So today I have had time to breathe for the first time in a long time and I am so completely thankful for it. I was in a bad rut. I just felt really distant from God and today I have been trying to bridge that gap by spending time in prayer and in the word. I just feel a lot less anxiety when I am able to relax and think about my decisions before I make them and I have just really enjoyed not having a lot to do. I also think I've decided that I want to work in the publishing business. I love my internship at The Missouri Review and I think that I want to stick with it and see what I can do to get more experience and see where I can go from here.
So here is a poem that came out of my time in the word today. I know it's not my best work, but I think it really speaks a lot to where I really want my spiritual life to go towards. It's called "Maple Seed."
Maple Seed
"...humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you" -James 1:21
I am adrift and unsteady
A maple seed spinning
With one wing.
I don’t understand how I can fly,
How I’m supposed to know where to land
To grow this tree,
To nurture this life that is within me.
And I think to myself as I spin,
Why you gave me just one,
One spirit to love
One life to lead into obedience,
One chance to be with you
Why everything that’s worth communicating comes in pairs
How one can not consult without one,
Another,
How I feel that this faith is in my hands alone
How this one faith teeters in the wind
Pushed around every pointed curve of a compass rose
I am spinning away counterclockwise
until
You push me towards the fertile soil.
I land.
I bloom,
In spite of my doubt.
This seed is not handled by one man alone
We cultivate this together.
There is not just one spirit to love
There is more than one life to lead into obedience
This is the chance of a lifetime that I must take.
These are my feelings when I catch myself falling inside of you.
But to taste the rich depths of your soil
I first must let myself go.
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4 comments:
Wow, Nick, that was great inner dialogue and metaphor of a maple seed. I'm glad you were able to breathe today. I'm praying that God helps you plan according to His will.
Proverbs 16:3
amen bro, that is powerful. thanks for sharing that, it spoke to me a lot.
it reminds me of something i just read in a beth moore bible study i'm doing on psalms... on sowing seeds...
psalms 126 and luke 8:11-15
even though you think this isn't your best work, i really like it.
first off, i LOVE James, and this verse in particular is great. I love how it says planted in you, I love references to nature in the Bible, especially trees. Wow, i do really like this verse a lot. I think it is very applicable to me right now too. It makes me want to go get in the word.
I like the metaphor of you being a seed. To think of a seed as having these thoughts and being so important is cool and different. I also like anthropomorphism in literature. or, liternature. hahaha. I'm noticing you like to draw inspiration from little moments in your life, such as driving past that woman, or little objects, this, and creating a monologue about it. Awesome.
Basically I like this poem more after analyzing it and thinking about why I like it.
Nick! This is beautiful! I love the two stanzas where you talk about spinning. As I was reading it the words made me feel like I was spinning. I really love how your words make me visualize things and how they capture me for a little while.
I also loved your repetition of one. We do have one life and sometimes one can seem like "alone" because one stands alone, but its really not. We live one life, true, but one life not alone. We live one life with God all around it and in it, and we live one life with a body of believers around us. One life that is cultivated together with others. In any case, that may not have been what you were going for exactly, but I loved reading this. Well done Nicholas Sparks.
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