I am going to do something a bit different this month. I would like you to explore a few poems I have written from my book A Prayer from the Driven: Poems by a Christian. These poems were written from my experience with that Spring of Truth, the Word and the living, loving experience with God the Father, God the Son - Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit – One God Almighty. Through the process of writing poetry my own darkness is scattered.
Poetry can be an important part of any person's life. In my life there is the unmistakable influence of Holy Bibles of many versions, providing daily doses of powerful spiritual poetry in the Psalms and Prophets. The stories found in the Bible also move and shape my spiritual imagination. Perhaps they can do the same for you.
I find that poetry can also help me work out my salvation in difficult matters.
I challenge you to do the following:
1. Read the associated scripture first.
2. Pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance for what you can learn from it this day. Mull it over.
3. Read the poem I have written that is a reflection on this scripture.
4. Write a response to the poem or write your own poem.
Read Psalm 23
A Prayer From the Driven
Shepherd me, oh, my Shepherd!
Make me to go places I do not wish to go.
Lead my strident spirit into the unknown.
Meadows of peace.
Streams of mercy.
Shepherd me, oh, my Shepherd!
Press my shoulders into the cool green grass.
Plunge my aching feet into the mountain stream.
Skies of hope.
Breezes of rest.
Shepherd me, oh, my Shepherd!
Lash me to your tree of loving sacrifice.
Make me learn the power of its shade.
Shadow of respite.
Gate of safety.
Shepherd me, oh, my Shepherd!
Train my eyes to your singular light
While I learn, learn, learn to pilgrim through
the ravines of darkness.
Pinpoints of guidance.
Stops of grace.
Shepherd me, oh, my Shepherd!
Launch me into hope that endures the opposition
of my selfishness.
May your gentleness make me great.
Eyes of grace.
Arms of love.
Shepherd me, oh, my Shepherd!
Read Psalm 18 (v. 35)
The Consolation
Your gentleness has made us great
Gentle baby come to us
Incarnate beauty
Calming our fears
Your swaddling clothes
Wiping away our tears.
Read Exodus 5:6-19
Bricks Without Straw
Bricks without straw!
The command still has to be forgiven.
It matters little if things are better now
If bitterness erects a citadel as a prison.
Bricks without straw!
The brutality was so vivid
But we stand on the rubble of those walls
Singing praise to the One who delivered!
Read Psalm 104
Do You Watch?
Do you watch Your birds in slow motion
Marveling at their skill?
Do You listen to the breathing
Of the bear in hibernating hill?
Do You gaze upon the deer stepping neatly,
Quiet, through the bramble?
Do You watch the cats—some small and large—
Glide swiftly where they ramble?
Do You gaze upon the sway
Of shark and bass and whale?
Do You smile when the attentive dog
Cannot control its tail?
Do You follow the rattler’s swerving trail,
Its twisting on the earth?
Do You delight in crystal song
Of the lark upon its perch?
Do You cherish each creation—
No matter what its lot?
I’m sure You do, and thankful, too
For this wondrous pale blue dot.
Read Genesis 29:-30:22
A Song for Leah
Victory through birth
Seven times unearthed
Riven heart given girth
Hips of strength
Fertile womb
Oh, the victory for the first!
First, yet now second
Seven times was beckoned
Longing heart unreckoned
Arms of love
Vibrant womb
Oh, the strength of the awakened!
Triumph always hers
Children’s praise rehearse
Prayers heard
Grateful womb
Oh, deft defeat for saboteurs!
Read Genesis 6:9-9:17
When the Waters Covered the Earth
When the waters covered the earth
Leviathan bones floated over the mountaintops.
The swollen bodies of the unfaithful,
Pottery, shards and whole, were swept
Into caves with the little bones of little beasts
Waving back and forth at the water’s will.
Birds fell exhausted from the air
Among the water foul and sharks
Feasting, feasting in the waters of the earth.
When the waters covered the earth
Flora and fauna shifted ‘round the globe
For humanity had pushed God too far.
Too far left, too far right, too high and too low.
He was grieved by their will, by their way,
By their violence.
So, He finally released the waters upon the earth.
So violently did the waters come
Boiling, seething, erupting, spouting, spraying, raining!
No ebb, only flow, and flow, and flow.
No low tide, only higher and higher and higher
Until there would be no place to run aground
When the waters covered the earth.
One boat, filled with life, drifted on God’s waters.
One family huddled, deep inside.
How long would they remember
The clawing, screeching, thudding sounds of
The rest of God’s creatures outside
When the waters covered the earth?
What did the drowning think
As they slipped beneath the flood?
Did they hold resolute to their humanity
And refuse the still-pursuing God?
Or did some cry out for Him as their throats
And lungs filled with the waters of the earth?
Where was the merciful and great God
When the waters filled the earth?
Those who know Him not do claim
He took delight in this kind of act
This watery, overwhelming, earth-wide death
When His waters covered the earth.
But they, still deceived by their world-of-self,
Neither understand or know
That when God has given grace on grace
And more grace, with mercy laced,
An end must come to the darkness known
So that Light can cover the earth.
God’s judgment was displayed for all
And with that adjudication came
A lasting, arching demonstration that wickedness
Is tethered to the post of His grace.
So, look not on the violence of Him
But on the violence of man
And understand the desperate need for
When the waters covered the earth.
Read Genesis 1-3
Broken Eden
Did softened teeth and chewing cud
Turn sharp and shredding strong
When Adam and the woman Eve
Bit down on serpent’s tongue?
Did lamb find fear from lion’s mouth
Where once was tender lick
And flee the bloody jagged jaw
Of once a warming friend?
How did the world turn dark and bleak
When our first parents hid
And Satan’s torments got their teeth
Then multiplied and roared?
Did You design the bear’s sharp teeth
Long prior to the apple?
Or did You give him brand new teeth
To prepare it for the battle?
What broke the back of perfect man?
What crushed the woman’s smile?
Was it not the will, which You did give,
That made the world so wild?
And with the will You gave us strength
To choose outside Your plan.
And with the Spirit’s holy help
We can choose the glorious Son.
With Christ’s great victory over death
The question of the sharpened teeth
Can lay to rest inside our breast
While we wait hope for eternal peace.
Read Isaiah 9:1-7
I Will Be
I will be the moon to Your sun
The sparkle of light on the sea
The reflection of Your brilliance in
The Son given to us.
I will be your prism,
Casting Your beauty
Across the spectrum of
Your gifts of life to me.
You are the One, true Light.
Let me reflect You as best I can
In the time You have given me.
© M.R.Hyde 2026
