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

Come Back

  ruminations from 6/5/23

You say come, "come to me like a little chick to a mother eagle. I will cover you."

You say "come to me my weary and thirsty ones. Come back to your loving Fathers' arms."

Oh Lord the ache these empty arms feel with longing to hold and commune with my beloveds. My heart cries comeback from your wondering journeys. Your bruises and woundings need tending. Oh, the privilege to be able to be the one to contend for you and comfort you. Comeback cries my mamma's heart. OH, Abba what does your heart cry to your sojourning lost ones? How do you bear the pain, the aches, the longings?

O Holy Night devotional

 O Holy Night

KWA assignment write a devotional about / using a Christmas Carole

Originally based on a French-language poem by poet Placide Cappeau, written in 1843, with the first line "Minuit, Chrétien, c'est l'heure solennelle" that composer Adolphe Adam set to music in 1847.

“I will exalt you, my God the King.

I will praise your name for ever and ever.”

Psalm 145:1

Dear church, 

As you ponder the Christmas miracle, this Holy night, remember

that though punctuated in a specific time, His Holy birth, “when your Savior

was born” is not a stagnant historical event. As we hear the lyrics declare

“Long lay the world in sin and error pining,” it tells of his saints laying up

prayers and hope for the messiah’s future coming. Oh, beloved ones, even now

this one divine night brought forth an act so holy that all of eternity shifted

and changed. As you sing and celebrate the coming of the “king in lowly manger”

remember that it is not just Christmas tidings that came forth but that Jesus

“Truly taught us to love one another; His law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains

shall he break, for the slave is our brother and in his name all oppression

shall cease.” This Holy night of our dear savior's birth beckons us to proclaim,

“his glory and majesty evermore.”  The call for us to fall on our knees is

a call to worship in spirit. To praise him with our whole heart and minds. It

is not about a nostalgic feeling about a past event but an eternal truth.

 This Christmas as we sing of This “Holy night,” pause and allow the Lord to minister

to your weary soul. May the celebration of His birth reawaken in you a

thankfulness and refreshed hope for we as followers can declare that every

Night is holy unto the Lord because of the cross and resurrection. 

 In the coming weeks think about how you can answer the call to love one another and bring joy to our frazzled world not just at Christmas but throughout your life on earth.

Grief Devotional

 

Grief    

 Invited devotional for Book

 “The darker the night, the brighter the stars, the deeper the grief, the closer is God!” — Fyodor Dostoevsky

"Grief is just love with no place to go." — Jamie Anderson

Psalm 34.18 

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. NIV

 

My Dear One

In this season of advent, it may seem as if you are required to act as if you have no pain, as if all is lovely. I need you to know…Though you may feel as if you do not have the strength to endure this loss, I am here for you. I will be your strength, holding you up. And it may feel as if you are in the very depths of darkness, I meet you there. I will be your light, guiding you. And if despair threatens to overtake you and all feels hopeless, I will hope for you, waiting until hope rises again.

And if, my child, your heart is full of trouble, and chaos surrounds you, I am peace that passes all understanding, I will be your place of refuge and rest.  

And when it seems all is lost, that you are lost, and the sadness overwhelms you, I am your way back to joy.  I will give you everlasting joy. 

I see your heartache and know that it feels like there is not room for anything but this grief. I make space for both love and suffering to occupy the same place. My beloved, I know of loss. My only son left his heavenly place to come as babe, leaving all behind to become vulnerable in his humanity. Jesus was simultaneously filled with love for you even as he was bearing all the world's sins and sufferings on the cross. 

Know that my love can handle your ache and that there is space to grieve with me. 

 

What does it look like to let The Lord be your hope, peace, joy and love this advent amid grief?

 

Meditate on the verse above and invite the Lord into your broken heart or pray for someone who is brokenhearted that they would feel his nearness today.

 

Bio

Dale Cupo is an intercessor by heart. She is committed to be an encouragement to the brokenhearted and speak life into the dark places.

Devotional On Rest

 

Devotional for KWA assignment

Mathew 11:28

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

 

How Can one find rest for their souls? What is rest? How often does rest conjure up images of naps on the couch, vacationing at the beach or getting away to do nothing?

My dear one, I the Lord have been inviting my creation into rest from the very beginning. To enter my rest is to trust me. My beloved the worries of this world are heavy and many but when you abide in me, that oneness creates a place to enter my rest. It is a place to be still and know my heart for you and to experience healing for your wounded soul. It is a place where the hustle, hurry and hurts can be laid upon my shoulders. My rest is where you learn to breathe again. It is where the cacophony of the world is quieted so that you can hear my voice. Even I, the Lord of all creation rested on the 7^th day. Rest and sabbath are intertwined. It is to lay aside the work that will always be there and believe that if you stop your “doing” that I do not stop. I hold all things together and am faithful and true. Come away and rest under the shelter of the most High and allow me to renew you. My precious son longs for you to come to him in your weariness. His arms are wide open to receive your burdens. My Holy spirit desires you to be filled to overflowing with the understanding of my love for you. Hear my call and come to me my weary one and I will give you rest.

 

 

Dale Cupo

10/13/23

Periodic Table and God

 

^{John 1  (MSG)}

^1-2 The Word was first,
    the Word present to God,
    God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
    in readiness for God from day one.

^3-5 Everything was created through him;
    nothing—not one thing!—
    came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
    and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
    the darkness couldn’t put it out.

 The Periodic Table and God

Lithium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Cadmium, and Iridium. Only a fraction of the elements that form the periodic table. The 100 plus basic elements that we have thus far discovered of all that exists is from the Lord. He holds all and formed all. The Living bible states it like this “³ He created everything there is—nothing exists that he didn’t make. “Recently I saw in my minds eye the Lord God holding the periodic table in his hands. And I was reminded of the above bible verse. That all the evil and yuck we can imagine began from his original creation. The basic compounds of our being but also that which exists is not out of his ability to control. He formed it all and then allowed us to mess with it (think Glyphosate/round up).  Though we may have manipulated the basic elements to cause destruction (atomic bomb etc.). His mighty hand holds it all.  I feel as if the invitation is to not fear but also begin to grab hold of these compounds and use them for his glory. That we the bride are being called to grab hold of all that he created even at the basic level. That we are to partner with him in prayer and ask how to wrestle back his building blocks of life from the enemy

KWA writing assignment

 

KWA writing assignment

write from the perspective of John in exile or Paul waiting to die.

Dale Cupo

11/5/23

Beloved disciple

 

 

My Lord, what have I done? As I await sentencing for being a follower of the way, I ponder did I do enough? Will I have the wherewith all to proclaim you in the face of persecution? Lord my heart troubles me, I fear my weaknesses are so pervasive that I will crumble and give into fleshly fear.  My dear Jesus, I have known you as my refuge and strong tower, yet the doubts assail me. Have I been obedient to you and given witness to your goodness?  Help me to remember who you are and to be able to hear your voice. What is in your heart to say to those I will be leaving behind? Help me to hear your words and write them to leave a true legacy for your glory…

My beloved daughter write these words…

 I AM who I am, yet I am not far off from my children. My dear ones I ache to hold you and for you to know unequivocally you are worth it! To my church, my bride, do not grow weary though all seems shaky, and chaos seems to be swirling around you, this is my call to you. Look up. Turn the eyes of your heart to me and keep looking for me. I am here. Quiet your minds and lay down your idols. OH not those big looming wooden types but the secret tiny idols like family, security, fear, work and identity. These hinder my bride from truly surrendering to me. Listen well my dear ones I call you forth not in shame but into the expanse of my love. The choice is and always has been yours but, in these times ahead, I desire for you to be so anchored in my love and so I ask for that relinquishing.  I will not force you, but my hands are ready to receive that which binds you from grabbing hold of my love for you. I invite you my sweet ones to come away and invest your time in seeking me not in obtaining likes on social media. My heart breaks for those who doubt my love and for those who have yet to receive my gift of salvation. But even in this I am not laying a burden upon your shoulders but requesting you simply come to me, be my bride, my lover and allow me to show you how I move mountains to be with you.

People Pleasing

 Play the game

Be the same

The voices whisper again and again 

Keep up the smiles 

Try to be in style 

The lies continue to pile 

Spirit of people pleasing 

Ever teasing

Mind always reeling 

Coiling serpent stealing

Breath and life fading 

Emotions cascading 

The cry for freedom 

From this people pleasing 

Total surrender needed

Pride, shame and fear

Your time has drawn near 

Fear of man can disappear 

Fear of the Lord crystal clear 

That’s where to  aim that’s how to end the game!

At the crossroads of Hopewell Rd. and Bondesville

 

At the crossroads of Hopewell Rd. and Bondesville

 

                                                 

 

  At the crossroads, which way to go

 Familiar fleshly desires directing the show

Well acquainted sight and senses

Trekking along unawares ,

 

suddenly sidetracked into the trenches

Hearts bereft, disappointed and grieving 

Bitterness, anger and hopelessness receiving 

 

Now Ensnared, led by another’s will

This treacherous way to Bondsville.

Twisted vines becoming burdened chains.

Lost hope now enslaves.

 

At the Crossroads

 

Oh, to Hopewell Road the way is tough

To have faith and believe He is enough

 Higher thoughts point to heavenly truth.

This way with little Tangible proof

To wait for the possibility of more,

Will He bring back, make new, restore?

To have trust and confidence?

This hope belies all commonsense!

This the perspective away from hell

To Hopewell Road where one hopes well

 

Here at the crossroads which way will you go?

 

The day the waves came in and crashed upon my heart

The day the waves came in and crashed upon my heart.

it all seemed so unexpected.

Had the tide been turning, and I somehow missed the signs?

unable to catch my very breath, disoriented grabbing and pulling on anything nearby.

the pain seeping into the most inconvenient places

The questions leaving bitter taste.

 all rational thought dissipated.

the Anger, rage and shame never anticipated.

The day the waves came in and crashed upon my heart.

How to begin again the hardest part

To take stock and behold how the signs were there.

To take responsibility for my own trepidation and fear

But also, in truth some waves are not my fault.

Disappointment, desire and blame pieces of the assault

dusting off the salty remnants from the crashing surf,

dying to what was and understanding the hurt

Holding onto my saviors’ hands

Confident now in the weapons I command

No longer the same  the day the waves came and crashed upon my heart