life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Poetry”

10 Apr 2012
2 Comments

Love is Victory

You were created to love.
It is your nature, and your purpose.

Your fears and desires get in the way:
your self-centeredness, your desire for control,
your fear of loss or diminishment,
your weakness and your wounds,
your attachment to things
that subvert love and drain life from you,
all prevent you from loving perfectly.

But their power is an illusion.
We flung them all at Jesus—
even death, and the wort suffering.
And they did not stop him;
they could not stop love.

God has defeated them,
buried them in the grave with him,
and he has come to us now without them.
He has risen, and has overcome them all.

You are free to love.
When you love you die to that world of fear,
and you are raised to a new life.
When you love you enter into God,
into what is divine and infinite and eternal.
When you love, even at great cost,
and even if you fail,
even if you have no effect at all,
you have won the victory.

 

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
used with permission

Posted in art, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Change, Choice, commitment, courage, create, determination, do, Dreams, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Growth, Habits, Happiness, inspiration, kindness, Letting Go, Life, Love, Passion, Patience, Peace, People, Poetry, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, Tenderness, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, Trust, truth, Vulnerability, Winning
23 Mar 2012

extravagantly glorious pink trees for everyone!!!

Happy Spring to all!

Spring is busting out all over and the world is full of beautiful color! I love Spring!!!! My very favorite season!

 

 

Last year I did a Spring newsletter http://songsfromthevalley.com/March%2011%204.9%20Spring.pdf

 

Posted in Adventure, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Change, Choice, Dancing, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, fun, Glory, Gratitude, Happiness, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, Miracles, nature, Newsletter, Party, Passion, People, Poetry, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, Seasons, Songs from the Valley, Spring, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, Trust, truth | Leave a comment
20 Mar 2012

Might need this bat for mine…

Batting!

Toward the end of winter I came upon
the Lord on a diamond, batting.

I said, “ Lord, what are you doing?”
“These are your sins,” he said,

as a shadowy figure on the mound
with a vicious arm pitched.

He had no instinct: swung at everything,
even dirtballs. And hit ’em every time.

He had a beautiful swing,
fluid, sure, and joyful.

He hit pitch after pitch, endlessly.
I lost myself, watching.

“Out of the park” he said, his eye
on a nasty looking knuckleball,

and swung like a dancer,
gracefully unwinding.  Chock!

It rose up over the fence, over the trees,
released from all earthly bonds,

floating free until it disappeared,
infinitely gone, still rising.

He watched it go, as if
he’d never seen such a beautiful thing.

“I love this game,” he grinned,
and set for another pitch.

I think he was honestly
pleased with himself.

______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
 Used With Permission
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

 happy spring training baseball people!

Posted in art, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, confidence, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, fun, Gratitude, Habits, Happiness, Hope, Imagine, inspiration, Joy, laugh, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, People, Poetry, Reflection, Spring, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, Trust, truth | Leave a comment
08 Mar 2012

Beautiful

What did I know of Beauty
A 16 years old girl
Sneaking to read Vogue
Wearing my cheap shoes
With hatred in my heart

Comparing myself to everyone
Longing to be beautiful
desperate for someone to tell me
They thought I was
Always searching, competing
In my mind
to see if I was better
Than anyone else I met

Even if someone had told me –
Which they didn’t –
I knew better
My insides full of lies
pettiness
and comparisons…
the thieves of joy

Then I read Your words
and slowly my life changed
I walked Your path
and my eyes saw Your miracles
I caught a glimpse of Your glory
and my heart was branded
by Your beauty
So different from what I thought it would be

I am forever changed
By the love I have found
Beautiful and Beloved
have become my names
Not from the form of my face
But from Your light in my heart
You have made each of us
We are beautiful

I have seen your face
and it is beautiful
The face of God

AL 3/6/12

Posted in beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Change, Choice, confidence, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, laugh, Letting Go, Life, People, Poetry, Tenderness, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, Vulnerability | Leave a comment
06 Mar 2012

Beauty and Inspiration from Ann Voskamp’s amazing pen!

Do not let anything keep you –

not anything —

from flinging out of that sagging comfort zone,

and right into the streets, eyes and mouth full of His wonder,

to pant it in the marketplace

the back alleys, the front fields,

across the crackling wires

that you have seen Him, yes — you have seen the light —

and with these very eyes,

and you hear it even now,

how the rocks cry out

and you cry too, this stammering it

into every willing ear

that you opened your eyes one day and ran right into all His glory

and He saves and He kisses wounds and He serenades

and Beauty has branded you,

marked you with awe

and awe is why you grab the pen, and Beauty is why you scratch it down,

and all His lighting glory is why you muzzle the voices that say

you can’t or shouldn’t or mustn’t,

because He is your blaze and He is your burn and and you cannot be muzzled because

what can keep you from telling once the eyes have seen?

Could there be anything greater than this,

the bearing witness

to the glory sighting?

Stand and give testimony.

Because this is the holy, blazing thing:

you cannot

not.

http://www.aholyexperience.com/

Posted in Adventure, art, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Change, Choice, confidence, courage, determination, do, Dreams, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Glory, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, People, Poetry, thankfulness, time, Today | Leave a comment
25 Feb 2012

face the truth

Where the Wild Things Are

Go with him
into the deserted places
where mind won’t survive,

deep in your wilds, exposed,
with the beasts,
feral, shifty, wise

in their wordless ways,
their primal hungers,
their devouring instincts,

disappearing easily
into your canyons and outcroppings.
You don’t vanquish them,

you watch,
and learn to survive among them,
and witness the mystery,

how they lie down beside him.
Even they know
these washes and gulches

are a palm.
In this extremity,
you find your place

among your terrors,
your wastelands,
your angels.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in Adventure, America, art, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Blog, Change, Choice, courage, create, Dancing, Death, determination, do, Dreams, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, fun, Gratitude, Grieving, Growth, Habits, Happiness, home, Hope, Imagine, Joy, Life, light, Love, Miracles, People, Poetry, Prayer, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, Solitude, strength, Tears, Tenderness, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, Trust, Vulnerability | Leave a comment
20 Feb 2012

dreams & ideas are for doing

Trust that little voice in your head that says

‘Wouldn’t it be interesting if…’

And then do it.

– Duane Michals

Posted in Adventure, America, art, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Career, Change, Choice, courage, create, Dancing, determination, do, Dreams, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, fun, Gratitude, Growth, Habits, Happiness, Hope, Imagine, Joy, kindness, laugh, Leadership, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, Miracles, music, Passion, Patience, People, Poetry, power, Prayer, Quotes, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, Solitude, strength, success, Tenderness, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, Trust, Vulnerability, Winning | Leave a comment
18 Feb 2012
1 Comment

Be Sure to Take A Beautiful Path

The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

More options for inspiration at http://pinterest.com/al513/the-path-we-take-makes-all-the-difference/

Posted in Adventure, Alone, art, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Career, Change, Choice, courage, create, Dancing, determination, do, Dreams, Encouragement, find art at pinterest, Freedom, fun, Gratitude, Growth, Habits, Happiness, home, Hope, Imagine, Impossible, Joy, laugh, Leadership, Letting Go, Life, light, Lonely, Love, Miracles, music, Passion, Peace, People, Poetry, Prayer, Purpose, quiet, Quotes, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, Respect, Seasons, Smile, Solitude, Spring, Stars and Moonlight, strength, success, Sweet, Tenderness, Thoughts, time, Today, Trust, Vulnerability, Winning, words
17 Feb 2012

We are the light!

 Transfiguration

The disciples were having no strange vision,
nor the evangelist concocting a tableau
for the delight of Renaissance painters.
It was simply this: for a moment
Jesus’ friends were seeing truly,
seeing him as he was,
seeing a human being as we all truly are,
shining with the whole glory of Creation,
stardust that we are.
They saw through the scruff and dirt
that this rough world leaves on us,
saw past the judgments and appearances,
the masks and costumes and shrouds
that we throw on each other:
they saw the heaven within a person,
the image of God.
If only they hadn’t been so shocked
they would have noticed it in themselves.
Jesus had to tell them later:
“You are light for the world.”
God shines in you,
gleams with the splendid light of heaven.
Beyond any smudge this world can put on you,
or any human word or deed can remove,
you are dazzling, radiant with newborn light.
Right now, sitting there reading this,
you breathe God’s light in and out.
Your nerves spark with life.
Your eyes light up the world.
Let this light fill you, the fire of God.
Be mindful of this radiance.
Look for the light in all whom you meet.
Trust the light. Give thanks for the light
Even in your sleep, the light closes its eye,
but breathes deeply, calmly, faithfully.

Light,
refracted from the rising Son,
increasing throughout the day
as it condenses within each living being,
until, even after nightfall,
all glimmers with wonder.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Used with Permission
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

 

Posted in Adventure, art, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Blog, Change, Choice, courage, create, Dancing, determination, do, Dreams, Encouragement, Freedom, fun, Gratitude, Growth, Habits, Happiness, home, Hope, Imagine, Impossible, Joy, kindness, laugh, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, Miracles, music, Passion, People, Poetry, power, Prayer, Proof, Purpose, Quotes, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, Respect, Smile, strength, success, Tenderness, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, Trust, Vulnerability, Winning | Leave a comment
16 Feb 2012

love sets free

Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. – C.S. Lewis
Today is a ‘Freedom Anniversary’ for me! It is a big deal! My life has been a progression of stepping towards freedom.
The battles have been long, dangerous and hard to win in order to free myself. Both physically and spiritually. I am not completely there yet – it is a life-long exploration and journey to free myself. The chains and bars in my prisons, because I find they are legion, are very strong. My Alcatraz type barren -rock islands were such a long way from shore, with many snipers, predators and sharp rocks in the water and on all sides of the shores. My guards were very alert and ready to shoot me, or keep me locked down and in solitary for my whole life. They were gleeful when I fell and happy over my pain and destruction.
And yet, the love, the words, and truth, of God were so much more powerful than any of these things, that no prison in this world could not hold me and, for 22 years now, I keep walking out of my prisons into the brilliant light and sunshine of the free!!!!

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou

A free bird leaps on the back
Of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange suns rays
And dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage|
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright
Lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom.

http://songsfromthevalley.com/July-09-2-14-Freedom.pdf

Posted in Adventure, Alone, America, art, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Blog, Burnign Bridges, Career, Change, Choice, courage, create, Dancing, Death, determination, do, dominance, Dreams, Encouragement, force, Freedom, fun, Gratitude, Grieving, Growth, Habits, Happiness, Happy Holiday!, home, Hope, Imagine, Impossible, Joy, Judging, kindness, laugh, Leadership, Letting Go, Life, light, Lonely, Losing, Love, Miracles, Mother, music, Newsletter, Party, Passion, Peace, People, Poetry, politics, power, Prayer, Proof, Purpose, quiet, Quotes, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, Respect, Seasons, Smile, Solitude, Songs from the Valley, Spring, Stars and Moonlight, strength, success, Sweet, Tears, Tenderness, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, Trust, Uncategorized, Vulnerability, Winning, words, worry, Writing | Leave a comment

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