David Andrews: Unfinished Business

I’ve decided that it’s time to admit to myself that I am now a writer.

I write poetry. I have had my poetry published, and now, I’ve recently published my first book–all in the space of about 12 months.

My writing defines part of who I am; it defines my approach to my life and my faith.

I have discovered many other writers who are travelling down this same road. It’s easy to think we are all alone, but there is great support if you know where to look.

Like most writers, I sometimes get writers block. I get stuck, and sometimes I’m not sure if something I’m working on is barely started or half-finished. I guess that would depend on whether I see my glass half full or half empty. Generally, I don’t like to do things by half, and I get great satisfaction when something is complete.

I’m discovering with writing that a half-finished poem is something great to come back to later, rework, and look at again through a different lens–change and adapt.

I have a lot of poetry and writing that is finished, and I have a lot that’s half done. I have even more that are just at the idea stage, and I haven’t really progressed much further.  No doubt there is more that I haven’t even thought about yet. I hope so.

I wrote a poem a while back, when I shelved my half-finished book, about the lonely existence of a writer and how sometimes it plays on my mind. If you’re a writer or someone who just wants to finish something, then some of these words may just resonate with you. I’d be interested in your thoughts, fully cooked or half-baked. It may just be time to start work on the other half.

Unfinished Business

On my bookshelf
Of half-finished dreams
Lies my hopes and my fears
At least that what it seems

I’ve journaled my faith
Many words I have rhymed
But now I’m stuck fast
In the malaise of time

I’ve toiled with my time
Sweated blood, hopes and fears
My dream remains only half-baked
It brings me to tears I feel half awake

I feel half awake
In my struggle for self
As cobwebs and doubts
Bury my dreams on the shelf

I feel so alone
Isolated and cold
Wondering if anyone cares
As I write and grow old

I have journeyed alone
Taking long leaps of faith
I now need your prayers
As I stray life a waif

You can help me my friend
Pray I wake from my dream
Pray my words see the light
And the lights go all green

David Andrews writes for Poetry in Motion. His writing is an expression of his faith in a world full of paradox. David is married with three sons and lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

© www.poetryinmotion.co.nz

Feeling alone in your writing life? What advice can you offer other writers?

The Book – Beautiful Mystery (by David Andrews)

Once upon a time a family of letters was walking along and tripped over a mis-related participle that someone had just left lying around. The letters fell onto a fresh clean sheet of paper. It so happened that on this day they formed words – lots of words. It just happened that they all fell into line – stanzas to be precise. The words, by chance, formed poetry and all those who read were amazed, but not at all surprised at the evolution of the poetry book. It really was no mystery.

Nice story, but a bit of a fairy tale. Books are created, written by a creator and an author. Art imitates life and in this process ideas are formed. Ideas are the content of the creative process. Some form and structure is required t

o ever get words, ideas, and thoughts into a book. This is also a creative process. It is sometimes a painful process.

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
~Ernest Hemingway.

In the last month I have published my first book.  By the world’s standard I have become an author. The truth is I became an author a long time ago because I believed in a dream, a dream that God placed in my heart so many years ago. I had the faith to become an author because of the author who created this process in me, the author and perfector of my faith – Jesus.

All of this is a bit of a mystery to me, an enigma wrapped inside a riddle, to paraphrase Winston Churchill. It’s a beautiful mystery and yet at the same time very elusive.
This book will help you believe and dream. This book describes elements of this beautiful mystery. It is a roadmap. You will be able to use it to plot your course, but God is the only one who can determine your steps. In that gap between planning and waiting is where you will find your desire – your beautiful mystery. This is God’s desire for you – to find it and then go and do it.So I have launched  my book – Beautiful Mystery. Actually, God is the one who will launch it; I am just privileged to hold the pen. I am no different to you. You each have your own beautiful mystery, because God placed it there in your heart. If you haven’t found it you can if you choose to believe and dream.

If you would like to preview the book – Beautiful Mystery click here.

Proceeds from the sale of this book support The Rock Church’s (Wellington, New Zealand) mission programme in Cambodia.

Beautiful Mystery

Take me into your perfect love
The love that never ends
Take me back to your mystery
Where we were forever friends

Take me into you mercy
Where its whiter than the snow
Take me into the beautiful
Where your living waters flow

Take me into your perfect grace
And remind me I am free
Take me back to your mystery
Lift the fog so I may see

Take me into your presence
Here I stand with open arms
Take me into the beautiful
And protect me from all harm

Consume me in your perfect love
The love that casts out all my fear
Take me back to your mystery
With arms wide open I am here

In your beautiful mystery
In faith we walked before
In your beautiful mystery
Lead me back to you once more

David Andrews writes for Poetry in Motion. His writing is an expression of his faith in a world full of paradox. David is married with three sons and lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

Links:

Book view and purchase:   http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3154629

Website: www.poetryinmotion.co.nz

Related articles

• Poetry in Motion: Poet’s House (storywritingstudio.wordpress.com)

BookCover/BeautifulMystery
Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Photo/DavidAndrews

For the Rest of Your Life (by David Andrews)

I’ve been underfed,
I’ve been overdrawn,
I’m tired of walking this fine line for so long,
I’ve been looking for you in all the wrong places.
So who will come to the aid of a man like me.
(“A Man Like Me” by Derek Lind)

Life is busy, there are many things that keep us occupied and distracted. Most of this ‘busyness’ wears us down, and tires us out. We need someone or something to come to our rescue. Sooner than later we start to long for that wonderful time of year where we can sit on the beach, climb into the hammock, close our eyes and drift away while the sun warms our soul. Paradise.

While this is the experience of many of us, something seems wrong with this picture. Something seems very wrong. Is this really all there is to life – waiting for the next break, the next holiday to relax and rest? Is this what the rest of our life looks like? Is it the best we can hope for?

We have an opportunity to turn all of this upside down. Imagine for a moment what it would be like to find a place of rest and then operate our lives from this place. I’m not talking about sitting on a beach with a laptop. I’m talking about getting away with Jesus, taking a rest, and getting (as my American friends would say) the heck out of Dodge.

Jesus wants us to experience his way, his rhythm of life, his rhythm of grace. From this place we can still achieve all the things we need and want to do. Actually it’s more what Jesus wants us to do and be. It’s a change of attitude and mindset. It’s a change of culture.

Here’s how the band Jesus Culture describes it:

Come away with Me, Come away with Me
It’s never too late, it’s not too late
It’s not too late for you

I have a plan for you
It’s gonna be wild
It’s gonna be great
It’s gonna be full of Me
(“Come Away” by Jesus Culture)

How do we do this? How do we come away? We choose to, we ask Jesus for his rest, and we believe it. It’s really that simple.

So what about you? How will you spend the rest of your life? What do you need to stop doing? Will you take up Jesus’ invitation to come away? Maybe you’re doing this now. Would you share your experience, here or somewhere? It may help someone find their place of rest, for the rest of their life.

Finally, here’s my take from Jesus’ view on rest – his unforced rhythm of grace.

The Rhythm of Grace
by David Andrews

Are you tired and weary
Sick of running this race
Come away with me
Learn the rhythm of grace

Are you weighed down
By the burdens that you face
Come away with me
Learn the rhythm of grace

Are you over religion
Has the salt lost its taste
Come away with me
Learn the rhythm of grace

Do you need real rest
But can’t find it at your place
Come away with me
Learn the rhythm of grace

I can set you life free
Watch me, seek my face
Come walk with me
Learn my rhythm of grace

Image: markuso / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
YouTube/fanforever8  (Jesus Culture: “Come Away”)

 How will you spend the rest of your life? What do you need to stop doing?

Related articles

• Poetry in Motion: Poet’s House (storywritingstudio.wordpress.com)

Poetry in Motion: Poet’s House (by David Andrews)

A special thanks to David Andrews for his guest post submission, “The Poet’s House.”  Be sure to check out David’s blog, Poetry in Motion.

I like poetry, and I believe all poems are good. Some poems are a badge of honour or an emblem of courage. Most poetry I write is my attempt to say the unsayable. Some of my poems really hit the nail on the head–with others I just hit my thumb–and some are just a collection of words that may never see the light of day.

What I have found with poetry is that it is possible to write something that is universal, something to which everyone can relate to, yet at the same time address some personal desire to express emotions and feelings. Poems are really just doors between the soul and the outside world. There is something unique and humbling about writing a poem that opens a door for other people to walk through and see something previously unseen. This is an experience that can never be undone.

Here’s my story of how I write poetry and how fortunate I feel to be able create and open doors for people to walk through. Poetry challenges us as it requires us to let go of reason and lose ourselves in words. During this process we can sometimes find parts of ourselves that we may have misplaced somewhere along the journey of life. What is it that you have misplaced? How will you find it?

The Poet’s House (by David Andrews)

At the edge of reason
Inside the poet’s house,
There lies a walnut writing desk
With dusty books upon its shelf.

Through the dreary window of his soul
He feels the maddening wind,
The trees that bend and break
The leaves of paper fall in his bin.

The wind whispers as it wanders
As it walks around the room,
It’s pockets full of pensive hands
It’s voice is full of doom.

We speak our lies, the truth is dark
There is no light to save,
Your words will never blossom
Your garden is a grave.

Will the poet listen
Or turn towards the light,
At the edge of reason
On this wild and windy night.

An angel breathes life into his words
He rolls them around his mind,
The musings of his restless heart
Will make it out this time.

The words fly fast
His pen scrawls across the page,
Back from the edge of reason
The poet has centre stage.

The poet is finally complete
Exhausted, he feels so blessed.
A smile forms on the poets face
His heart and soul at rest.

The poet lives and writes at the frontier between deep internal experience and the revelations of the outer world. There is no going back for the poet once this frontier has been reached; a new territory is visible and what has been said cannot be unsaid. The discipline of poetry is in overhearing yourself say difficult truths from which it is impossible to retreat. Poetry is a break for freedom. (David Whyte)

David Andrews writes for Poetry in Motion. His writing is an expression of his faith in a world full of paradox. He is currently working on his first book of poetry which is due to be published this year. David is married with three sons and lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

www.poetryinmotion.co.nz

Photo1/KarenJordan

Photo2/DavidAndrews

What thoughts about your own writing journey came to mind as you read David’s poem?