Birth Of A Minor Poet
She
handed the book to me. Her smile curved in the shape of a giant slice of
watermelon.
"Here. You gotta read
this," my friend said.
"What is this? More books?" I tried to balance the book in my
hands and control my frustration. It was
a bit heavy and looked dusty, old, dull. I had enough material to read.
"You'll like it. It might just take you places," she said. I
stared at the watermelon resurfacing. This friend had recommended books before
and many times following her advice had paid off.
Two days later I open the book and for the first time noticed its
format. I turned pages to find works of
writer friends, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Passages of same scenes written by
each of these authors had been placed side by side. It made it easy to compare
the same stories the writers described but each with a different voice and
style. My friend had given me what is titled as Synopsis of the Four Gospels. Most people I know seem to recognize
it by its nickname now, The Gospels In
Stereo.
It
was the week before Easter and I chose to spend any spare time I had in
solitude, reading and studying passages
of The Last Supper and the Crucifixion. What happened then I attribute to great
concentration and a well-exercised imagination. In an instant I was among them,
invisible yet present, caught in the drama...an agonizing bystander. A vision
jolted me into Jerusalem, 33 A.D.
Soon
after, among the pain brought by my identification with the suffering One, I
experienced the unfamiliar.Words, with
angry speed, tumbled from my pen to the
paper. A poem. My first poem.
The Vision,
the poem, was well received the first night I visited TWA's poetry group. A
gentle leader liked it and encouraged me to keep writing. The Vision was once used at Busch Gardens, Tampa, in a
lecture/devotional, requested of me as a volunteer chaplain for the employees of
Busch Gardens.
Today, The
Vision stands in a picture frame in
our home. It lives to remind me...
I follow dusty feet in Jerusalem
sandals. I'm happiest when I stay low,
my
cheek next to the Savior's scars.
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