One of my poems has been published at http://burnsidewriters.com/2013/02/24/altar/.
I wrote this poem about 15 years ago and never thought this one would get published. It reflects where I was as a poet at that time in my life. The poem’s strengths are a clear conceptual direction and good use of specifics, but it is, in the end, too “prosey” for me. What rhyme there is is rather clunky.
That being said, it’s nice to see such an old poem find a good home. As writers, we need just enough success to keep us in the game.
As is evident in the poem, I have a love/hate relationship with the evangelical prayer room, and with the notion that salvation must be revisited again and again. What must be revisited is the astounding concept that we are saved, made perfect, continually held in the hand of God in our current state, even when we sin.
The poem attempts not to criticize too stealthily the prayer room, but to expand that image to include not only the Christian’s environment (i.e. manmade altar, prayer room, sanctuary, etc.) but also the human body as altar in and of itself with no need for other trappings.
As a Christian, I am not moving in and out of the Light–I am simply forgetting to realize the Light is always there.
My Writing Life 