Poems, Prayers, and Promises: January 2021

Hello everyone,

“I’ve been lately thinking about my life’s time 

All the things I’ve done, how it’s been”

Those are the first lyrics to the 1971 song by John Denver called “Poems, Prayers, and Promises“. It is one of my favorite songs by the late folk singer. 

Give it a listen 🙂

This song also bears the name of the album it is on along with popular songs like “Sunshine on my Shoulders” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” 

I have considered doing a blogging series with this song’s title in mind. But I had left it on the back burner for months. 8 months to be exact! On May 4th, A Happy Landing was launched and here I am on January 4th! 🙂 Thank you readers for sticking with me! 

And, ”I’ve been lately thinking about my life’s time // All the things I’ve done, how it’s been”

A new year makes you do that and I am ready to start a new series on the blog. 

The John Denver song is about him being satisfied with the life he had at the moment but also knowing, “there’s still so much to do”. The song centers around one of the reasons his life has been good: sitting around a fire with friends to…

“Talk of poems and prayers and promises and things that we believe in

How sweet it is to love someone, how right it is to care

How long it’s been since yesterday and what about tomorrow?

What about our dreams and all the memories we share?”

That was the chorus of the song.

Wouldn’t it be nice to do that with friends on a regular basis. Maybe something for the future Kenedy! 

But for now I am starting a new blog series entitled (you guessed it): Poems, Prayers, and Promises. 

The first Monday of each month I will share with you…

1. Poems: Poetry that I have recently enjoyed or written
2. Prayers/Dreams/Memories/Things that we believe in: This category will need some future tweaking. But I will be sharing a mix of present prayers, thoughts on dreams or memories, and words on things I believe in. 
3. Promises: This will be the fun one. I will make a promise to watch a movie, read a book, try out a recipe, research a topic etc. and come back and review it the next month. 

So bear with me. We will see how this goes. I hope you guys enjoy it. 

So without further ado…

Here is Poems, Prayers, and Promises: January 2021

Poems

I just finished a book of poetry by the wonderful Langston Hughes. 

Here are two of my favorites!

Song for Billie Holiday

What can purge my heart

        Of the song

        And the sadness?

What can purge my heart

        But the song

        Of the sadness?

What can purge my heart

        Of the sadness

        Of the song?

Do not speak of sorrow

With dust in her hair,

Or bits of dust in eyes

A chance wind blows there.

The sorrow that I speak of

Is dusted with despair.

Voice of muted trumpet,

 Cold brass in warm air.

Bitter television blurred

By sound that shimmers–

        Where?

Not What Was 

By then the poetry is written

and the wild rose of the world

blooms to last so short a time

before its petals fall. 

The air is music 

and its melody a spiral

until it widens

beyond the tip of time 

and so is lost 

to poetry and the rose–

belongs instead to vastness beyond form, 

to universe that nothing can contain,

to unexplored space

which sends no answers back

to fill the vase unfilled 

or spread in lines

upon another page

that anyhow was never written 

because the thought could not escape

the place in which it bloomed

before the rose had gone.

Prayers

I was praying about contentment all through 2020. I had such a weak yearning not to give into complaining and selfishly wanting things. 

I have learned so much this past year with some many things being taken away. I am wholeheartedly grateful for the lessons. The biggest lesson I learned was…

• I released the lie that my value is found in pleasure, objects, events, and people. Contentment does not just mean I am satisfied with what I have. It also concludes that value is not placed on what we miss or covet. As much as I miss my old life, if I am so stuck on how meaningful my life was, I have placed a toxic amount of value on my past. Missing the past is not wrong. I am focusing on how my personhood and purpose gets mixed up in it. I had selfishly made events, routines, and a host of other things what made my life worth it. I had lost sight of what being content was. I needed (and still need) to live based on Who created and saved me. 

My prayer is for my contentment to be found in the joy of my purpose and Jesus not in anything else. 

This is a great way to keep me accountable! 🙂

Promises

My first promise is to watch…

The Two Popes 

I have been planning to watch this movie for months! 

I’ll see ya in February for a review! 

~ Kenedy M. 

All images courtesy of Google images