Words=the best toys ever

A wonderful thing that happened last week: the Kolob Canyon Review vol. XX was made available to the general public.  I've read the entries so many times through the editing process that I thought I would be bored with the end result, but what happened was exactly the opposite--we had so many talented writers submit their work, and they just keep getting better and better the more I read them.  And now they're all bound up in a 170ish-page literary journal (ISBN and all!) for the world to see.  This book is so much cooler than a few pages stapled together, which is all I've been a part of in the past.



The biggest side effect I experienced when I took it home after the reading on Wednesday (I still hate talking in front of people, even if it's only for a minute) was that I wished I could write poetry as beautiful as some of the things I heard from other people.  The effect of that effect is that I wrote a few new things--not to try to imitate another style, but to add more of my own to the running.


-aftermath-

I remember when we climbed to the
clouds and slept for days

but now Winter's grip trembles
pulling at the air to stay alive

the Wind berates all obstacles
and orders the trees to kneel before Him

pink-white flower petals litter the street,
the aftermath of Nature's parade

-peace-

Author of truth, love,
Father of all,
take my hand
and lead me through the darkness

forgive me my faltering steps--
I know I have big shoes to fill--

but fear pulls at me from every direction
making me wish I could see Your face
somewhere in this foreign place
that many of us call "home."

if it were anyone else out there
who cried, "Follow me, my child!"
I would quickly back away,
sidestep their unclean motives

but Your peace, it fills me
it pulls me to my feet
it puts words into my mouth and hands--

the words are all I have to give back to You