Beloved

I don’t want a fairy tale that’s sweet on the mind, but fades when the book closes

I don’t need curled up pages, binded by hardback covers on wooden shelves

I want petals penned in stone

literature so smooth it’s like a lullaby

Scripture so strong it sets fire to hearts closed up by the world

I want words written on flames that dance through fields of roses

I want graphite to flow through pages like an evening spring

I want poetry to hit so hard it leaves scars on the very parts of your soul you’ve locked away

I don’t need illusions and alliterations to unlock the chains you bind to your feet

You’re a child of wrath, living within the glory of darkness

so unaware of the brightness

I want to show you a different world

where literature isn’t just princes and witches

I’ll show you pages that were written in the sky, bright like stars and timeless like the universe

God breathed they say

Sonnets of love and sacrifice

just stories they say

But I tell you, I don’t believe in fairytales

So give me a reason why we hold the rambles of man as greater than the words inspired by one greater than all

For He calls you Beloved, is that not more wonderful than all the praises of man?

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Tyler, a very talented writer and photographer, is a junior at Wheaton Academy. She went with us to Scotland in January 2015. This poem was written as she reflected on her time in a country that has such a rich heritage of Christian faith but now has so few who believe in and follow Christ.