Courageous
The prompt at dVerse Poets Pub today is to write using antithesis. Bjorn asks us to use contrasting terms to encompass the real truth of the matter as we live in a world both black and white at the same time. As the topic of fear and courage have been much on my mind lately, I immediately thought of the antithesis of feeling fear while having faith. This is how we can be courageous.
Courageous
The giants tower above me
menacing and cruel
I tremble in faith
Stand resolutely with fear
The waves crash down upon me
mighty and powerful
I shudder in faith
Rise unflinchingly with fear
The enemy surrounds me
threatening and heartless
I cringe in faith
Prevail triumphantly with fear
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The contrast makes your poem (and courage) more powerful!
I do like your faith lines. I’ve found them to be true in my life.
This is perfect.
Well done. I love the gentle verbs that come with each “faith” line. Faith is power enough, indeed.
It’s like the mantra of the expat: everything around you can be giant, daunting, and strange, but with each day, from the store to the post office, facing that fear and doing the mundane is its own little triumph.
One of the most courageous ways of life is
to survive in fear.. and lord knows these days
anxiety is a common way.. ah one day the
fear is gone.. and the blessings of peace
are remembered in fear before..:)
I came across a quote the other day about courage and fear and your poem reminded me of it. ‘Courage is not the absence of fear but the mastery of fear.’ Faith can help us in just that.
I like that quote. So true.
To “rise unflinchingly with fear” is definitely a contrast….seems almost like a contradiction, but then I suppose that is what courage is….being able to act contrary to our fear 🙂
It does seem a contradiction. I think I’ve finally learned that acting fearless in spite of feeling fear is what being courageous is all about.
Fear is such an impediment to faith–and you’ve expressed it so well.
Yes, but faith can be an antidote to letting fear win the day. 🙂
Like the play within the third line of each stanza. Well done.
strength and weakness… maybe in our weakness we are strong
I find this so much more engaging when you contrast the fear with faith.. the shudder in faith is a very strong image.. I’m glad to have given you the tool… 🙂
Thanks. I’m finding as I work through the issue of fear, and my desire to be fearless, that the reality is closer to a courage forged in fear, moving forward in spite of fear. I like that this prompt helped me encompass those thoughts into a poem. 🙂
Really like the contrast of trembling/shuddering/cringing in faith just as you also stand/rise/prevail with fear; lovely juxtapositions.
You pose an interesting dichotomy, beautifully argued.
I really enjoyed your approach to antithesis, Linda. My favorite phrase is ‘stand resolutely with fear,’ which I think is an excellent example of antithesis.