Recession

To put your minds at ease, this is not a post about the economy. I am talking about the recession of thoughts back into the deep recesses of my mind. (Where else would things recess into but recesses?)

I am speaking of a poem that was lingering about in my mind just not ready to come out, no, just not yet. I had mentioned not long ago that I felt it coming on.

And now it is gone. Into hiding. It lays buried deep in my mind if it exists at all anymore. If it ever existed in the first place.

For those of you who would think it strange that I would even write something I would try to pass off as a poem. I have done it before. Here. Here. And here. Not to mention here and here. I think there is one other somewhere else, I just cannot find it right now. Wait a minute, here it is, I found it.

Not very good, but there they are. What troubles me is not the loss of the poem (OK, a little), but the fact that I can lose a grasp on a thought, one I was sure was there but now is lost. (For once I saw, but now I am blind? Does not make a good hymn lyric.)

It is gone for now. So be it. I wonder if it will come back, but if it does, will I even recognize as the thoughts I had from before? Or will it all seem so new to me? I guess I have to be glad my faith is not like the rest of my thought process. It is there and is not going anywhere.

It occurs to me that the reason for that is simple: my thought process is man-made. My faith was wrought by God, and woven into my very fabric. The man-made is fleeting, temporal, passing. The God wrought is eternal, spiritual, lasting. The two are not comparable, because God is incomparable. The reason for it is not understandable because a divine being is incomprehensible to a finite mind. We cannot understand Him fully, maybe we are just better off writing poems about Him instead. In addition to praying to Him and worshiping Him that is.

I may just have to write a poem about all that one day.

Past Easter Poem

An Easter poem, a little late is better than never (maybe not):

Job 19:25

My Redeemer lives
He has strode forth,
He rose in grace and glory.
Some thought the end
Had come and gone,
But beginning is the story.
And will one day
Be His to make,
Stand upon a weary earth.
So amazed I am
That on His way,
He stopped for my rebirth.

Jesus Wept

Every once in a while, I feel the need to lay down something that vaguely resembles a poem. Here I go again. I am never sure when this all will show, but only that it comes from when I spend time with the Lord thinking about Him and His Word. This one comes from meditating on John 11:

Jesus Wept

Tightly bound within my sin,

No earthly struggle set me free.

Cast down in sinful gloom,

No earthly light reached within.

Jesus wept to see the sinner that was in me.

A mind so clouded could not think,

Of anything but life lived yet lost.

Darkness the blanket that covered me,

Weight too heavy to overcome.

Jesus wept to see the sinner that was me.

Calling forth, He burst the bonds,

Sunlight’s shaft cleaved my tomb.

Rock split wide, prison released,

Sin is no longer spellbinding.

In gladness now my own tears fall,

Because Jesus wept and died and set me free.

A. Coticchio - 11/09

Technorati Tags: Poetry, Jesus, Lord, God, sin

For Me

Sweet victory tasting
Bitter was the cost.
I could not shoulder the burden
That He has borne for me.
Though it is my own.

Trumpets blaring victory
Sounds not mine to make.
There is music placed in my soul.
I only take that freely given
As joy burns off the shame.

All for me done.
Undone am I.
Falling short, but crossing over.
Measure not my actions judged
By His who bears my standard.

A. Coticchio February 2009

Would You Have Known Him

Would you have known Him
As He walked to your doom?
A life given over,
Just a man, but much more.
A piercing light
In the sinful gloom.

Would you have known Him
As He staggered by?
Beaten and bloodied
Footsteps on cold stone
Leaving no impression
Yet making His mark
Death a shouted cry.

Would you have known Him
As He Crossed your path?
Would you felt the power
Hidden from the crowd?
Could you have borne His burden?
Could you face God's wrath?

Would you have known Him
Been glad or fully ashamed?
Knowing you could never
Make the sacrifice He did.
Do you tremble with awe or dread
At the coming of His reign?

A. Coticchio February 2009

If A Doctor From My Childhood Had Been A Seminary Professor

Would you wind up with lessons like this?

Don't you find it very odd,
That some people don't believe in God?
There is no God? How very odd!
Yes it is odd, so very odd,
It is much odder than a cod!
If you don't believe in God,
I hope He spares you of the rod!

Don't you find it strange behavior,
That some would reject our blessed Savior?
What strange behavior,
To Have No Savior!
Have no Savior, Oh what behavior!
To say no to the Lord and Savior,
Why that's as odd as to have no God!

You should seek to have but one desire,
That is to avoid the lake of fire.
Lake of fire! Lake of fire!
Now there is a good and godly desire,
To miss burning in the lake of fire.
Not to seek the ground that is so higher,
Not to seek the joy that you never tire,
Why that's as odd as to have no God!

I could add a verse of two about the contrarianism of different forms of lapsarianism, but I think the good doctor (and most others) would find that odd, so very odd, in fact as odd as a cod-shaped god!

Healed

A recent school assignment required some sort of paraphrase or interpretation of Acts 3:1-10. Not being a poet by nature, a poem was the route I chose. Go figure.

A lifetime of misfortune begs at temple's beuatiful gate.
A man's relief desired,
But heaven's prayer required,
Peter and John of mercy do lay all straight.
Mid afternoon time this all awaits.

By their faith riches not embraced.
Intently staring,
Yet intensely caring,
By Jesus the Nazarene this matter graced.
His guiding hand on this was traced.

Amazement blooms by all human measure.
Leaping praise and wonder,
All bonds of misery asunder,
Thoughts of joy at one man's pleasure.
Prized sweetly on earth is heaven's treasure.

Go here to see the NASB version. It is much better.