Category Archives: The Arts

A place for poetry, music, literature and art

Kimchi Poetry

So, when you’re looking for a fun activity to do in a small group, try this little concoction we tried last night. Here’s all you’ll need:

One part imagination
One paper for each participant
One pencil for each

So, to begin, each person has a paper and pencil. Everyone writes a phrase on the top of the page as if they were writing a poem. Each paper is passed and a second line is written after reading the first. Here’s where it gets interesting. The second person to write a line then folds the paper back so the first phrase is no linger visible. They then pass the paper again. Each of the following people do the same so that every person writes one line with only the previous line visible.

If you’re lookin’ to add a little more spice to the game, try playing Scattergories or another word game beforehand so the group is primed to add a hearty handful of inside jokes into the delicious “Kimchi Poetry.” The name, by the way, has nothing to do with the poems themselves, it’s just a name that came out as we were talking and it stuck. However, if you were to look for some meaning to the name of the game, it may make sense that it’s just as random as the poems are. Else, some poems, after fermenting a while are really delicious to the distinguishing pallet.

Whatever you call it, it’s a fun little game, especially for those who like to write.

Following are the 10 poems that were fermented by 5 very different people! I hope you have as much fun reading them as we did creating them. I gave each a name so you can vote for your favorite at the end. Feel free to psychoanalyze the dishes to help us get to the bottom our group consciousness. Those and any other thoughts are welcome in the comments section after the poems.

Heart Conscience

For those people who enjoy water
Your conscience will like this message
If your heart can hear
Then my love will respond
To the most intimate terms of endearment

The Transformation

As he rose from the shivering grass
Blistering orbules exploded
Training my eyes to retreat
For too much is a burden in the beholding
Of this cornucopia that transfigures

Adventurous Wookie

“Forever my little Wookie,” she cooed
“Forever, forever and forever.”
On the stems of wilder wood
I rode the ultimate adventure
Because my heart was pure

Hesitant Amid Temptation

Mysterious curiosity
Beckons intensely
But I will not go
Until I can draw the right conclusions
Of what may come for Mr. Bojangles

Icicles Overboard

The spot drew my focus
And I turned my soul to meet
The icicles of the sea
Grew like bamboo
Until it reached the threshold

The Rooster’s Wit OR The Jello Epiphany

A rooster watches through the window
And he sees other humorous mannequins
Laughing at his wit
She casually jiggled her jello
To find the truth she known all along

Memories of Partridge Tree Youth

Positively delightful, the youth of Partridge Tree
Hope for living in the now
And then when we forget and trip on tomorrow
we can be propelled by these memories
Of longing, light and wit
And the whimsy of laughing daffodils

Itchaway

Dolphin cheese & killer bees
In the magic land of Itchaway
There lived a tiny lark
Who laid tiny blue eggs
An offering of conduit to future

Amphibious Youth

In the puddles of amphibious youth
My feet drew up joy leaving memories
My mind opened to a greater world
Where the tropics covered the earth
They lived in harmony

In Their Eyes

Children sometimes speak with their eyes
You just have to look deeper
Into the shallow depths of the pellucid
A glimmer of hope shone forth
And I joined the fairies in their dance

Vote for your fav & try it out yourself next group get together. We’d love to sample your juiciest & most savory Kimchi Poems! Until then!!

n

{democracy:2}

The Gift

Dedicated to everyone who strives for knowledge about self.

It has settled upon me
One reason perhaps why
I’ve been given this gift,
This thorn in the side

My desire for focus
Has stemmed from my lack
And drawn me t’wards Father
His ability in tact

I learn of His greatness
His glory & light
That will encompass my spirit
When I pass through the night

That heavenly focus
Is a super human power
Comprehending the oceans
Each sand of each hour

Not one at a time
As now I must grow
But hundreds upon thousands
Of truths will I know

And if this is all — the reason my mind
Tries to lay hold of 50 things at a time,
That it’s a heavenly yearning
And my body lags behind —

Then I’ll praise my God
For this gift from above
That’s helping me see heaven
And his precious, divine love

~ Ryan “Super Focus Boy” Mendenhall

I felt the distint impression this morning as I was studying about the Spirit World, after death, that my tendency to want to try to comprehend everything now is an inseperable part of my spirit that’s trying to work within the confines of the limiting factor of my physical body.

The impressions came as I was listening to Brent L. Top’s talk called What’s On the Other Side? What the Gospel Teaches Us about the Spirit World, especially these words from Orson Pratt speaking of what learning is like in the spirit world once we die,

“We shall learn many more things there; we need not suppose our five senses connect us with all the things of heaven, and earth, and eternity, and space; we need not think that we are conversant with all the elements of nature, through the medium of the senses God has given us here. Suppose He should give us a sixth sense, a seventh, an eighth, a ninth, or a fiftieth. All these different senses would convey to us new ideas, as much so as the senses ol tasting, smelling, or seeing communicate different ideas from that of hearing….

How long a time would it take a man in the next world, if he had to gain knowledge as we do here, to find out the simplest things in nature ? He might reason, and reason for thousands of years, and then hardly have got started. But when this Spirit of God, this great telescope that is used in the celestial heavens, is given to man, and he, through the aid of it, gazes upon eternal things, what does he behold ? Not one object at a time, but a vast multitude of objects rush before his vision, and are present before his mind, filling him in a moment with the knowledge of worlds more numerous than the sands of the sea shore. Will he be able to bear it ? Yes, his mind is strengthened in proportion to the amount of information imparted. It is this tabernacle, in its present condition, that prevents us from a more enlarged understanding…

I believe we shall be freed, in the next world, in a great measure, from these narrow, contracted methods of thinking. Instead of thinking in one channel, and following up one certain course of reasoning to find a certain truth, knowledge will rush in from all quarters ; it will come in like the light which flows from the sun, penetrating every part, informing the spirit, and giving understanding concerning ten thousand things at the same time; and the mind will be capable of receiving and retaining all.”

 (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, Brigham Young)

Brilliant!

Mothers

If hearts could be gold

The treasure to be found

Within a mother’s love

Would vast coffers make quite sound

Her words speak hope and confidence

They lift and build and grow

Each one so blessed to be called her child

Does such inspiring words surely know

Her prayers do rally heaven

When in fear her children flee

The Lord dispatches legions

Each time she raises need

Her songs bring peace to troubled hearts

The melody she raises, so sweet

Each tune, each strain, each heartfelt note

With no worldly verse competes

Her devotion is divine

Her affections are sure true

Consistency her haulmark

All things she appears to do

With nothing less than teary eyes

I thank those mothers kind

Who, like angels, have shared their hearts with me

And in whom I can God’s love find

– K. Arthur

Beauty in a Rose

Rose

A rose is a sign of beauty, but why is there none in death?
The flower brought joy in life, but why is there none in death?

The memory’s there to carry on the spirit of the rose
But all in all memories fade and understanding blooms & grows.
Now the precious flow’s gone back to join w/ earth
And now you see that beauty comes in death & not just birth.

(August 1996)

Power of The Word

Through the mists of darkness
there shines a perfect light
To those who hold fast the rod
and seek to follow right

Day by day and hour by hour
we choose our paths, our fate
Joy awaits the faithful
their souls to liberate

Each step we take towards His love
each moment we endure
We’re given strength to lengthen strides
our destiny’s made sure

Within God’s word we find a power –
the truth our heats can see
And through His Son’s atonement
the gift of being free

(Written December 9, 2006 by R.M.)