How Poetry entered my life

 

How Poetry entered my life

12/26/23

 

When I was an angsty preteen and teen I had a cheesy little girl journal.  My entries were irregular and random at best and when I look back there were all the typical drama for my age but also in between those were real attempts to process life on a page. I had written poems about my sister Davra who was born with Cerebral Palsy, nonverbal and wheelchair bound. I also wrote of when she died when she was 19 and I 15.

Many decades later I picked up my pen for a 365-day writing challenge but now my entries would be public on a blog. This little challenge opened new territory for my heart. It began a journey to reawaken creativity. MY posts and ruminations gave place for the hurts and heartaches to come into light. I began to write in prose and rhyme. There were times it was about what revelation the Holy spirit had shown me or sometimes calls for justice were the topic of my heart.  

The following poems were from my heart but occasionally from my head.

Some reflect my personal journey with the Lord working out identity and purpose. Moving head knowledge into heart knowledge. Writing became a spot where my wounded parts could be explored with the healing truth of God overlaid upon scars of broken identity.

 Some embody the pain and turmoil of relational struggles. It was a way to sift through the anger and wade through those muddy waters.

Other poems were moments of discovery downloaded from Holy Spirit from the word of God. The Aha formulated after the words flowed out of my hand onto the paper. Then came the process of mulling over those revelations, revisiting the words again and again until they became part of me.

Some verses were born from the pressures born from living in our world. The chaos, sickness, sadness, and polarization from the political climate swirling. I needed a space to make sense of the brokenness around me. What was truth and what was distortion. The power of writing releasing the ability to sort through all the yuck!

So many questions would rise up propelling me to seek the Lord again and again and then an ordering of thoughts pouring into prose eliciting inner peace amongst external chaos.

And then came some psalms of complaint, lament and championing for the underdog.

 

I invite you to come and wander through a sojourner’s wonderings. May they draw you closer to the true lover of your soul and may they bring you permission to go and write. To become your own Psalmist.

Blessings

Dale Cupo