Death: His Sting and Defeat (by David Bowden for Church Online)

The Reality of the Resurrection by Odd Thomas (spoken word video)

The Reality of the Resurrection from Humble Beast Records on Vimeo.
A Spoken Word piece written by Odd Thomas for Trinity Church of Portland.

www.trinityportland.com
www.humblebeast.com

Hank the Hummingbird

This is something I started at church last week and finished this week. Yay! Enjoy.

A Man Who Transforms You Into Poetry by Nizar Kabbani

When you find a man

Who transforms
Every part of you
Into poetry,
Who makes each one of your hairs
Into a poem,
When you find a man,
Capable,
As I am
Of bathing and adorning you
With poetry,
I will beg you
To follow him without hesitation,
It is not important
That you belong to me or him
But that you belong to poetry.

If I could...I would

if I could simply hold your smile
like a jewel between my ribs
snuggled up next to my heart I would

if I could hold the memory
of the grasp of your hand
deep in my soul I would

if I could memorize the sound of your voice
and let it vibrate through my head
like the bass line in my favorite song I would

if I could keep the feel of your arms
wrapped around me like a cocoon
branded on my heart I would

if I could keep the vision of you
in that first moment of meeting
at the front of my mind I would

if I could only meet you now
I wouldn't have to say if
I simply would

This is how I have been feeling lately....

The Hug Poem by Bradley Hathaway
I read about how you touched them and they were healed
Or even if someone just touched your cloak they were forever changed
You let a broken women bathe your feet in her tears
And you washed your best friend’s feet
I am just wondering though did you just ever hug people

I mean I know that it is a silly question and all I am sure you would have why wouldn’t you
But its one of those things that was never mentioned that got me thinking about it

And how whenever there was a touch from you sins were forgiven and sickness fell
I think I’m caught up in my sins last time I checked all my body parts were properly working, nothing special here
I am just a kid with a heavy heart these passing sunrises and sunsets

I don’t think our encounter would have ended up in the gospels or anything
Because all I really need is a hug 
That is ok for me to imagine right
That’s not going to be conflicting with any sort of theology is it
Ok good, then hug me

But not one of these side ways one arm around the neck type hugs
Or the ghetto right hand clasp fists elbows to chest pit pat on the back back
Or you put your right arm over my right arm and I put my left arm over your left arm and we make this weird sort of diagonal thing
Nah none of those

BEAR HUG ME MAN
Take your old school carpenter arms and throw them over my upper body leaving my arms dangling underneath yours somewhere and I can barely move them because your squeezing so hard
But don’t pick me up and make my back pop because I hate it when people do that

And hold me, hold me here in your arms until I start to cry because 
I WANT TO CRY
But I just can’t seem to do it on my own 
I have been teary eyed once recently but not even enough for a drip down my cheek
Theres just hurt in my soul that needs to be purged so hold me in this hold pose until the pain is flowing from my eyes and nose 

Caroline Casey: Looking past limits | Video on TED.com

This is an amazing talk. I hope you take the time to listen.

<3 B

Caroline Casey: Looking past limits | Video on TED.com

The Beginnings Of...

you can see each rib
like the keys on a piano
the skin is stretched taught
making these keys look too fragile to touch

you can wrap your fingers
gingerly around each fragile wrist
trying not to break them
like snapping a green twig

her sunken cheeks are
hollows where her dreams
try to stay afloat in the ocean
of the tears that pour from here eyes

her heart beats like a butterfly
fluttering to keep her alive
she holds her pain in
gripping it so tightly
her soul aches and starts to numb

she still remembers the words
that started her self-destruction

"You would be prettier with a few less pounds."

Tug-A-War

She looked at me with 

the look of a prisoner

and blurted

"I am on the edge of a dream

pulled between two worlds

one of my own making

and another spiraling out of my control

Which do I hold onto?"

Electric

I placed my palm against yours.
hands hugging.
I felt your heart beat
matching the beat of mine
I felt the electricity spread
from my soul to yours

And I knew...

A Glow

I still remember the day that you vanished
from my sight, my life
We shared ourselves
it made me glow inside
But I wasn't enough,
you got what you wanted
Now I glow with the memory of you
and dream of finding another
who will make me glow brighter than you ever did

Paint the World

I want to do great things
to paint the world
with color, joy, and pain

I want to be love and
to fall in love

to take a wand and paint
the sky with bright joyous colors
and dark blue undertones

to mark a page with words
expressing my thoughts
my pain, my life, my love

I want to leave a mark on the world
to make a difference
in a strangers life

I want you all to know
you have left your mark on my heart
and for that I am so very glad

On our wedding day....

"I want mine to to be the only hand you hold
from this day on
I want your eyes to be the only ones to
stare into mine
I want my heart to only beat in rhythm
with yours"

"May the love we share
make the fights shorter
the joy greater
and the beauty of each new day brighter."

"I hope that your lovely face is
the last thing I see and that
your voice that last thing I hear
before I take my last breathe and sleep.
I will love you forever and always."

Haunting

the hot dry wind
caressed my face
as the cyclone in the distance
drew closer to where I stood
I have been wandering
this desert for months
I have seen my life
pass before my eyes
over and over again
I keep analyzing my past mistakes
skipping over the good
because the bad choices
outshine the good ones
the scars of actions and
words of myself and others
haunt me in this wasteland
the joy of happy memories
are standing patiently
at the corner of my mind

Mad Girl's Love Song by Sylvia Plath

"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;

I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)"