Ph: Poetry Writing: Impossibly High Standards Poem by Brian Johnston
Ph: Poetry Writing: Impossibly High Standards
Just to be present is a blessed event,
Arguments about form are just chatter,
The hour it arrives always filled with portent,
No competing high purpose will matter.
For writing a poem's like creating life,
An honor to just assist in its birth,
To battle with muse, fight with clarity's knife,
What could there be more important on earth?
The paper we write on is like Holy Ground,
Our ink honors life, its fragrance like myrrh,
To grind mental gears is a world shaking sound,
Images form, suggest God's passing blur.
As rainbows crown rain that brings life to the plain,
So does new poetry honor its source,
Heals the soul, mends the heart, abolishes pain,
Moves emotion along God's refined course.
Poems that all of our emptiness purges,
Poems like river banks guide our essence,
Until, at long last, humanity merges
With the vast sea of God's exuberance.
April 30,2014
Poet's Notes
I took a nap this afternoon and woke with the first two stanzas rattling around my brain. Sadly I was only able to record the second stanza. The original first stanza was lost. How I hate losing short term memory as I get older! I had to reinvent the whole first stanza after the poem was almost done!
The original first line of the 4th stanza was
As rainbows follow rain that brings life to the plain 12
Nice right! ? But it didn't fit my rhyme scheme which called for 11 syllables not 12 in the 1st and 3rd lines of each stanza with 10 syllables in the 2nd and 4th lines. This forced me to rethink an already beautiful line with a wondrous result I think.
The whole 4th stanza is perhaps as close to perfection (in my opinion) as I have ever gotten in any poem. The word 'crown' reinforces 'honor' in the 2nd line and the idea of a poem moving emotion (our essence) through channels 'refined' by God to bring us back to Himself, well my friends, that is poetry as I understand it!
The newly added 5th stanza takes away some of the mystery of the first 4 stanzas but offers up two new paradoxes as amends. I think that the trade off is worth it, but I would welcome your comments.
poems guide our essence, poem is the soul of our life-body. It is the absolute truth, very fine sir, I am grateful for your comment. I respect you always.
I simply loved the poem, there is nothing like poetry to resemble life in words, to capture beauty, to walk in insecurity and to list the uncertainties in life and cradle life's charms.
For writing a poem’s like creating life, An honor to just assist in it’s birth, To battle with muse, fight with clarity’s knife, What could there be more important on earth? This is my favourite stanza, it is extremely evocative and ends in open lines as if to evoke a response in the reader. Take a bow Mr Johnston
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Delivering Poems Around The World
Poems are the property of their respective owners. All information has been reproduced here for educational and informational purposes to benefit site visitors, and is provided at no charge...
4/24/2024 6:08:36 PM # 1.0.0.1119
Hi Brian, Thank you first for your comment on my poem. I loved the revisited Impossibly High Standards even better than the previous. There were some additional change to the previous which only complimented the poem further. How lovely to know that you were once teaching physics? ? in one of our schools. I'm sure the students there would have appreciated your teaching. Thank you once again and yes I shall keep on reading you as time permits me.