Creator - A Poem

If you've followed my blog for a while, you've read a lot of my writing, primarily my commentary on Zentangle tiles and my other artwork. I don't write poetry very often, but every once in a while inspiration will hit and I'll put some prose on paper. Last week was just one of those times. Here's the story:

Listening through Gungor's extraordinary new album, Creation Liturgy, I came to the twelfth track, "We Will Run/He Is Here". Expecting to hear the glorious harmonies of the band members raising their voices in worship, the instrumental lead-in prefaced a spoken verse rather than a sung one. The voice rose with the music, growing in intensity as the words flowed, the spoken word poem unfolding, initially delicate words transforming into an impassioned vocal epic. It was beautiful.

I researched the track, and discovered the poet performing on the album is Amena Brown, spoken word poet. She toured with Gungor, performing to their musical accompaniment. Here is a video of one such performance. I also love her poems Resurrection and You.

I'm not sure what got into me, but I decided to try my hand at writing a spoken word poem. 7:00 in the morning, waiting to go in to work, journal out, pen out, mind spilling onto the page. It was awesome - I just uncorked my thoughts and let them flow. I edited it, let a few people read it, edited it some more and then more. Now I'm just going to let it go, release it and see what happens. If you read it thinking of the style in which Amena Brown performs her poems, it makes a lot more sense.

Creator
He conceived everything you see
Everything that matters
He created matter
He built the world
He composes all your cares, worries, troubles
To build you up
Build to conquer
To conquer death, sin, Satan
That is His aim
To be victorious
He has a plan
A plan of salvation
Of saving
Sanctification
He is the Spotless One
One, because there are none spotless
No, not one but He
He fulfilled the plan
The nails in His hands
Finished a tour of earth
To bring us rebirth
He arose like a rose from a withered seed
Seeing the sun
Being the Son
The wood of that cross would be mine but for Him
The metal of those nails the only medal for my pitiful pursuits of piety
His power displaces my frailty
His blood my iniquity
He arose that I might rise
Beyond the skies
And see His eyes
Bliss
Ravishing the senses
Free from captivity
Free from myself
In the presence of the Almighty I will one day bow
I say that with surety
For He has assured me
That a place in His kingdom is mine
All mine
Because of what He did
How He rose
The price He bid
Buying me freedom, redemption
Satisfying the red
Now no need for the black
Out of that dark and into the light
It is light
His light
Light and peace
Hope
My hope
My peace
Jesus saves.

Thank you, Jesus, for saving me! Thank you for reading. If you have any comments or tips about the poem, I'd love to hear them! This is my first Monday post in a while, and you can expect more in the weeks to come I have a Zentangle book review in the works, an interview with a yarn spinner and a review of her yarn, more pages from my Sketchbook Project sketchbook to post - Busy busy! Until next time, tangle on.

Love at First Byte

Being away for so long, I forgot what I missed: the beautiful curves, the wondrous mystery, the infinite opportunities for exploration. Her dainty lines, marvelous colors, and fabulous shapes. Don't worry, it's not what you're thinking! I'm praising the attributes of a computer program, known as Adobe Illustrator.

My relationship with Illustrator began last year when I started college, and its interface came naturally to me. It is similar to other programs I'd used before, so that helped a lot in the learning process. I went through the summer saving up for a laptop to run the program on, and then for the program itself. Finally, just last week, I made the big purchase and downloaded the Adobe Creative Suite, featuring both Illustrator and Photoshop, among other programs. My mind is now aboggle (a word I just made up; kind of like aflame or anew) with the opportunities I now have at my fingertips. From clever photo editing to business card design, the projects are now an endless flow. Currently I'm working on a logo for the blog - I think it's going to be great!

I want to show you something I designed using Illustrator. In computer illustration class, we were assigned to produce a poster for a big band dance event, entitled "Spring Swing". Part of the challenge was to incorporate at least five images - as you can see I used a guitar, saxaphone, trumpet, trombone, and piano (the middle circle could also be interpreted as a drum for a sixth image!).

I really enjoyed this project! It fell together surprisingly smoothly, and while there are a few rough areas that could be smoothed out a little, I like the way it turned out. 

Peaceful

Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. 

John 14:27

The Zentangle challenge this week is to tangle a pinwheel for peace, tying in with an organization that encourages the making of these pinwheels for the International Day of Peace, which is today. I decided to follow the template provided in the post, and do a mandala-type design.

My pinwheel. Crescent Moons, Cubine, and Paradox.

The Rhythm of Tangles: Weekly Challenge #85

This week was a tangly week! For one thing, we had Labor Day on Monday, which threw the whole week into a tangle (it feels like it should be Saturday when it's actually Friday!). For another thing I've tangled nearly every day this week - and only completed one tile!

I started on Tuesday working on the Diva's Zentangle Challenge. You can see the tile below beginning to form in my post from Wednesday. On Wednesday I tangled a bit at work as a study break. Thursday night I took my Zentangle kit with me to my haircut and tangled while I was waiting. Finally, I finished the shading on the tile today, just in time to post it. It's definitely a here, there, and everywhere tile!

I see a spot where I forgot to shade a section - do you see it?

Tangles: Crescent Moon, Shattuck, Hurry, and Copada.