Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Poetry Bus - Living Water


Ooooh I am very late for the Poetry Bus! I was so busy painting yesterday I forgot to be at the bus stop on time for posting!

Dana at Bug's Eye View listed several prompts for this weeks poem. I chose the first:

In the first chapter of Isaiah God is having a fit. Quit giving me burnt offerings! Stop trampling my courts! Why do you even think I want that stuff? I am weary of bearing them… Wash yourselves! And then in verse 18 God says, "Come now, let us argue it out…" (NRSV) Now, you might not be a religious person, but I'm sure that even so you have wanted to argue with God (or Allah or the sun or your own super ego) in some manner. If you choose this prompt I'd like you to tell us about that argument.



Praying For Rain


My thoughts are as dry as the grass

They crackle underfoot and

Swirl about with the dust

While my eyes consider each cloud

For rain potential

The drought extends beyond the weather

And meager moisture is not enough to drink

The spirit begins to whither within me

It curls like parched leaves

And recedes with the water in the pond

Leaving an expanded beach around it

That only if I were not so thirsty

I might explore for revealed possibilities


Instead I listen for distant thunder

And test the wind for improvement

Until I finally reach out

To God

And discover yet again the

Living Water that falls like rain

Pouring hope upon the desert I

Have withdrawn to until in it’s fullness

It spills forth in streams that lead me back

To the knowledge that He will let it rain

When it is time


And all my thirst beyond my need

For Him

Is self induced

And ill advised



Cynthia Ann Conciatu


Stop by Dana's place for more Poetry Bus passenger presentations!

8 comments:

Enchanted Oak said...

Whoa, Cynthia! So many fine lines here, the crackling thoughts, the revealed possibilies in the receding pond, the curled leaf of a soul, very nice. And I love your final lines...self-induced / ill-advised.
We are like that, aren't we, when we feel a drought. Looking everywhere for signs of rain. Looking to the wrong things for fulfillment. I enjoyed your poem very much.

Jeannette StG said...

Aah, a new side of you I didn't know about: you paint! Like to see your style -or is the header a painting of yours?

Anonymous said...

awesome metaphor for spiritual drought, and a good follow-through... yes, and isn't it always self-induced, even if unknowingly?

Totalfeckineejit said...

Great all the way through, loved the ending!

Doctor FTSE said...

Thoughtful and thought-provoking.

Cad said...

I tend to blame global warning, induced by Man, not God, for unpredictable weather!

Dick said...

The sustained metaphor is very nicely handled throughout and overall form and structure serve the poem's intentions well.

A general reflection from the specific. It's interesting and rewarding that one can follow a poet's route and appreciate the manner in which s/he has taken it without necessarily subscribing to the faith that drives it.

The Bug said...

I love the poem as it is, but I also definitely agree that we're our own worst enemies (or thirst-makers).