Inside The Hearts' Walls

Have a happy Final's Week everybody! The Poetry Club will be taking two weeks off, meeting next on Tuesday, March 29, in the first week of spring term. The prompt for writing for that meeting is no prompt at all, just write on whatever topic strikes your fancy.

In other news, the Choir Concert was last night (pics here), and four of our poets read their works to the sold out auditorium (500 or so people; the fire-mashal's certificate by the door certified a capacity of 524, but I spotted a couple rows of mostly empty seats over in the crappy corner where the piano would have blocked people's view of half the stage). The so honored poets were John, Teagan, Whitney, and Tav (in that order (chronologically, not in that order in the picture below)).





Cantate Domino          by John

Angels listen forever envious, unparalleled beauty of thine
         Hairs erect and goosebumps form, shivers gently nibble our spine
Sacred sounds penetrate, the breath of gods, whispering in our ear
         Our souls outpour till naught remains, yet rewarded are we, thy lord endear
Love fills our hearts and gives us peace, reminds us of times long long ago
         Ancient these songs, writ by angels themselves, ah, Cantate Domino


Our Song Will Never End          by Teagan Lochner



This is What It's Like          by Whitney Smith



Golden Glow          by Tav

I entered this world questioning, and wanting to know,
and met a bright auric fog, with a warm golden glow.
Each radiant dot a new thought, a new place to begin?
So much to absorb, I leapt, and dove in.

Now I wonder, 'who am I, to think myself so good,
if that's all I've been taught, and ever understood?'
When there's light all around, from the sky and the sea,
how can I tell, if any light, comes from me?

It floors me that Newton, so great among all those who search,
wrote that what wonders HE saw, was only thanks to the perch,
he found on the shoulders, of those giants before.
If that's so then, could any of us claim even a little bit more?

Could I write half as well, without all the great authors I've read?
Could I sing any songs, without others' songs in my head?
The light all around me, that dazzles and warms,
I see now, I think, its source and its forms.

A billion dim dots, make an awestriking whole,
each person not yet forgotten, beams rays on my soul.
Even those deep in the past, and lost to antiquity,
their lights still refract, in an anonymous ubiquity.

It seems a culture is built, a speck at a time,
added to through the ages, by lights of minds much like mine.
Philosophy and science, technology and art,
everything advances, by piece and by part.

And so it must be, that in our every endeavor,
the great things that we make, we make working together.
Thus all ambitions I plan, and any craft I might try,
like everyone else, I'll be aided, by the billion lights in the sky.


In addition the four poems that were read onstage, there also exists a secret fifth poem, a poem that would have been in the concert had the concert director had any taste wanted five poems rather than four. And what is this blog for, if not for me to share such secrets with you?


Arise, Arise          by Ruth Krueger

Winter has gripped me with icy fingers that hold me in
a state of confusion;
I rest at the bottom of the lake of doubt,
drowning in a sea of thought I cannot
escape.

As deep calls to deep, so Spring calls to me and
my hope is renewed.
“Freedom” is her song that awakens me;
I am given no choice but to heed its call and
arise.

Nature, too, replies.
Tulips strain to escape their
entombment,
pushing, pushing forth to claim new life.

The sun introduces herself anew,
bathing the earth in her warmth,
infusing
clouds with light that takes my breath away.

White-capped mountains stand as witnesses
that winter is retreating to its
rightful
place, to be admired from below.

Grace has triumphed,
the weak are made strong-
My soul is alive,
My soul is well-
Praise the Lord!