Suburban Play

Cheerful children prance on plush green grass,
Frolic in the afternoon brightness.

Two engrave their initials on a gnarly trunk,
Savor young love and the moment.

Parents gaze contentedly at their spouses.
Excited children squeal in the culdesac.

A kickball soars over the roof,
Luminous in the late day sun.

The little ones hide in obvious places,
Impatient to be found.

The light fades into lavendar hues
And the street begins to empty.


--Jordan Romain (Grade 10)

Winners of the Random Word Poetry Contest

And the winners are... Jordan Romain and Ed Pacht.  Here are their winning entries:

Web of Lies

Your web of lies appears to show
the gladness of a kind soul,
masking the prickly strips of silk,
fragments that flash
like hollowing salutes.
A pair of love-soaked silk ribbons
swoop between the pillars,
cinching a tightly laced corset.
The dust of betrayal fades,
revealing a blood-red trench.
In its midst clay
molds your life to the lies
you created.
Deeper still,
iron chains box and bind you.
Before you realize, you are forever deep
in the bottomless pit,
caught in your web of lies.


---Jordan Romain (Grade 10)



The Love-Soaked Road

The cacti stood in prickly rows beside the path,
much like pillars lined beside a sacred way.
A pair was walking hand-in hand in blowing dust,
bare feet slapping on the hard-packed clay.
In gladness beginning a journey together,
they watched the eagles swoop so far above,
with snow-white feathers flashing in the sun
in silent salute to their growing love.

For two whose lives were cut to ribbons
by the iron forces of a cruel world,
pounded into battered fragments,
and into the trash with scorn were hurled,
there seemed no choice for such as these,
that were prisoned, and trapped in that dark box,
and hopelessly caught like flies in a web,
straining and struggling to break through the locks.

Then a kind soul with a voice like silk
discovered those two, each in a trench,
brought them together, lifted them up,
and left them alone on a little stone bench,
hollowing there a place in their hearts
each for the other, where pain had been,
reaching to touch both hands and soul,
each healing the other deeply within.

The cacti stood in prickly rows beside the path,
much like pillars lined beside a sacred way.
A pair was walking that love-soaked road,
bare feet slapping on the hard-packed clay.
In gladness beginning a journey together,
they watched as sunset made the sky red,
a radiant salute to their growing love,
knowing that soon their vows would be said.

---ed pacht

Contrasting Realities

Two Real Worlds

dark and gloomy grins arise
fire burns the innocents alive
smoke and death, unbearable smell
this is the world, a second hell

bright and praise-filled voices sing
water for parched tongues He'll bring
the fragrance of life our hearts to leaven
this is the world, a second heaven

--Jordan Romain (Grade 10)

A Poem about Memories

Remembering

There I lie in the cold sweet snow.
I hear a calming whisper.
It is the voice I used to know,
My mother’s gentle tone –
A memory.
Then, an inner warmth
Like my father’s touch
Reminds me of when he was near
But he is gone.
As I lie longer in the soft snow
Looking at the midnight sky
Thinking about the world,
The memories fade away
Like a fire turning to ashes
Like a picture fading in a frame.
The snow no longer feels sweet,
No longer a place for snow angels.
It feels cold.


--Jordan Romain (Grade 9)

High School Freshman on What Really Matters

Forever Changing World
By Jordan Romaine, Grade 9



We have all these plans

to go somewhere

be something

but life gets in the way.

We dream big of what we want

to accomplish in life,

ready, set, go …

with the fashion craze or sports,

forgetting who was with us from the beginning,

leaving friends in the dust

as we run after beauty that fades.

What matters are the choices we make,

the friends we gain,

the lasting things of the Lord

that hold us in place in this forever changing world.



Read Jordan's excellent short story - The Flint Knife - here.

The American Flag: An Essay

The American Flag: A Thing of Beauty
Jordan Romain (Grade 8)

Have you walked down the streets while the stores and businesses were closing and turned to see something majestic? This something can be seen in any town on almost every street: the American flag.

In this essay I will explore the beauty and wonder of our flag. The things it has seen! The stories it could tell!

Have you noticed how the flag flaps aimlessly in the wind and then suddenly snaps in place like a soldier? It is able to command our attention.

Have you noticed how the colors never bleed together? The white, the red, the blue? Red symbolizes the wonderful soldier’s courage and their shed blood. White represents the selflessness of our soldiers, and blue stands for the vigilance of those who guard and defend our country.

Have you noticed how people salute the flag or tip their hats to show respect? They understand.

Maybe you’ve noticed that a few spit on the ground and wish to burn the flag. They don’t know what this flag symbolizes. It tells of our big country, of those who died for us, of how we became free and how we must stay free.

George Washington loved the Lord. He read Scripture every morning and night. He was such a devout Christian he would not let his army curse or take the Lord's name in vain. In 1776, Washington wrote this communiqué to his officers at Valley Forge:

The General is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice here to fore little known in the American Colonies, is growing into fashion. He hopes the officers will by example as well as influence endeavor to stop it, and that they and the men will reflect that we can have little hope of blessing from heaven upon our arms if we continue insult it by our impiety and folly.

The soldiers who fought for independence sacrificed so much to gain freedom from England. When we finally gained our freedom we wanted a high-flying symbol to show what we are as a people, and that symbol is the American flag.

Everyone has their own mindset on the flag and notion of freedom, but maybe not everyone takes into account all the sacrifices, all the soldiers lost, and the hope for a better future that freedom means for most Americans.

A Lament

The lament developed along with heroic poetry and is found in every culture. Examples include Deor's Lament, an early Anglo-Saxon poem in which a minstrel regrets his change of status in relation to his patron, and the ancient Sumerian Lament for the Destruction of Ur, which complains of the abandonment of the Sumerian cities and temples by the deities.


A lament is a poetic expression of sorrow, discouragement or anger after experiencing a loss. The next poem is a lament in the tradition of the Psalms, that is, it is addressed to God from a heart of faith.

Lament


I walk in the valley overshadowed

By death

And I am scared.

I call out to you

But I don’t feel your Presence.

I need a hug, God.

Where are you?

I ask for forgiveness

But it seems distant,

Like you, Lord.

Grant a sign to show you love me!

After 1000 falls

Lift me up!

Why do you not hear me, Lord?



--Jordan Romain (Grade 8)

Short Story: The Flint Knife

The Flint Knife

by

Jordan Romain (Grade 8)

CRASH!

The sound of clattering stone reverberated through the pristine halls of the musem. Sirens sounded.

“Wow, Mattie! You clumsy fool. You just broke the Badarian flint knife!”

Mattie’s wide eyes looked down at the knife. Terror made her stutter.

“I… I didn’t mean to. I tripped. Honest.”

Ms. Russell came rushing to where the girls were standing over the stone knife.

“What’s going on here?”

“Mattie broke the flint knife,” Rachel yelled, accusingly. She relished causing trouble for Mattie, her enemy.

Ms. Russell’s brow furrowed. “Is this true, Mattie?”

“Yes, Maam. I’m sooo sorry. I didn’t mean…”

“Mattie’s going to jail! Mattie’s going to jail!”

“Stop that, Rachel.”

The sirens finally subsided. Security guards flowed into the room, moving toward Maddie. As they cleared the area, the museum curator rushed in. He was a skinny, pale man with thick glasses.

“What happened to the Badarian knife? Oh, my goodness! Do you realize that this knife is 5000 years old?”

He was so upset that he appeared to be about to faint.

Mattie began to cry. She knew the artifact was important. Her teacher had explained to the class before they left school that they would be seeing the knife that Zipporah, Moses’ wife, used to circumcise their first-born son. It had to be valuable! Thank goodness it didn’t break.

What Mattie didn’t know, however, would change her life forever.

A ruby had dislodged from the knife’s hilt and had fallen into her shoulder bag. Even as the class was boarding the bus to return to school, the ruby was starting to glow.

Mattie sat in the front of the bus and as Rachel passed she sneered and said, “Nice going today, Mattie. You’re such a clutz.”

Mattie felt like sinking through the floor. She held her shoulder bag close to her chest and she felt something warm radiating against her. She opened the bag and looked inside. What she saw almost made her shout, but she didn’t want to draw any more attention to herself today. She would explore the glowing object when she was home.

When Mattie arrived home, she rushed upstairs to her bedroom and locked the door behind her. She dumped the contents of her handbag onto her bed. There on top of her mirror and lip gloss was a strange red object, glowing like an ember. She stared at it nervously. She wondered where it could have come from.

She finally stretched out her hand and touched the ruby. It was hot and she quickly pulled back her hand. Her curiosity was mixed with fear. What could this be?

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Her mother called, “Mattie, are you okay?”

Mattie tossed her pillow over the clutter from her handbag and turned toward the door.

“I’m fine, Mom. I’ll be down soon.”

“Okay, but please hurry because I need you to set the table.”

Mattie grabbed the ruby and hid it under her bed. Then she went downstairs and set the table, her mind pondering the mysterious appearance of the object.

During dinner she was unusually quiet which raised questions from her parents about her day. Mattie reluctantly told her parents what had happened at the museum; how she had tripped and knocked over a display case, spilling a 3000 B.C. flint knife onto the floor. She didn’t mention the ruby.

Mattie’s mother was horrified and her nostrils flared. Mattie knew she was about to get a major lecture, but her father stepped in and said, “It was an accident, dear. Accidents happen!”

Mattie’s eyes began to tear. It had been a very emotional day.

“May I be excused, please?”

Her father nodded and Mattie quietly slipped out of her seat and rushed upstairs.

That night as she sat up in her bed, she held the mysterious red object … she was sure it was a ruby… between her palms with her knees drawn up. Now it was strangely cool and calming. She drifted off to sleep. And she dreamt of the flowing Nile with stone shrines along the riverbanks. She saw a stranger in long multicolored robe. He was talking to a man and a woman in a strange language. They handed him the ruby that she had found that day in her handbag. The ruler took the stone and placed it in a flint knife.

He handed them the knife and said, “Keep this for the circumcision of the son who is to come. The ruby gives prophesy and the knife brings pain.”

Then the two men and the woman disappeared. The knife and ruby vanished also. The sky became gray and stormy. A booming voice from heaven said, “Mattie, now you know of things to come… the power of the knife and of the ruby. Guard the ruby as one of my holy prophets.”

Mattie awoke and sat up in her bed. It was a dream, or was it? She looked down at the ruby and an invisible hand began to chisel: Prophet of the Most High.

Mattie’s eyes grew wide and she sighed deeply. This was more than she could handle. This was scary. She picked up the ruby and held it close, wondering where she could hide it. How would she ever be able to keep it from falling into the wrong hands?