Xapa to the World

Category: Poetry

  • Poem: For Katie

    March 24th, 2004

    You’re so far away
    The pain is so near
    The tears in her eyes
    Reveal all her fears

    Bring her in close
    In Your arms everlasting
    The hope in her eyes
    Shows it’s not passing

    You make it alive
    This soul shadow-covered
    The love in her eyes
    Reflects that discovered

    Awaken her spirit
    To Your will so sincere
    The joy in her eyes
    Lets her know You are near.

     – Sarah ><>

  • Poem: Broken Body

    March 17, 2004

    *For Larry and Jean Elliot, Karen Watson, and David and Carrie McDonnall

    You say we are a body; we all make up You
    Is that why I hurt inside
    When I hear this news?
    They were Your fingers; they were Your toes.
    My soul aches to have lost them.
    Yet Your body is complete.
    Satan breaks it, but You make it whole.
    He drives nails through it,
    And a spear in Your side, breaking Your heart.
    But You are forever, and forever reign.
    Thy will be done down here.
    Prove Your mighty plan…
    A broken body here on earth
    Is finally restored in Your glory!

     – Sarah ><>

  • Poem: Crystal Tears

    March 1st, 2004

    Crystal from the clouds – 
    Mirrors of a truth mostly ignored.
    The mud, left from the snow
    So willingly smeared on our faces, arms, and legs,
    Sometimes forming pictures of the past.
    We bare them like trophies,
    Longing for some sympathy.
    Bathing in the glory of the filth,
    Blinded by the murky water – 
    Blinded to the possibility of cleanliness.
    The clear rain falls, as Your tears cover us.
    One clings to my hand, smudges and erases the stain.
    Hope of a coming glory pours into the heart as Your tears of joy fall – 
    Realization of imminent perfection.
    Made clean by Your tears.

     – Sarah ><>

  • Poem: Just You and Me

    This piece is kind of a strange one.  I think that when I sat down to write this, I was thinking of me and a boy…and it just ended up about me and God…in the intimate relationship of a Father and daughter.  Enjoy!

    Just You And Me

    February 24, 2004

    it’s just you and me
    sitting here together
    just you and me
    thinking on my dreams
    help me to love you
    as you have loved me
    if it’s just you and me

    mold my dreams
    to your perfect plan
    it’s just you without me
    that matters the most
    pull my eyes from them
    who would pull my focus
    from just you and me

     – Sarah ><>

  • Poem: It’s Not What’s In Me

    Yes, I did write this shortly after Valentine’s Day…and I don’t think it has any significance.  This is another result of a really humbling experience…I’m not sure what it was, but I remember it being very humbling, and I was just taken away with how little God needs us.  YET, He has grace and mercy to consider us…that is our blessing.  He loves us.

    February 17, 2003

    Humanistic efforts
    Fall short in Your mercy
    Glory and grace
    It’s not what’s in me
    Mediocre collections of a meager ability
    By Your grace, You make it complete
    Finish the work that only You could start
    These trappings in my heart
    Crumble in Your holiness
    It’s not what’s in me
    Or what I can do
    A chasing after the sun
    Sinking in a fountain of blue
    Open ears, open hearts
    Drinking the Light I simply bring
    It’s not what’s in me
    Only what You gave
    You give it to others
    With or without me.

     – Sarah ><>

  • Poem: Bring Me Back to You

    January 15, 2004

    My eyes wander
    My heart wanders
    My thoughts wander

    Bring me back to You, Lord
    Bring me back to You.

    I see him there
    He knows what to say
    He knows how to act
    He knows how to pray

    Bring me back to You, Lord
    Bring me back to You

    Could he be “the one”
    Could this be true?
    My heart feels a tugging
    Am I sure this is You?

    Bring me back to You, Lord
    Bring me back to You

    I dream of us together
    I plan out our lives
    We haven’t even spoke it
    My thoughts I fight to hide

    Could this be You, Lord?
    Bring me back to You

     – Sarah ><>

  • Poem: Muktinath, Nepal

    This poem was written for a little town that I discovered in researching the country of Nepal.  It is a very strange town.  For one, it’s very high in the Himalayan Mountains.  You cannot fly into it or drive into it.  You have to be taken to a nearby city and then trek the rest of the way.  This adds to the profound religious nature of the city.  Three different religions make pilgrimages to this town:  The Hindus, Buddhists, and those practicing animism (tribal religions).  Here’s a link to the website promoting the town: http://www.muktinath.org/  When you browse through the pictures, you can see hundreds of thin flags hanging from lines all through the town, around the special sites.  It is a city where earth, wind, fire, and water all meet – which adds to the perceived holiness.  In one section, there are natural gases emitted from the ground which burn continually.  In another section, there are 100 streams of water, coming from stone boar’s heads (which are one of the avatars of Vishnu).  It is such a strange place, where so many people go to seek perdition and to maintain holiness.  My heart has been with this town for a long time and here is my poem to it and the people who live and visit there.

    Muktinath, Nepal

    December 30, 2003

    Why are your eyes so red and tired?
    Is the wheel not granting you peace?
    Do the flames that surround you
    Cause you grief and fear?

    The girls come and dance at the temple
    They wave their scarves
    Full of color and devotion.
    The women come to learn and serve
    Giving their lives to the spirits of stone.
    The boys come to pray.
    The men come with red dripping from their faces and hands
    Hopes of cleanliness and enlightenment.

    You are searching, my love.
    You are reaching for the One
    But you grasp at these scarves, hanging in the breeze.
    How I long to bring the Message.
    Will someone share with you?

    Who would take it up the mountain?
    Climb into the crevasses so worn and dark with worship.
    Stand on the ridge with your back to the wind.
    You have become a scarf floating in the air.
    An offering to the earth that you would join.

    Dream of a God who loves you.
    Dream of a God who died for you.
    He will come and love you.
    Come inside from the cold
    from the harsh north wind.
    Take shelter in the arms of the One who holds you.

     – Sarah ><>

  • Poem: For Dr. Terrell

    This poem is in honor of a professor (actually the former president) of my college.  I got to the college in 2003, and Dr. Gail Terrell had already been sick for some time.  After about a month, he passed away from complications in the hospital.  I went to his funeral knowing nothing of him but the reputation that he had with the others there.  I had never met him, but I was moved by the funeral, so I wrote this poem about it.

    October 14th, 2003

    Hi
    I never met you
    I don’t really know why I’m here
    I’ve heard so much about you
    This is so uncomfortable

    Everyone here is in tears
    Some have smiles
    Some can’t show their face

    Look at her up there
    She’s heart-broken
    Trying to be strong in all this
    She says fine, but we know, she’s torn inside
    I can’t imagine

    Half of her is missing
    Half of her heart, half of her body
    The unity is gone
    She’s been broken
    Tears fall and water the earth

    Where are you living now?
    In a castle of sunflowers
    Glowing with the brilliance of
    The One who stole your heart so long ago?
    Are clouds surrounding you now?
    Or are you living in the very hand of God?

    Wow, I can’t believe I’m starting to cry
    I never even met you
    The ones close to me are grieving
    I don’t know why
    They do

    You fed their minds
    You touched their hearts
    You encouraged their souls
    Their tears fall and water the earth

    The children are here too
    I never knew them either
    They hold their hearts in their hands now
    Tears fall and water the earth

    Goodbye
    I never met you
    But your hand has touched my heart
    Just like everything else

     – Sarah ><>

  • Poem: Nighttime

    I love the night, the feel of it…being outside…I love dusk.  I love the stars and lightning bugs.  So here’s a poem that brings all of those elements together.  It was published by the National Poet’s Society…but, please, don’t let that impress you…they’d publish the result of a child pounding their fists on a keyboard…honestly…someone tried it.  It worked.  🙂

    Nighttime

    2003

    Have you ever tried to chase the moon?
    As its soft yellow crescent rocks down to the horizon?

    While the stars dance around it
    and drip light through the seas that darken its surface.

    Have you seen it grow as it dips beneath the skyline and peeks through the trees
    that toss it back and forth,
    and forth and back?

    What wonderful magic the dark sky plays on the watchful eyes of a child,
    sitting and connecting the stars into heroes and villains and damsels.

    While grass collects the dew between his fingers and
    sticks to the toes of a girl
    as she chases the lightning bugs that bring the stars so much closer to us.

     – Sarah ><>

  • Poem: Horses of the Apocalypse

    So, this poem…I’m not sure what explanation is needed.  I wrote this when I was a junior in high school.  I used a strange form of alliteration, by beginning each line with the letter A.  It’s based on the account of the four horsemen of Revelation.  Enjoy!

    Horses of the Apocalypse

    September 28, 2000

    At the sound of the trumpet, clops can be heard.
    A blur in the distance comes slowly into view.
    A man gallantly sitting on a horse of white, draws
    An unarmed bow.
    A crown placed on his head, given to give
    Awful power to conquer the strongest nations.
    Another horse and man ride and follow.
    Able to diminish the peace of the world on his fiery stallion.
    A sword of steel is poised in his hand.
    After the first and the second,
    A steed, black as pitch and tar
    And the darkest of evil and sin,
    Approaches with a rider of famine,
    Always unbalancing the scales that he holds.
    Away he comes to starve the earth.
    As they trot away to uphold the fate,
    All people cry out as the next canters in.
    Anatomy the color of a face frightened to
    Almost nothing.
    A rider upon the palest mare, named Death
    Arriving to destroy the world in numbers.
    At the end, however,
    At last, comes a mighty white horse, with
    An angel of nobility and honor upon his back.
    A name that was known only to him, written on his
    Arm. He races off with
    An army following. He defeats the evil AntiChrist
    And throws him into the fiery lake.

     – Sarah ><>