Because Of You

Sitting on Your fallen Redwood tree,
I examine my life.
I’ve come so far
because of You.
Not in the way the world sees success—
it goes deeper than that.

You have changed me from deep
within my soul,
my heart.
You have been building me into
Your Oak of Righteousness.
The ground I am standing on is
steady and secure,
because of You.
The pain has not been wasted,
it has refined me,
because of You.

The dross has been coming to the surface
as You have been purging the impurities
in me.
I have been on Your anvil,
being pounded and shaped,
into what You want to make of
me.
The hilly, rocky ground I was raised on
has been tilled by
You.
You don’t grow an oak quickly,
but it takes many, many
years.

Some years have been full of
water and happiness.
Some have been filled with
sorrow and pain.
Through it all You are my roots,
roots that will anchor me to the
ground.
These roots hold me steady
through any storms
of life.
When the storms of life come, as they will,
Your springs of life will
sustain me.

Your Oak of Righteousness has grown,
and is growing,
because of You.

July 16, 2003
Written while at Richardson Grove Redwood campground.

James: Very beautiful. Did you write for your wife? a friend? I think it's nice you took the time to write poetry while you were on vacation...

I wrote one poem for my wife while on vacation. I also wrote another on Monday night. I have been having trouble getting time to write, so tomorrow I am going to taking a day off without her know it so I can work on a bunch of ideas I have for poems for her. With 3 kids and all, it is hard to find the time to write for a long period. Even the one I wrote on Monday night I told my wife I was at the store, she knew I meant I had to look for a present for her. In reality I was really at Borders Books and Cafel. Tomorrow I will get a lot done! I have a bunch of vacation left and my boss said it was OK to take a personal day. So I will be at Starbucks somewere. It will work our well becuase my wife ususally calls me on my cell so she will have no idea I am not really at work. I am not in the habit of lying to her, I just need to have some extended time that I have not been able to take. So SHHHHH, don't tell any one;-)

Okay James, I will not tell her....You sound very sweet, kind and sneaky but in a romantic way:)

Hey Joan,

I wrote about 6 poems yesterday and wrote some notes on a couple more for my wife. I just have to refine them. One of them is actually a Sonnet, that took a while, but it was a very productive day. I spent the whole day at Starbucks! I brought my lunch there and I hung out on the couch in the back and had all me stuff spread out on a coffee table. I had 3 Venti coffees!

Anyway, it was a very good day. It was also really cool for me because I read a bunch of old letters that she wrote to me and that I wrote to her. I sort of got a little review of our courtship/engagement days. It was very rewarding for me.

Anyway, I am rambling now.......

James: Rambling is cool..and your wife is SOOOO lucky to have you:) Um, what's a "sonnet"?:)

Here's the definition of a Sonnet (http://www.shadowpoetry.com/types.html):

Sonnet
A Sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines (iambic pentameter) with a particular rhyming scheme:

Examples of a rhyming scheme:

#1) abab cdcd efef gg
#2) abba cddc effe gg
#3) abba abba cdcd cd


A Shakespearean (English) sonnet has three quatrains and a couplet,
and rhymes abab cdcd efef gg.

An Italian sonnet is composed of an octave, rhyming abbaabba, and
a sestet, rhyming cdecde or cdcdcd, or in some variant pattern, but
with no closing couplet.

Here are a couple examples of some famous ones, I will note the rhyme scheme after each line in parenteses, the same letters rhyme. It is harder to write and most poets today do not write this type of poetry, but are more likely to write free verse:

Sonnet XLIII
HOW do I love thee? Let me count the ways. (a)
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height (b)
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight (b)
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. (a)
I love thee to the level of everyday's (c)
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. (d)
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; (d)
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. (c)
I love thee with the passion put to use (e)
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. (f)
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose (e)
With my lost saints, -I love thee with the breath, (f)
Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose, (e)
I shall but love thee better after death. (f)
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning


XVIII
SHALL I compare thee to a summer's day? (a)
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: (b)
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, (a)
And summer's lease hath all too short a date: (b)
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, (c)
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; (d)
And every fair from fair sometime declines, (c)
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; (d)
But thy eternal summer shall not fade (e)
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; (f)
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, (e)
When in eternal lines to time thou growest: (f)
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, (g)
So long lives this and this gives life to thee. (g)
~William Shakspeare

James: You are the third man on this forums thread who I sense is extra extra extra romantic and sensitive.....with regard to his wife/girlfriend or women in general. Your day at Starbucks sounds like the "day before your wedding day"...type of thing...

What's a Venti coffee? I'm on my back to Tampa...now. If I pass a Starbucks or when I get back to Tampa, I will order one and just drink it and think "Hmmm, this is what James likes".

Would love to hear the Sonnet you wrote for your wife when it is done. Thanks for the Sonnet lesson. Very interesting "rhyming" scheme. Ya know what? When I was reading the Shakespeare sonnet above, some of the lines that rhymed -- I would not have realized they rhymed if you hadn't shared with me the rhyming pattern beforehand....:) In other words, it's not always clear that two lines have rhymed, especially if they are far apart from each other in the sonnet....:) But I guess that's who it is supposed to be...?

Hey Joan,

A Venti coffee is the size at Starbucks. They have Venti(large), Grande(medium) and Tall(small) When I was in Texas, a few years ago, San Antonio, they had Mega size Frappacino, but everything is big in Texas; they also had thee liter soda's that were common in all the grocery stores. Back to the coffee, I always just get the coffee of the day, never the fancy ones.

There are all kinds of different poetry. Haiku is a Japanese form.
I think it is 3 lines consisting of a total of 17 syalables.

Here is an example, I posted my Ode to What About Bob? to a telecom board, in the humor section and this guy made up Haiku:

The film “What about Bob?”
Laughter, fun, insanity
Mirth mocks reality

As far as posting the sonnet for my wife, she will have to see it first, but I don't know if she will want me to post that one. Maybe I will make another one and post it.

As far as the "day at Starbucks sounds like the "day before your wedding day"...type of thing..." I guess I had a whole bunch of grief ridden poems, mayb 13 to 15 that I wrote about my wife during a time that we were broken up before we got engaged, and I wanted to counter balance those with some happy ones.

Oh okay, I did not know you had a difficult time before you got engaged and so wrote some difficult poems...well isn't it great that you got through the difficult times BEFORE getting married and having kids?

I like your Haiku poem for What About Bob? Yes Haiku I am definitely familiar with....Eric from this Forums had started a Haiku thread not too long ago...I think it got lost:( (I think he said it was three lines as you say with 17 syllables...5 syllables, 7 syllables, then 5 again)

I thought Venti was a flavor!! Funny how grande is medium and not large..and tall is small and not bigger:)

Thanks James...writing you is interesting:)