supposed to post forever ago. Just barely found it again. This first poem is from an FHE nursery rhyme activity. The others are my own work.

The Fall of the House of Humpty

Once upon a midnight dreary
While Humpty wondered weak and weary
"Did I come before the chicken?"
At that moment he was stricken
By the raven and he plunged off the wall
wall, wall, wall, wall, wall, wall, wall.
And Great was the fall of the house of Humpty.

In a city by the sea,
So all the night tide,
He lay down by the side of
All the kings horses and all the king's men.
Who dare not put humpty together
Nevermore- for they feared the beating of the tell tale yolk
Yolk, yolk, yolk, Yolk, Yolk, Yolk, Yolk.
Put together
Nevermore



The Night

After midnight, everything is beautiful
When the world slows down just long enough for you to catch it in both hands.
Gaze at it,
Peaceful, Cool, Crisp
See clearly in the darkness
Focus on the things that matter most.
You wish you could stop the hours rolling by.
Protect the precious night
But dawn always breaks.


Coming Back Home

When I come back home
it feels like everything should be exactly the way I left it.
The way its always been.
Sheltered, protected,
Preserved like a historic brick building
An ancient monument,
Forever in a snow globe,
My memories trapped in a timeless bubble.

Yet each time I come home
I see that fragile bubble has popped.
The businesses and buildings have shifted about like pieces on a checker board
Those friendly old faces seem the same
But the people behind them aren't who they used to be.

New faces are everywhere.
They look at me as if I'm the novelty
They don't know that this is still my place.

College Apps Are A Very Serious Business

Disaster, catastrophe --
I left out an apostrophe
On my essays to Princeton and Yale!
Oh woe is me now
For I do not see how
To avoid an embarrassing tale
Of how I will miss
Out on Ivy League bliss
For my Stanford dreams ere now looked pale.
If my Harvard hopes dim
And to Berkeley seems grim,
'Fore my classmates I'll tremble and quail.
It would be a disgrace
After my S.A.T. ace
If to Davis I creep like a snail!

Palo Alto Limerick

When biking through Silicon Valley
Where redwoods and palms share an alley
Organic-grown food
Puts you right in the mood
To attend the green energy rally.