My Real Life

I am dragging words around the dance floor of the page trying to choreograph a poem. The end result is interesting. The straitjacket rules made it a challenge to write. I liked the concept of an "endangered virtue" and someone's life story written in verbs - the things that they do.

The prompt on page...no page numbers apparently - the nightmare of control freaks:-

"Write a 12 line poem whose lines begin with words that start with the letters R, V, H, O, K and E.  Use each letter twice."

My Real Life

Real life is this, I tell myself, as I

visit the corners of my soul

Here my heart beats strong but

out of sync with a world where

kindness is an endangered virtue

expressed so rarely by so few

Read my story written in active

verbs like love and sacrifice

His life before it was mine.  I am

opened petals unfolded before the Son

Known, not merely by surface and skin but with

every layer understood

There is a second part to the challenge:-

"Try it again, but this time make it rhyme."

Real life, not always calm and still, is

Visited by light and shade

Here daily beats the steadfast heart

Off centre in sin’s world unmade

Kindness breathes its healing air

Exhaled by those who ache to care

Read my story written now in

Verbs like love and sacrifice

His words so sweet I make them mine.

Oh never can the world entice

Known am I beneath my skin and

Every thought that dwells within