You may be getting tired of my bear photos, but I’m hoping you’ll bear with me a little longer. (I honestly didn’t intend that to be a pun!) I’ve been taking part (after a fashion) in a book study being done by a group of us on Facebook, organized by Sandra Heska King. The book is MAKING MANIFEST: on Faith, Creativity and the Kingdom at Hand, by Dave Harrity. ‘Taking part’ is presumptuous… an over-statement. I’m barely auditing the participation of others, reading portions as I have time, skipping bits, or re-reading others that particularly appeal to me.
There is an exercise for each day, a prompt provided, meant to stimulate a response to the day’s chapter. Day #21 was about “Making New: Bear [or bare] yourself before the page, wait, be patient. Ask for something impossible. Come to the desk [or the yard] for renewal,” and we were asked to write a ten-line poem that features an animal.
It made me think of our recent visiting bear, waiting for her invisible cub to finish its nap, hidden away behind the greenery. Thus my ‘bearwatch’ poem was born.
I don’t write much poetry, but I believe the required spontaneous creativity has a spin-off effect on my other writing. How about you? Do you ever write poems? Do you prefer the tidy, measured, rhyming kind, or the more emotional free verse? If you’d like to try your hand at this exercise I’d love it if you’d add a poem in the comments section below. (I won’t critique yours if you don’t critique mine.) 🙂
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WATCHING AND WAITING
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Patience stretches time
into moments undone
unseen
hidden in green
waiting while a babe restores.
We would do well to emulate
watch and wait
and be recreated
a child of God
in His endless time.
~
(Carol J. Garvin for the ‘Making Manifest’
book study group’s Day #21 exercise)
MUSINGS 
Carol, I so enjoyed your poem and knowing more of the story behind it. Who could ever get tired of bear photos? 😉
Thanks, Tarissa. Bears visit us at least once every summer, but this is the first time one has stayed long enough to provide such an interesting photo opp. (I took over a hundred shots!)
I LOVE it, Carol. I am amazed & thrilled how far you’ve come since those days you thought and said “I couldn’t”…. but you have!
You were the one urging on my fiction-writing efforts. I’m loving the journey towards the yet-unseen destination. 🙂
I agree, your posts are uplifting and reassuring, especially in dark times. I imagine you saw the news about the 2 teenagers killed last weekend. It was my girlfriend’s grandson. Words cannot express the… I don’t even have a word. God Bless you, Carol. Your blog is a wonderful reprieve.
Oh my dear girl! I know the loss of grandchildren and will be praying for you and your friend and her family. It is a loss no family should have to bear (no pun intended, Carole), but one simply puts one foot before the other and trusts to God that He will redeem this loss in some fashion. May your friend feel His loving arms hold her in this dark time.
You’re right… there are no words. I pray for strength and comfort for their families and friends. What a heart-breaking tragedy!