Writing Heart-Prints

            Writing a book is very easy. Just give up your life, strip off all your lies, lash yourself to a rock, push yourself until you think you’re going to die, ignore people when they say nothing you write is worth reading, and then publish it and beg people to buy it. Easy. – David Groves

 

 

Striving To Write Honestly.

 

 

Writing Heart-Prints

 9/22/13

Let me write with blood stamped throughout it -

The blood of hidden memories.

The blood of my true self.

The red of my own heart-cries

Scribbled on each stained page

And fingerprinted with honesty.

Words twisting and dancing

From experience, friendships, sorrows-

Marked out from my heart...

Let my words capture that, even to some degree.

 

 

It doesn't come easy.

It isn't without aches...

There are other words I can write

To perhaps still appease the longing to share.

Glossy colors flow,

Painting soft shades of light

That can often mask the reality.

They dance across the shadows,

And while they are not wrong,

They are not quite right either.

They don't cry from the depths of my heart

The same way heart-prints do.

Yet, there are days when the airy colored tendrils

Seem the safer things to write.

 

 

Whispers all around me call to be written.

I listen.

I hear the words that sing to be free.

Through the brambles, through the fire,

Through the long nights,

And quiet loneliness

They cry out.

Deep inside me, they well up

To leak over everything I touch.

I clench my hands.

It can hurt to let those words spill over,

Watching them seep into my colored paper

And tint everything in their wake...

They sink and weigh heavily on my heart;

I believe many of them echo those around me.

It hurts to write the cries of a heart in pain -

To write the cries of my own pain.

Ah, but it's worth it in the end, I think.

When I reach out my hand,

Letting myself escape within my writing

To sprinkle heart-prints over everything I share,

I am truly me.

 

 

~ZA

Copyright © 2013 Ophelia M. Flowers

Laughing

Laughing
9/11/13

 

Shoulders shaking,
Head tilted back,
Laughing
Until I'm gasping
And my sides ache
From trying to be quieter -
That's the kind of laughing I like.

Contented feeling,
With a wide smile
Listening
As a friend laughs
At something I said,
And hearing their amusement -
That's the kind of laughing I like.

Crazy looks
Of silly faces
Shaking
As silent laughter builds
And nothing needs be said
To grow each other's laughs -
That's the kind of laughing I like. 

Stifled sound
Of amused giggles
Escaping
Late at night
When we should be in bed
But we're having way too much fun -
That's the kind of laughing I like.

Mutual enjoyment
Of a shared joke,
Snickering
At what no one else would get
And repeating the nonsense
Until both can't breathe -
That's the kind of laughing I like.

Being together
To laugh despite the day,
Understanding
How to make each other smile
And what we find funny
When we share stories -
That's the kind of laughing I like.

~ZA

 

 

Copyright © 2013 Ophelia M. Flowers

 

Waves Of Your Will

Original Picture From Flickr

 

               I spent a lot of time at the ocean this summer. As I watched the waves and went swimming I was struck again how /small/ I am. The ocean is vast and strong enough to knock my feet out from under me; the tide keeps coming and there is nothing I can do to control it... *Smiles* I wrote this poem thinking about the ocean and the strength of God's will.

 

Waves Of Your Will

8/4/13

 

When tomorrow comes

May I know more about You, Lord.

Day by day, please lead me.

It's all I long for -

To feel Your presence in my life.

I feel so small in the face of what You ask,

But You tell me to run

Full hearted after You.

 

 

I want to take a deep breath

To dive into the ocean of Your will

And give myself totally over to You.

No more of this standing on the shore

With my feet barely wet,

Afraid to take the plunge.

 

 

The waves crash in and sweep back the sand of my plans.

I've built fragile drip castles that I try to keep

Just on the edge of Your tide.

I stand watching,

Wondering if I dare to go into that unknown ocean

And leave behind my castles.

 

 

I hear Your voice calling -

Calling, calling, calling me to trust You

And let go.

So I hold my breath

And run into the waves.

It's much deeper than I thought,

And I lose my footing.

For a moment I struggle –

Crying out as the sand of my plans slides away.

Your current gently lifts me

And pulls me into deeper waters;

It's strong and out of my control

But somehow a sense of overwhelming peace is there.

 

 

I don't always follow as I should.

Sometimes I still go to the ocean's edge to build my sand castles,

As if I can keep them from You.

I struggle with letting You have control of all my life,

But You keep calling me back -

Back into the glorious wonder of striving for Your will.

But oh, that is hard to do -

Often times I fight Your current

Instead of swimming in the direction You're guiding.

It's when I surrender and dive deep,

Seeking to go where You call me,

That I feel Your strength to go.

 

There's something beautiful

About being powerless within the waves of Your will -

To know there's nothing left for me to do

But feel Your enveloping presence and...

Surrender.

The longer I stay here with You

The more I know that this is where I long to be,

And nothing can compare to the peace there is

In feeling the wild, enveloping, strength of Your love

As day by day You lead me in Your will.

 

 

~ZA

 

 

Copyright © 2013 Ophelia M. Flowers