Written April 2, 1999 about The Displacing of the Serbs

Creating Distances

quietly
pondering why
reflecting the past
revisiting the wrongs
THINKING
silent
crying souls
staggering along crimson
dying paths
DISPLACING
hearts
wandering listlessly
beings of hopelessness
praying unceasingly
PLEADING
how
reaching out
begging for answers
receiving none
WHISPERING
stillness
creating distances
floating through eternity
reasoning absent
DREAMING?

by
Karen

I usually make a note of why I write a poem. I didn't with this one. I don't know why, so don't really know what I was thinking when it was written. Maybe my Stream friends can figure it out for me. Just think of yourself sitting in your high school English class and have to write what your perspective is on this great work of poetry! LOL!.

Embarking Upon a Journey

Those on high mourning the strengths
Rejoicing the weaknesses of secret unions
Greedily filling one's soul
With liquid fire of spewing bile
Blackened soot hidden within hardened hearts
Filtering down
Through maze-like bowels
Of rising chimneys
Suffocating tailings
Of goodness
Losing righteousness
Entwined within
Unforgiving brambles
Hidden amongst
The sweet-smelling
Rose of Sharon.
Journeying toward the chasm
Devouring evil
Tantalizing the challenging
Nature of the beast within man
Where honor and respect are ridiculed
For foolishly worshipping
Those things which cannot be viewed.
Embarking upon a journey
Of such magnitude
Encompassing
the old and the young,
the rich and the poor,
the sick and the healthy,
the ugly and the beautiful,
Of body and soul.
Lingering on Judgment Day
In wonderment
With bewilderment
Of those things
Which have passed!
Which are now!
Which will be!

by Karen

Like Daddy Like Son!


Mommy's a scarecrow! (My daughter Amy and her creative artwork)



Daddy and Charlie wondering what happened to their Texas Tech Red Raiders?

MY GRANDDAUGHTER'S ENTRY FOR THE CONTEST AT HER SCHOOL.

GRANDMA'S HANDS

Grandma, some ninety plus years, sat feebly on the patio bench.
She didn't move, just sat with her head down staring at her hands.

When I sat down beside her she didn't acknowledge my presence and the
longer I sat I wondered if she was OK.

Finally, not really wanting to disturb her but wanting to check on her
at the same time, I asked her if she was OK. She raised her head and
looked at me and smiled. "Yes, I'm fine, thank you for asking," she
said in a clear voice strong.

"I didn't mean to disturb you, grandma, but you were just sitting here
staring at your hands and I wanted to make sure you were OK," I
explained to her.

"Have you ever looked at your hands," she asked. "I mean really
looked at your hands?"

I slowly opened my hands and stared down at them. I turned them
over, palms up and then palms down. No, I guess I had never really looked at
my hands as I tried to figure out the point she was making.

Grandma smiled and related this story:

"Stop and think for a moment about the hands you have, how they have
served you well throughout your years. These hands, though wrinkled
shriveled and weak have been the tools I have used all my life to
reach out and grab and embrace life.

"They braced and caught my fall when as a toddler I crashed upon the
floor.

They put food in my mouth and clothes on my back. As a child, my
mother taught me to fold them in prayer. They tied my shoes and pulled
on my boots. They held my husband and wiped my tears when he went off
to war.

"They have been dirty, scraped and raw, swollen and bent. They were
uneasy and clumsy when I tried to hold my newborn son. Decorated
with my wedding band they showed the world that I was married and loved someone
special.

They wrote my letters to him and trembled and shook when I
buried my parents and spouse.

"They have held my children and grandchildren, consoled neighbors, and
shook in fists of anger when I didn't understand.

They have covered my face, combed my hair, and washed and cleansed the
rest of my body. They have been sticky and wet, bent and broken,dried
and raw. And to this day when not much of anything else of me works
real well these hands hold me up, lay me down, and again continue to
fold in prayer.

"These hands are the mark of where I've been and the ruggedness of life.

But more importantly it will be these hands that God will reach out
and take when he leads me home. And with my hands He will lift me to
His side and there I will use these hands to touch the face of
Christ."

I will never look at my hands the same again. But I remember God
reached out and took my grandma's hands and led her home.

When my hands are hurt or sore or when I stroke the face of my
children and husband I think of grandma. I know she has been stroked and
caressed and held by the hands of God.

I, too, want to touch the face of God and feel His hands upon my
face.