Poetry Potpourri
by James E. Tate

Communications are important in everyday life. We love to commune by mouth, and we listen to others, but there is a wealth of knowledge to be gained by reading. Reading is an efficient way to venture into fuller life—vicariously going to distant lands, seeing deeper into the atom, exploring vast regions of space, getting an understanding of our purpose, and more importantly, learning of God's directions—these all provide fuller exploits than the non-reader can hope to attain. These ventures are made possible by writers.

Prose and poetry carry most of the weight of the many forms of writing. So, we writers sense our responsibility in the field of communication. When we express our thoughts through poems it is better to let our message speak straight-forward and understandably. Fewer words with good understanding are better than circumlocution and verbosity. While circumlocution and verbosity fit for this purpose, they sound pretentious, don’t you agree? Here is my attempt to express thoughts on the subject of down-to-earth writing.

Communicate or Equivocate?
By James E. Tate 2007 ©

Communication, oh so grand, we do it with our hearts and hands.
We tell others just how we feel, with words or gestures, as we will.
Animals talk, full and free, and they do it with liberty.
But not with language like you and me; yet they talk, most will agree.

With higher intellect, we use words, not just singing like the birds.
For the spoken word performs most, plus body language working its post.
A nod of head, grimace or smile, can make us distressed or beguiled.
But the poet complicates things, indirectly wording thoughts he brings.

Counting syllables for the meter, and choosing words that sound sweeter,
He puts his pen to the paper claiming great poetic capers.
Words endearing, loving and nice, like girls made of sugar and spice,
Or, words that hurt, and even destroy, like taunting talk from little boys.

If we tell the story obliquely, it may muddle our thoughts completely.
Why say it ambiguously, when we can talk straight-forwardly?
Why try to sound spectacular when we can use the vernacular?
Don’t say, “He prevaricates, when, “He lies,” leaves no debate.

Some great thoughts, luminous and vast, come from writers out of the past.
Brought down through historic ages, words expressed by wise old sages.
Longfellow, Frost, Dickens and Guest gave us inscriptions of their quest.
Influencing us with upbeat thoughts, timeless, inspiring poems and plots.

Great writing that we so admire, lifts up our spirits from quagmire.
Shakespeare with his prolific pen, cranked out sonnets, setting trend.
Poets use colons, thoughts and dots, but don’t ignore these caveats—
Divine words from Bible pages, deep within, our heart engages.

Scriptures speak in sixty six Books, showing us how our Creator looks
upon us, his beloved, His image, and puts us on lines of scrimmage.
To witness and worship Him, the One who’s in the sacred realm.
We poets read, we authors write, let us hasten to spread the light.

And so we depict the obligation that writers have, and the tools with which they share their thoughts, images and ideas with the readers. As we focus on poetry in this column, remember that poetry has been called, "the best words in the best order." Not only the words, but the meter and the rhythm. There is a trend of late to move away from rhymes. But to me, rhymes add a touch of beauty and harmony, and allow the music of poetry to make room for itself.

Wordsworth said, "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." Frost said, "A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the words." So, we see that poems are expressions of emotions. With these thoughts in mind, let us usher in a guest poet, Linda J. Stevenson, author of Remember This Old Tree, and hundreds more good poems, as she shares her expertise with us in Life's Hourglass. She has co-authored a Christmas album with Mary Rice Hopkins, among many other writing achievements.

Linda depicts our deeds of life as grains of sand passing through an hourglass. We are moving fast in this life, and more rapidly each year it seems. So let us reflect upon this scene and make each opportunity count for God's kingdom.

Life's Hourglass
By Linda J. Stevenson

So eas'ly do our grains of sand flow through the narrow
pass to quickly fill the bottom globe of our life's hour
glass.  We cannot slow the rapid flow,  the grains
move  much  too  fast,  it  seems  before  life's
e're begun, our time has quickly passed.
Inscribed on ev'ry grain of sand are
deeds of life lived here; what
we've done with our
~T I M E~
bestowed will
be recorded there.
Everything we've done for
Christ,  every  kindly  deed,  is
etched  upon  each  grain  of  sand.
How will our journal read? We only have
one  life  to  live,  how quickly time will flee,
what  will each  grain of  sand disclose?  What will
they say 'bout me? Show me Lord, how fleeting is my life?

"Show me, O LORD , my life's end and the number of
my days; let me know how fleeting is my life." —Psalm 39:4

Thanks, Linda for the well written poem with a succinct message, easily understood.

Let us as poets, be aware of the need to communicate, avoiding indirect expression and big, unusual words to impress. Let us go directly to the point, saying it in such a way that readers grasp the meaning without having to grapple with it.

Go with God and listen to His prompting.