Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Extra Credit Assignment

What happens when my Foundations of American Thought Torrey tutor (the best, hardest four-in-one AP class ever) excuses a reflection essay and offers a extra credit poem instead?

I write one.

Or at least, I attempt to write one.

She asked for either a sonnet or a 30-line free verse poem in order to get extra credit. I did a sonnet but made it veeery long. Her assignment was to write either a sonnet or a 30-line free verse. I chose to write a sonnet; it's just veeeery long. I was debating about putting it on my blog (or anywhere at all), but, well here it is:

Trust


It is strange to trust an unseen Being

or even trust at all. Sometimes the thought of sobbing, of dying, or of fleeing

seems far easier than remaining caught

between two opposing sides and picking

—when asked to do so—with a Christ-like mind.

Trust? Trust that He always remains sticking

nearby and faithfully helping you find

the right decision to make in a time

when crawling into a hole and hiding

seems appropriate? Not so easy at times.

I wish it were simple to do so. Sliding

into sadness and trying to breathe. Can’t.

What to do? Need to be saved from this. How?

Write a letter? Talk it out? No. I shan’t.

Trust! ‘Tis the key. Christ knows my plans right now.

With this in mind and worship song too,

all will be fine for a day or a few.

When next doubt comes to mind, I’ll know what to do—

No more distrust or fear for me today.

I’ll read the passage Jeremiah 29:11

and turn my exhausted eyes toward Heaven.


What do you think?? I'm still not sure if I like it or not.


(P.S. When I figure out how to get the pictures, I'll share some that I took on Toms' One Day Without Shoes!)

2 comments:

  1. Hey Margie! You wanted some feedback, so here's mine. :) Your thoughts in this are interesting and thought provoking. However, you should probably check to see if you have met the format requirements if you want this to be a sonnet. There are specific structural requirements for sonnets, and this seems much more like a free verse format rather than the sonnet. It would be easier to add a little more content to meet her free verse requirement than to adjust it to one of the sonnet structures.

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  2. Interesting. I'll play with it a little more. The "sonnet" requirements in class were to have ten syllables, iambic pentameter, and to have an a,b,a,b,c,d,c,d,e,f,e,f,g,g rhyme scheme (mine's significantly longer). I'll extend it when I have five minutes break and see what I can do. Thanks! :)

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