I really enjoy poetry, as long as it's traditional poetry- ie, has a rhyme scheme and rhythm. Free verse poetry is not my favorite, nor do I like haikus, which seem kind of pointless. I especially like poems with a deeper meaning, symbolism, or irony. Robert Frost is probably my favorite poet, and the following are my favorite poems:
1. The Road Not Taken- Robert Frost
2. In Flander's Fields- John McCrae
3. If- Rudyard Kipling
4. Daffodils (aka: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud)- William Wordsworth
5. Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening- Robert Frost
6. The New Colossus- Emma Lazarus (poem on the Statue of Liberty)
7. The Star Spangled Banner- Francis Scott Key (our national anthem is only the first stanza; the rest of the poem is amazing too!)
8. Sonnet 18- William Shakespeare
9. Trees- Joyce Kilmer
10. Choices For a Girl- Ramona K. Cecil
The last poem is an inspirational Christian poem that I had on a plaque hanging in my room. I would read it all the time- I loved it. Sadly, the framed poem somehow got lost when my family moved into their new house. Luckily, I had big portions of it memorized, or else I would NEVER have found it on the internet. As it was, I could only find the complete poem on one website- a blog of a girl from India- go figure! Since it's so hard to find, and since no one else has probably ever heard of it, I'll type it here on my blog.
Choices For a Girl
Your whole life is before you
A page so clean and white
All that will be written there
You must choose to write
Remember that you're special
God will always be with you
A woman doesn't follow
What "all the other girls" may do
Prayerfully consider
Every choice that you must make;
How you choose to live your life-
The husband you will take
With Christ as your example
You need never be afraid
Or have cause to be ashamed
Of the choices you have made
(Ramona K. Cecil)
This is one of my favorite poems. Also Christian. It's called "Wait" by Russell Kelfer
ReplyDeleteDesperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate . . .
And the Master so gently said, "Wait."
"Wait? you say wait?" my indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I'm claiming your Word.
"My future and all to which I relate
Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to wait?
I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign,
Or even a 'no' to which I can resign.
"You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord I've been asking, and this is my cry:
I'm weary of asking! I need a reply."
Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate,
As my Master replied again, "Wait."
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
And grumbled to God, "So, I'm waiting for what?"
He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine . . .
and He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.
"I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.
You'd have what you want, but you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depth of my love for each saint.
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.
"You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there.
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence are all you can see.
"You'd never experience the fullness of love
When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.
"The glow of my comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that's beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinite God who makes what you have last.
"You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
But, oh, the loss, if you missed what I'm doing in you.
"So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.
And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still . . . Wait."
I love this one. I also like writing poetry a lot. :)
I like this one a lot too!
ReplyDeleteI had the SAME plaque in my room growing up! I am so glad you've posted this! I was just thinking about it the other day, and like you, I had most of it memorized from reading it some many times in the past. I wanted to find it, maybe even on a plaque like I had, for my new niece who was born recently. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! I'm glad someone else appreciates that poem. It always meant a lot to me growing up. It's even helped shape my choices, especially the parts about not following "what all the other girls may do" and the part about not being ashamed.
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