Looking Back and Looking Forward

So I was hoping to have a finished project for these posts but it seems that that will have to wait for now. I started writing the following poem New Year's Eve so that's why it starts the way it does. However, it has become more of a reflection over how I've viewed my past year and then hopes for the one to come. I'll get to the hopes part next time. For now, I hope you enjoy and may this be the beginning of a beautiful tradition.

Looking Back and Looking Forward

Upon this dark'ning night, we wait

For the year to end,

For the new its way to wend

And memories create.

What should I say upon this day,

The last now of the year?

Should they be silly or words sincere

Or hold the tears at bay?

Yet are there words enough to hold

All the thoughts and hopes

That crossed and held like binding ropes

My life as then untold?

My words run short; my mouth runs dry;

My speech is taken from me

As I recall quite suddenly

The things I did not try.

I failed to love my neighbor

As fully as I ought;

Next to mine, their needs forgot

And for myself did labour.

I failed to love and serve my God

With true obedience,

Had acted with indifference

Towards what should have awed.

So here I sit with head in hands

Ashamed of what I've done.

Consumed with only having fun,

I shirked divine commands.

It's That Time of Year

Happy New Year, extensive internet readers! Well, to those of you who do read and follow this blog anyways. We have bid a tearful adieu to 2014, a wonderful year full of changes, challenges, and surprises, and now welcome the new 2015 with its promise of all-new adventures to come.

Around this time of year, people are in the habit of making so-called "resolutions," things they plan to accomplish at some point during the year and usually quit after March at the latest. For several years, I have chosen to not make any resolutions since I had known myself to be inconsistent in my habits and from remembering previous and numerous failed resolutions. I did try making some more abstract resolutions in recent years but success is difficult to gauge with those. However, I have seen the benefits of having a goal at which to aim even if it is un-achieved during the specified year and remains so for a while.

Therefore, I have decided to make two resolutions to which you, my internet community, will hold me accountable. Well, I'll be somewhat relying on you for one of them but it's the thought that counts, right? So here goes:
1) I will post something once a week during the weekend (Saturday/Sunday) for the year or as long as I can. It can be a story, poem, or simple musing but there should be some sort of writing piece each week. If I really want to write a novel that is anywhere near acceptable, I will need to get in the habit of writing.
2) I will read at least 1 book for pleasure each month. It cannot be something required for a class, even if I enjoy what I am required to read. The monthly book must be something separate that I do with my free time. I used to be an avid reader and I want to get back to that because reading, I think, is a dying art.

So there they are folks, my resolutions for 2015. By the grace of God, I will hopefully be able to be consistent and follow through. Come this weekend, I will have something for you so stay tuned. 2015, here I come.

Who Was That Girl Beyond The Window Pane? - A Sonnet

Apparently waking for me is a good time for the first lines of sonnets. This is yet another production of early morning inspiration. I though it would be fun to write a silly sonnet after the more serious ones that have been coming from my figurative pen. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I had writing it.

Who Was That Girl Beyond The Window Pane

Who was that girl beyond the window pane?

The one with hair just like a chocolate fount

And eyes like emeralds dappled by the rain,

That sparkle like too many stars to count.

My heart is pounding like ten thousand drums

Or trying to escape me from within.

How can this girl be like a bard who strums

My heart as if it were a lyre thin?

Did she see me? Does she know I exist?

Will she come back to catch a glimpse of me?

Why is it so that someone can be missed

With just one look, the see-er no longer free?

Oh look! She dropped an item from her bag.

Our meeting's fate! No time to lollygag.

He Still Appears Like Echoes In My Mind - A Sonnet

Here is that sonnet I mentioned in my last post. I woke up one morning having the first line of a sonnet perfectly in my head and, because I didn't immediately write it down, all I could remember by the evening was "like echoes in my mind." It comes from the idea of when someone keeps coming to mind when you've tried to put them behind you. Enjoy!

He Still Appears Like Echoes in My Mind

He still appears like echoes in my mind,

Awake, asleep, at times inopportune.

A bond unbreaking, fates perhaps entwined,

From likened cloth, perchance, were we both hewn?

Has he become a spectre, closely tied

To earth, to me through ling'ring memory?

Refusing to release what was denied,

Have I thus cursed ourselves with devilry?

Farewell, my love. Forever now, adieu.

I shall release thee as thou dost deserve

For each man's soul shouldst not be bound anew

When once it has been freed from sin to serve.

May God forgive me for my selfish wish

To keep thee near instead of suffer anguish.

Hush Now, My Darling

So ... my challenge effort failed in most epic proportions. However, I have still attempted writing and thus here are the fruits of my labours. I also have a sonnet in the works that I will share hopefully in the near future. This is my attempt at a lullaby.

Hush Now, My Darling

Hush now, my darling, and sleep through the night.

Lay down thy head with the sun's fading light.

Let thy eyes close as the moon starts to rise

And stars twinkle brightly across dark'ning skies.

Dream now, my darling; be bothered by naught.

Worry and fear shall be things long forgot.

Pictures of love and of joy brimming full

Shall come to thee quickly in covers of wool.

Sleep now, my darling, as songs fill thy head,

Melodies soft as thou liest in bed.

God watches o'er thee; his love and joy teems.

You know so does mine. Now good night and sweet dreams.

Writing Challenge - Day 6

He looked down at his hands; they were shaking. He tried to get them to stop but they refused to obey. As he sat there, television rolling in front of him, he could feel his heart mimicking his hands. His breaths grew short and quick, as if his lungs couldn't bear to be full for very long.

"It can't be," he thought. "It can't be."

His hands still shaking, he took the phone in both hands for fear he'd let it drop. Slowly, he typed the numbers and put the phone to his ear. The dial tone rang once.

"Oh good, it's working."

Second dial tone.

Third dial tone.

"Maybe his phone's on vibrate and that's why he's not picking up. That's got to be it."

Fourth dial tone.

"Come on, Kurt. Come on."

Fifth dial tone.

"Kurt!"

"Hello?" answered a strange male voice.

His hands had steadied and pulse slowed when the phone had been answered but renewed their activity at the non-Kurt voice.

"Who are you? Where's Kurt?" he demanded with more vehemence than perhaps the recipient deserved.

"Calm down, sir," said the strange voice. "Who am I speaking to?"

"Cameron, Cameron Sturgeon."

"What is your relation to ... Kurt?"

"I'm his brother. Now put him on."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Sturgeon, but that won't be possible."

"No ... no ... it has to be possible. You have his phone so he has to be there. Give him the phone!"

"Mr. Sturgeon, please. I'm sorry to have to tell you this over the phone but ... your brother Kurt is dead."

P.S. So the weekend threw me off my regular routine (well, sort of routine) but hopefully I'll be able to keep up my streak after this.

Writing Challenge - Day 5

Life

Insurmountable, Impossible

Running, Falling, Failing

Repentance, Salvation, Justification, Sanctification

Running, Falling, Growing

Challenging, Full

Life