Make Something New [another poem]

Good morning!

I’m back (surprise!), and I do have another poem. I promise not to turn this blog into my emo poetry journal (trust me, that is not where this blog is going as if it’s going anywhere because contrary to the rumors, I am not Taylor Swift).

This poem is about when God in his wisdom and goodness and kindness and love and holiness sometimes makes your life take a hard left turn off a cliff and what that can be like. *insert upside down smiley face emoji*

There comes a moment
When your hands are
Full of mess
And you have no more tries
Left in your body
And you can’t
Salvage it
Fix it
Heal it
Mend it
Because it’s
Too shattered
Too corrupted
Too poisoned
And you are too weak
To make it better
Because you are not God.

And God?
He lets it burn to the ground
While you scream at him to
Do
Something.
And he meets your gaze
Steady as starlight
And says,
“I did.”

And in a leap of faith
That rips the tendons of your trust
Cleanly from your bones
You accept his choice:
It will not be fixed.

And for a while you lie
Like a carcass of grief
And you wonder
What you could have done
And you blame yourself for the mess
And you cry
And you can’t talk to God
Because you can’t help but
Accuse the Allwise One
As if the Allgood were capable of evil.

But then
You must decide
What to do next.

And you must consider:
Is God defeated?

And your bones reject the truth
That he is undefeatable.
And you tell your bones:
Fall in line.
God is unstoppable.

And you must consider:
Is God good?

And your bones reject the truth
That he is always good.
And you tell your bones:
Fall in line.
God is good.

And you must consider:
Am I still going to follow him?

And your bones
Whine
And weep
And wail
Because you have nowhere to go
But to his everlasting arms.

And he is patient.
He waited
Something like
Four thousand years to send his Son
Did he not?
Long-suffering can hardly describe
One such as him.

He knows humans
Are creatures easily broken.

You ask
Why
You ask
Why
More times than you can count.

And he should be
Silent
Because the Universe Upholder
Answers to no one.
The Wisdom that invented
Gravity and light and time
Doesn’t have to answer back
To dusty souls
But
As always
He is more generous
Than a man could ever be
And he answers.
He says:
“You will see in time.”

At last
You accept:
He never meant to fix it.
You accept:
He knows what he’s doing.
You accept:
It is ruined
And so are you.

Then he says,
Like the first sighting of land
Like a deep, deep breath
Like a resurrection
Like a midnight moonrise
Like the first bud of spring
Like the striking of flint,
“Come, let us make something new.”


Further up and further in,
Rosalie

p.s. – but seriously, guys, have you listened to the new Gray Havens album? It is the simplest project they’ve put out lyrically, and it has been such a gift to me. Dave Radford sharing what the last few years of life have been like for him via the songs on this album is part of why I’ve posted these poems here.

p.p.s. – if you’re still reading this post and you are still reading this blog, let me know if there is any type of content you’d like (reading recommendations, gif-ful guides, serious stuffs, something about how to like a guy without marrying him [omg, remember that old rag of a series?? I should reread those and make sure there’s no heresy/insanity I should edit out *sweats*], something about why Megamind is incredible, something about KPOP Demon Hunters and how I judged it by its title but then ended up crying while I watched it *sweats even more*, my RuminationsTM, etc etc). I don’t know if I’ll actually… you know… do it… BUT I could give it the ol’ college try.

All Good Things [a poem]

Good morning, friends.

I could say it’s been too long since I last posted. That would be true. Let’s cut to the chase.

I’m posting a poem today, and I may post more poems and things in the days to come. No one really knows. These last 365 days have been everything I didn’t expect, and while I will not explain it here at present, for those who are concerned (or may be at the end of this post whoops): never fear, for I am well. Jesus’ grip of grace is strong. This is a lament; it is not meant to be anything else.

Whenever I post on here, I remember myself at fifteen–alone among the corn fields, following after God and encountering so many things I had no concept for, and the books and blogs my Father in heaven gave me to help me along the way. I pray this poem finds my fellow pilgrims at the right time.

Sometimes it seems
Like all the endings are sad.

The baby is unrecognizable because it’s been too long since I’ve seen him,
The pastor lies and manipulates,
They smile at me but hurt the ones I love,
The dog is buried along with my childhood,
The church falls apart,
Too many goodbyes must be said,
The brotherhood between Cassius and Darrow and Roque is destroyed and so are real life brotherhoods flayed before my eyes,
Harvey becomes Two-Face,
Theoden buries Theodred,
The Tales of Goldstone Wood go unfinished while lesser stories are penned,
The voices of the children no longer fill the meadow,
The brother lives too far away,
It really was just a dream,
The girl calls and tells me her mother has died,
All these ghosts
They haunt me.

There are days
And battles
And parties
And conversations
And dance floors
And forts
And joys
That are irretrievable
Dead now
Existing only in memories
Joyful yet
Unmistakably
Colored with loss
For I cannot return to them
And sin has assured
That they will never live again.

These ghosts
Are like
Hunger pains
Or swallowing a sea
Or suffocating
Or endless bleeding.

Must it all
Come to grief?

Is anything safe
From sadness?

Is any
Friendship
Memory
Hero
Joy
Safe from the loss
That seems
So inevitable
So inescapable
So irreversible.

Will they by my enemies until our resurrection?
Does the hero have to die?
Why do I have to watch as my sister cries?

Longing and loss
These twins.
The longing for:
The lost things to be found once more
The unfinished things to be written
The dead things to rise again
The return and redemption of it all.

Why must I now regard
All warmth as fleeting
All safety as illusion
All belonging as temporary?

In these times
I groan with the earth from which I was taken,
My soul crying out within me:
Come, Lord Jesus, come.
Come make all the sad untrue.
Come reign in unmitigated goodness and might.

Help me, oh dear God
For I am sick with longing for home.
To bid longing goodbye
And always be satisfied
To tell loss farewell
And hold all joy securely.

For until I go
To the New Jerusalem
All good things must come to an end.


This poem ends sad, but in the words of Dave Radford of The Gray Havens: This is not the end.

Further up and further in,
Rosalie

p.s. – seriously, I promise I’m okay. I’m coming out on the other side of these things, and that’s why I’m posting this here at all. Jesus is really as strong and good as he said (I don’t have a specific verse to reference, just the entire Bible), and he gave me a beautiful set of parents and siblings who have pointed me to the Bible and fought with me and for me.

p.p.s. – if you didn’t get that reference about Cassius, Darrow, and Roque, you should read the Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown. You’re welcome, and I’m sorry. Also, if you didn’t know (as I didn’t know) that Anne Elisabeth Stengl stopped writing The Tales of Goldstone Wood (arguably some of the most beautiful Christian art of the 21st century) to write spicy romance novels (trash), now you know. I am still not over that. In fact, I’m getting upset right now just thinking about it.

p.p.p.s. – if you want to talk about God’s providence, we have to talk about the release of Benjamin William Hastings’ Sold out, sincerely album coming within days of life as I knew it coming apart.

p.p.p.p.s. – okay, I’m done for real now.

Place (volume i) [a poem]

Lolz, hello, my faithful followers.

I won’t say where I’ve been or what I’ve been up to except that… I’m engaged!

LOL, nope.

If you fell for that trick a second time, it’s not on me, it’s on you. By now, you should know that if I fall off the face of the earth for a while and come back saying, “I’m engaged!” it’s definitely code for “I am not engaged”. It’s simple language, guys, get with the times.

Anyweys, ahem.

I have a free form poem to share that I wrote this spring. I like it. It was helpful to write. I hope you like it too. I hope it’s helpful to read.

I know:
My place is with You
And that doesnโ€™t change.

My place is with You.
My home is with You.

And Youโ€™re not
Giving away my place.

You wonโ€™t:
Displace
Misplace
Replace
Me.

That seat beside You
The one at Your table:
Itโ€™s mine.
Always has been
Always will be.

So I donโ€™t have to fear:
Losing any other place
Not my place in another personโ€™s heart
Or my place in their life
Or my place among Your people
Or my place at work
Because:
My place is
Irrevocably
With You.

Part of me fears
Has always feared
But wonโ€™t always fear
That Youโ€™d give my seat away
To someone
Better
Healthier
Stronger
Steadier
More obedient
More faithful
More beautiful.

But You didnโ€™t give me
My seat
My place
For any good reason in me.

I wasnโ€™t:
Beautiful to catch Your eye
Or witty to charm Your heart
Or lovely in spirit to woo You
Or strong to fill some lack in You.

I was:
Broken
Scarred
Some things bent far out of place
In the deep places of my soul
Crippled
Wallowing in my own filth
Trapped and dead in sin
Unable to even comprehend
How revolting I should have been to You,
You, oh, Lovely Son of heaven.

But You:
Require no more beauty
Need no more strength
Lack no power
That You would look outside Yourself.

But You:
Invited me in
Chose me
Loved me
Called me
Redeemed me
Out of the abundance in Your everlasting heart.

You told me:
Thereโ€™d always be
A place for me with You.

You washed my wounds
Washed me clean
Dressed me in:
Your own respectable robes
Called me by:
Your righteous family name
When as yet
I was not
Am not
Respectable or righteous.

And You gave me that seat
Right next to You
Forever invited to Your table
Never to be uninvited
Never to be unwelcome
Never to lose
My place
With You.

And so I am
And so I will be
A cripple
Dining at the table
Of the Good King
My Good King.

And so I am
And so I will
Fit forever into
Your kingdom
Fit forever into
The place You picked for me
The seat
The role
The calling
The life
Of just being invited
Of just being welcomed
Of just being loved
By You.


That’s all for today.

Further up and further in,

Rosalie

p.s. – I’m working on some ContentTM to share, so keep a weather eye on your inbox.

p.p.s. – I also rejoined the Instagram world. After Tony Reinke AND Andrew Peterson both released books without my knowledge, I realized I wanted to get back onto social media. I feel sooooo much better about it and am in a better place mentally, emotionally, spiritually, grammatically, and economically than I was before with social media. Don’t ask me what I’m doing there because I don’t know. Like maybe it’s a personal Insta account just for lolz (I know, I need to stop saying “lol” and “lolz” but it’s just so… accurate), but also maybe it’s just an aesthetic account with slow motion video, but also maybe I’ve been toying with infographics and acting like I’m some sort of ProfessionalTM or InfluencerTM (who am I kidding–in my mind I’ve been an influencer since birth). My pictures are black and white and awesome looking, I will say that.