World Class Poetry Blog

I’d like to mention two websites that publish poetry and are worth a mention. The first is Evolution of a Poet, written by Will Bridges. I’m impressed with this poet’s ambition to write a poem every day for a year and post it to his blog. That’s quite a commitment.

Will started his blog on March 8, 2008 so he still has a ways to go. I wish him the best of luck.

The second blog I want to mention is Amputated Moon. I am impressed with Amputated Moon for several reasons. First, the blog theme is incredible in its simplicity. And the header is just absolutely beautiful. The blogroll is no less impressive and the author has done a wonderful job of segmenting the links. Kudos!

But even better than the design, the links, and the pretty header, the poetry is absolutely wild with lyrical mojo enhanced by great photos. Here’s a little taste:

2. Kyrie

have mercy on the gray skies
mercy on the rain drops
mercy on the wet rainbowed asphalt

mercy for the dreariness
mercy for the boredom
mercy for the lack-luster

Taken as an excerpt from “Requiem For A Rainy Day“, licensed under Creative Commons. My hat’s off to Pamela Olson.

And now, in keeping with my feeble commitment to publish one religious poem per day, I give you this first draft. Just so you know, I hate first drafts. They are so incomplete!

But here it is, a rough draft of an attempt at verse that will likely not motivate me enough to work on its completion.

Some of my worst aims
went up in flames
in the fire of ‘92:

You see, I had an ember burning bright
like an incandescent light
in the globe of my breast.

It was the voice of the Holy Spirit,
but I couldn’t hear it
until it seared a hole in my chest.

And like the bush of Moses
fueled with explosions,
it calmed the seas of my mind;

now, when verbs call my name,
nouns hang in shame
‘Cause they seek to unbind

that putrid coal lay buried
and rushes on into harried
sin from which I must repent.

That Pentecostal tongue done bit
the Hell out of unholy writ
which Christ’s cross has cost me my rent.

But those lost words lie grim
in service now to Him,
emblazoned by the bitter hue.

There are several problems with this poem. If I didn’t tell you it was a first draft you’d probably know it right away anyways. It is full of triteness and overuse of expression. Almost every line in the poem can be better written. It’s an “off the top of my head” poem that I wrote as a few lines came to me two nights ago. It’s indicative of the type of religious verse you read quite often today in our culture. There isn’t a lot of depth here. Because of that, I’m almost ashamed to admit that I wrote it. But it is a first draft so I forgive myself.

Will I ever work on this and polish it? I don’t know. Maybe. I have a lot of unfinished poems. Some have been unfinished for 10 years or more. That’s just the way it goes. Tomorrow, I’ll share one that I think is finished and is a much better poem.