It's Been a Long Time Coming . . .

          I've been writing poetry since I was old enough to understand how the words fit together. Granted, my work has matured with me, and I've watched it grow up with me and hold my hand through some of the roughest parts of my life. I didn't realize how much of an integral part of my life it was until my poetry professor asked me about a poem in my Spring 2014 portfolio. The prompt was to write about a secret, something we had never told anybody. I disregarded the prompt and decided to turn in a poem I had written the week before because I really liked it. It was titled, "This Is Not Simply an Apology, but a Confession," and I had written it one night as I looked back on the past month and realized how far away from God I had been drifting. It was just a cry from the depths of my soul for God to take control of my life again because I was so desperate to be close to Him again. When he read the poem in class he asked me how long the time was between the incident occurring and the writing of the poem. I told him that they happened at the same time. I knew there was something in my soul that was hurting, so I just started writing and it all fell into place; I wrote through my pain to get to the healing.
          As I went through the revising process for my final portfolio for my poetry class, I realized just how much God had used my poetry to speak not only to me, but through me. The words that I've put together into these works of art are not my own; they are divinely inspired. I know this because there is no way I could have come up with these. It's those times where I turn my mind off and let my heart cry out to God that I get my greatest poems. I also realized that these needed to be shared. When God is moving this powerfully through you, you need to share it with everyone you know. But please understand, this is not me bragging about my own talents. This is me humbly sharing with you something that God has given to me. I hope it will bring a joy or a peace or an understanding that will make it worth your while to read. 
          With all of this, I do have one or two disclaimers. There are two poems that seem to be out of place in this portfolio. The first is a poem called "Guilty Conscience of a Hibakusha" which is a poem about a woman who lost her daughter to an atomic bomb blast, and her story of how the atomic bomb has affected her both physically and emotionally with the loss of her daughter. As with anything that I write that doesn't have a "happy ending," this poem is meant to showcase the depths of the brokenness of our world. While the poem doesn't offer Christ as a hope to get through her pain, reality most certainly does. 
          The second poem that I'd like to speak about is the poem titled "Buzz and Crash." This poem really gets to a lot of issues that are prominent in our society, namely family issues, heartbreak and false love, and drug and alcohol addictions. It is another work that I hope will capture a small portion of the entirety of our brokenness and how we're all searching for the one thing that will make us feel whole or fix some deep-seated emotional pain that we've tried to repress. It's always the temptation of the writer to try to explain or justify their own works, but it is the prerogative of the reader to glean from it whatever he or she sees in the work that speaks to them. I'll let the work speak for itself, but I would love to get feedback from readers if anyone has a suggestion or a comment! All glory to the One who provides my every breath.
          Click here to access my Dropbox where you can read through the poems in this portfolio titled "Poetry Portfolio Spring 2014 Danielle Eschedor."