Softly and tenderly
sweet nothing is calling
not to home but far abroad
promising gold but giving glitter
promising love but leaving void
empty I feel and pain I know
from my choice
my fault
my temptation
I become
Softly and tenderly
sweet nothing is calling
not to safety but to a fire
offering peace but providing chaos
offering grace but breaking my back
stoic I stare into the deep chasm
from which I must leave
to go somewhere
to anywhere
to my mind
I run from
Softly and painfully
sweet reality knocks
not to comfort but to enlighten
promising truth and proving sound
promising strength and holding firm
secure I lay upon a rock
that holds me
pardons me
supports me
and my rest
Softly and tenderly
sweet nothing is calling
not to pass but to fail
exposing cross-dressed lies
that paint color where skin should be
now I see
the broken
the pale
the wretched
me
I use to be
Softly and tenderly
sweet redemption is calling
not by pain but through grace
providing freedom and swelling my eyes
providing newness and wiping them away
tired I fall by revelation deeper than time
to my knees
on my hands
my face kisses the earth
6 comments:
Nice poem,Josh. I like the rhythm and flow...it’s really a beautiful poem.
okay Joshua...I've decided to comment.
First I thought your poem was talking about taking wrong paths and making wrong decisions...but then I think it's about when you become a Christian your life is not going to be easy, it's going to be really difficult. And then I thought it was about how we make things too difficult. Like the "offering peace but providing chaos" means God's offering peace, but your making it chaotic. Wait...maybe it means sometimes you have to have chaos in order to have peace. Maybe that's it. I'm really rambling now. I think I figured it out. Wait, maybe not. okay...this is what I think it means. As Christians we are going to go through Junk, and we need to depend on God. Wow...this poem has made me think. I'm sure I'm way off...because I'm not good at understanding poetry...or writing...but I like it. You can ask anyone who took English w/ me and we had to read Othello. That play was hard. Anyways...this is really long.
k bye.
Lauren,
Good comments. This is what I meant by just write. It does not matter what I did or did not mean to say. This is poetry, it is suppose to be what you think about it. I found you analysis quite intriguing. I think we do sometimes have to go into the depths of chaos to accept of grasp peace. Kind of like, we have to be under the law before we can truly understand grace.
When everyone has had an opportunity to write..I may....may..explain my thought process.
I think this poem in the beginning describes how sin bites at us all along. "Sweet nothing is calling...Promising gold but giving glitter." This is how I feel sin works. Satan will promise us the world, and the world is exactly what we get, which ends up not being what we make it out to be. We can live for the world everyday, and get exactly that, the world. But the truth is that the world can give us nothing but chaos, pain, and Hell. Only God can fill that hole, which we try to fill with cars, money, women, and power. That doesn't mean God gives us a nice soft pillow and tucks us in every night with a soft kiss that makes everything go away. But it does mean that when you begin to live for God, you will begin to see things completely different. The world opens up for what it really is and you begin to realize the nothingness that it has to offer.
i don't know.
i've read this poem and re-read this poem since you first posted it, on monday. seeing as it is now friday night (early saturday morning) i've had quite some time to think about it.
but! i still feel the same way as i felt about it monday.
when i first read it, it really made me think of the process i went through in my life as i became a Christian. i kind of just looked at where you divided it, (meaning, where you put the "Softly and tenderly..." parts) and labeled it a section of life. like the first one: being lost, following another religion and the empty promises everything seems to give you, "not to home but far abroad" "promising love but leaving void." part two: slowly realizing what path you're following isn't the right one. part three: knowing you aren't following the right path, knowing you are lost, you're wanting to know more. part four: you realize you can't do this on you're own, you'll fail on you're own. part five (finally): joy, you're saved under grace, giving you something you're previous life style could not provide you.
now. i could be looking at this completely wrong. but this was my first instinct, i think i'm going to follow it. this poem really reminded me of the struggles i faced as i became a Christian, and the struggles i still face now sometimes. i really liked it. and i can see that repetition in there again. now, Josh, i want to know what it really means. i'm interested in hearing the story behind this particular poem. (that is if you're willing to share it)
Josh first of all I want to say I do not understand the rhyme scheme at all, that might have to do with there is not one and also that I dont understand rhyme schemes outside of couplets.
Anyways, David I agree with you, because when ever I personally think about sin I start to get this idea that it isn't really that bad, but then instead of a "peace" one gets this "fire" and ends up looking into this "chasm", which I believe the "chasm" is ones heart.
And also when one does sin the have this brokeness this nothingness, especially if they know Christ, because in Galatians Paul says DO NOT KEEP ON SINNING YOU IDIOTS (Justins translation).
And finally there is this "sweet redemption" that one gets when they run back home to the throne of God, and Josh is right it is not through pain, but through grace, and that in my opinion is one of the most beautiful things about THE ONE TRUE GOD.
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