28 January 2008

Young soul's playing in the surf

This prayer/reflection is a direct response to a magnificent talk I heard Dr. Peter Kreeft give through his website. (I highly suggest visiting and listening to some of the more evoking passages.)

http://www.peterkreeft.com/ (Just go to Audio->The Sea->The Sea.mp3)

Thank you God,
for all that you have given me
for I know you know sometimes I don't know
what's right for me and sometimes I loose footing

but in the moment of silence and hopeless nanosecond
when absolutely nothing is keeping me from the life after
I hear a faint rush of you're growing arms and I rush into them
with belligerence and total submission

You can have me because you are true and narrow
Thank you, thank you, oh my Lord God, Thank You

22 January 2008

Looking on into the future

Today I had a pretty revolutionary idea: perhaps I should be looking at myself less critically. Over the past couple of months I have been undergoing a pretty fundamental deconstruction of what it is to be "Chris," with respect to Chris. It's kind of hard to contextualize and even harder to reconcile a post about it but I think there's hope in the future.

Given the fact that I: firstly had a bad experience at an (arguably) politically correct liberal arts University which turned out to be a lot more liberal than I expected, secondly discovered a lot about myself and interpersonal things that I probably would have (given the chance to choose) chosen not to find out I am cautiously optimistic about what life brings to me after I post this.

For some who may not already know, I've left my University after only one semester for emotional stress issues and a plain fact that it's the antithesis of what I want in a college. What I think I want it something like Hillsdale [ small, conservative, honest, and true ] without all of the humbub of - well - everything else I have up until now seen.

I'm frankly getting quite exhausted with the cause and effect apporach in deciding my career - based on others opinions - and am forking out. I am first visiting a Jesuit Institution in Seattle called Seattle University and that visit is firstly on my mind.


But more frankly, I think Hillsdale will be a fit made in heaven.


More on this later, but I must relax after a very stressful day.

20 January 2008

Strange Experience

Every had one of those experiences where everything isn't going to well? Picture this - stuck in a car with someone who basically thinks the opposite of what you think, and is arrogant. This guy (Joe, let's say) talked more often about inappropriate behavior more frequently than any time I've heard it elsewhere. Wow, now I need to watch the office or something.

16 January 2008

Some poetry (with small prose)


"The Sun, Moon, and Sea"



"Where I'm from" (A recreation of a Lyons poem)


I am from forests,
from the serene night and glassy lake shores
Stretching across the plain, whizzing along
the path crackling embers

High fog at low noon
am in the homely music, bumpy car rides

Rush of waterfalls and loved travelers.


"1106" (A recreation of a Dickinson poem)

Bewilder them by spectrums-
Prepares them by his truth
For the unbinding and refounding

Then crouching

Reveals one broadside feeling
And there is no response

The boat - is still


"A Dream Within A Dream" (A recreation of a Poe poem)

You are not wrong, who dream
That many things will be good

Liars prove false shadows on thou,
Be not shaken from your proud morning shower

As heroes do, in weapons against
Please watch the flower
and learn to know it
as an image of God


Try this and you will see
that your love is your love
your purpose is your journey's end


"Legacy" (With respect to an unnamed e.e. Cummings poem)

h(a
ne

ag

le


fl
ie

sw

it

h)
esi
t
ance


"Emulation of a leaf" (Close to this Oliver poem)

A member gone, leaving memory and bone
everywhere, vibrant

The uncared parts crushed
At the expense and light, unforgiving light

This Now approaches hell
know to steer clear because
the waves are calling
the gulls are guarding

Flares out at the last
but makes it worth it all the more


"El Capitan"

I saw a magical land of the epic
Touch the flora and the fauna.

Touch it with your soul
and breathe

El Capitan stands tall
Keeping a mother's eye on our deeds




"A Supermarket in California"

An ego, carrot, apple, and sunset
braniac, mechanic,
teacher and doctor

beat pillows for meaning
in the silence of night

gently the idea comes of it's own
calling them home and to do good



"Empty Slots"

Breathless empty slots,
stark streets
breath solemnly weeping for the lost innocents
they don't know the ripples they cause and the
people
they affect. Slots don't know their significance,
don't
know the ripples, the waves and the effects.

Dejected flags, wave un heroically even after the victory and defeat of the broken. How to go on?
Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same
Slots need be remembered, need be revered, need be honored.

honor slots, and think.




"Pondering Hooks"

we work in the dark
we've waited in the dark
we toil in the gloom
powered by gravity and worms and
rods of C fiber

picked in the night, cast into the sea
blotted out in the span of a cup of tea
why do we continue to fling back
into the beautiful sea and fishes

it's what we were made for