Taming the Wild – A Poem
The poetics prompt at dVerse Poets Pub today was to write about the WILD. My first thought was of a song by Johnny Cash called “The Beast in Me” (see video below). I thought of the line in that song, “God help the beast in me.” There is a little of the beast in all of us, and we need God to tame that beast, as we have no power to overcome the beast on our own.
Taming the Wild
The wild in me
I am powerless to tame
It would consume and
Obliterate my name
I walk the dark valley
of death in my heart
If I walk all alone
it will tear me apart
To be like You
is impossible to see
Instead I must die
and You live in me
I’ll not know tameness
nor escape from this hell
unless the divine
in my heart does dwell
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nice one.
This works for me. Lovely.
Thank you! 🙂
Linda, I loved this so so much. One of your best . . .but I may say that about all of them. 😉 I think there is a destructive wild, a rebellious wild and then what some may call the good wild is the freedom we have in Him, that Spirit thing (as the Newsboys sing of it). That’s my take anyway . . .thank you!!!! God bless you and the Divine life inside!
Deb, I love how encouraging you always are in your comments. You have no idea how important your words are to me. 🙂 I always know you are sincere. Peace, Linda
This is a very entertaining poem and reads well aloud.
That’s cool! I hadn’t tried reading it aloud, but I will have to try it. 🙂 Peace, Linda
I can understand the sense of feeling an enemy within, of working hopelessly against one’s self, of being in a hole and desperately needing a hand out. From what I know of Johnny Cash’s life, he struggled with this for years. It’s another way of seeing the wild, of something to be feared.
Mark, Johnny Cash certainly did struggle for most of his life with his inner enemy, which manifested in drug addiction. But he also had great period of peace within. He is one of my favorite musical artists in large part because I can relate to his struggles and he was so honest about them in the end. Peace, Linda
Our hearts contain that duel citizenship. The mystery…Christ in you, the hope of glory. There is a fine line between freedom and wildness…often hard to distinguish between the two…whether we need to or not.
Jerry, Thanks for the nice comment. There is, indeed, a fine line between freedom and wildness. Good thought. Peace, Linda
i’m going to disagree/be contrary and say that modern psychology has found way to take the wild in us all 😉
You are certainly entitled to your opinion and I appreciate that you are bold enough to share it. My own experience with modern psychology is that it did not give me peace, but rather stirred up the wild within me. It is only Christ who has ever brought me peace and meekness of spirit. Peace, Linda
This is beautiful…specially the last verse:
I’ll not know tameness
nor escape from this hell
unless the divine
in my heart does dwell
Thank you.:) Peace, Linda
i would agree as well there is a wild in all of us…i understand the use of tame and wild in this…i would say though that in many ways our interpretations of the gospels have more neutered us and a few more men (and women) could use some john the baptist or jesus wildness…
Brian, Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I agree that there is another persective on wildness and tameness that flips which is good and which is bad. A little Jesus wildness – He certainly wasn’t tame by the standards of the Pharisees – would be good for all of us. Peace, Linda
Ah…the struggle within. Thank God for His grace.
Yes, His grace is what sustains me every day! Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Peace, Linda
hmmmm… This was quite effective for me, reminiscent of Blake’s Songs of Experience, in a good way. There’s a literalness to the sentiments that you express that makes it real for me, which is what a lot if religious poetry often lacks. Good stuff!
Charles, I’m not familiar with Blake, but will have to check it out. I appreciate your thoughtful comment. I write what I know, and that is my own need for Christ. I am grateful that it comes across as so real. Peace, Linda
http://banishedman.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/homonym/
there is a wild in us that shouldn’t be tamed i think but set free and there is another wild in us that needs careful observation as it is immensely powerful and highly dangerous… not always easy to know which is which…good thoughts here linda
Claudia, I don’t disagree with that; there are two sides of every coin. I know from experience I am unable to tame that latter, highly dangerous wild on my own. Perhaps it isn’t possible to set the former wild free either, without Divine help. Hmmmm. I’ll have to think about that. Peace, Linda
P.S. Fixed your typo. 😉