Cloudburst: Virtual relations

The big ones get mentioned in this seven-line poem: blogs, Pinterest, Kindle/Nook, Twitter, and Facebook. The ABABCBC rhyme scheme holds it together.

Scrolling down goes late at night,

So says the third line, four meters like the rest. We are too busy online, are we not? That's the point of this poem. I should know.

I was able to get this poem out tonight, thanks to my new writing plan.

The background to this Cloudburst poem got placed here rather than on the website because Tumblr has a lousy interface and Cloudburst is going to move away from there before long.

Poetry was dead

Yet another novel, published 1990, declares in a character's viewpoint, "Poetry was dead, or at the very least, breathing its last gasp."

Poetry has always had a hard time of it. It is the neglected child of literature. But not a few death notices have been announced prematurely, and this one fails to recognize the few underground souls who mumble their verses in the shadows and feed upon the scraps of approbation they throw to one another.

Finally, a new FMag editorial. And then some

And a prayer for the remaining month of 2013:

Then there was a poem, Cloudburst variety:

Not to mention a BNc story:

And Bulletin Gold picked up a quatrain of mine in their December issue:

http://www.bulletingold.com/goldvol13_10.html#p2

Still to come: a GoSpeak report with two baptisms on Nov. 30.

Business, ministry, and pleasure

Today:

• Talked with my business associate and ministry coworker, Barbara Ann Oliver, who is in Costa Rica working with the church. First time we've chatted in a while. Caught up with her and shared a bit of news from here. We touched on an idea for October.

• Translated a poem into Portuguese — not mine — "Gaining Through Losing," and posted it on the congregational website.

• Spent some time trying to get my online-links Twitter account to post to my FB author's page. Am finally getting it to FB, I think, but not to the page. I use the Twitter option on my regular account for posting to FB, so I'm having to use a workaround.

• The Missus has set me up tomorrow with the 24-hour blood pressure mapping. Can I sleep through it? Grrrr. The stuff these med people come up with to make life uncomfortable. The cardiologist is determined to find something wrong with me.

• The Maiden got the job. She starts at Embraer's Nashville facility on Monday, about 10-15 minutes to the airport from where she lives. We're very thankful for this opportunity for her.

• I wrote on the Brazilian church twitter earlier that we expect palliative measures to satisfy us, and we always come away disappointed. Let's learn to seek Him who satisfies.

Fault with us

People don't pray. At least, not online. I try not to reach any conclusions from the lack of growth of the Believing Prayer site. Hard to avoid, however. So let's assume the fault lies with us. We're not meeting needs of people who pray. How can we do better?

Major poem coming up tomorrow. The Missus loved it. Don't know how or where I'll post it. Maybe to the UPLift site. For sure to the UPLift email group. Be sure to get on that: uplift-join@associate.com.

Yesterday, I wrote a different kind of editorial. But I did write one. Haven't been as regular as I should have. Seems at times when I write, I'm on a different planet. Different continent, for sure.

I submitted a poem, after writing my editorial above, to Gospel Light Magazine. Want to submit another to Magnolia Messenger. Both have published works of mine. What else is out there?

Bulletin Gold has published another of my UPLift offerings in this month's issue.

I heard through the grape vine that Bulletin Digest published a devotional of mine from my personal blog. Certainly, it was pre-Matt era.

Gospel Advocate has an article of mine on "Christ, Prophet, Priest, King" in their special August issue. But you knew that already.

And how about my question above from the first paragraph? What say you?



Slow down with poetry

Christopher Smith writes,

... in our speed, we are rapidly losing the capacity to be attentive to and present with others, as God was present with the Israelites throughout the Old Testament and as Jesus was present with his disciples and followers. A pressing question of our times therefore is: how do we begin to imitate the presence and attentiveness of Jesus in a culture that is marked by rampant inattentiveness?

For me, poetry is a practice that is helping me begin to slow down and become more attentive.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/books/defense-poetry