Kristy wrote a little poem, little poem, little poem
Kristy wrote a little poem, and now you’re automatically singing Mary had a little lamb, aren’t you?

I just had a random stroke of.. stroke- as you can see, the stroke is abandoning my imagination now and I cannot figure out what to call the stroke, as it’s not really a stroke of genius, but also not like a medical stroke, thank God for that.

When I was growing up. I had to recite a lot of poems for church. I hated poems. I don’t know why they are such a big thing in the Slavic tradition that I come from, as I have never encountered the regular recital of poetry in any other formal religious setting.

I can see it now: me and a few girls from my youth group scrambling before the service to write out a program.

It would usually look like this:
Prayer
Congregation sings
Youth choir
Sermon 1
Choir
Poem
Song
Sermon 2
Song
Poem
Choir
Poem
Song
Sermon 3
Choir
Song
Closing Prayer

Yes, 3 sermons. This was the structure of most services, though sometimes there would be one less sermon(best day ever) or it would just be a lot of songs, with no poems to break up the music, also not a bad day.

I find it highly ironic, now that I’m writing a poem, because of my dislike of poetry. I think it is because i associate poems with church, which translates to spiritual poems. Spiritual poems aren’t bad, but there are a lot of bad poems that are spiritual, and given the rate at which I heard poems, I can tell you that I’ve heard a lot, and not all of them were great. I remember so many would have just a slight- teeny tiny- thread of negativity. It was subtle, but enough to evoke a feeling of discomfort, perhaps even guilt. I know poetry should evoke feelings or at least thoughts, but not in a consistent make-you-feel-kinda-bad-about-yourself way, at least that’s not how I like my poetry.

Example: I was given a poem to learn for a service. The theme for the service was “Gratitude”, so my poem was about the Russian word for thank you “spacibo”, which apparently was derived from “spaci(to save)” and “Bog(God)” literally translating to “God save you.” In the opening line, it goes like this: “A simple and good word “Thank you”, how could you not like this word? It once used to mean “may God save you”, but people were quick to forget that.”

Did you catch it? There’s a subtle implication of malice on the part of those who speak the language and adapt words in an ever changing environment, how dare they? So for this reason, and a few others, I really dislike a lot of the poems recited in church. Were there good poems? Definitely. Did people enjoy them? Most likely. Is it something that could be done away with? Also most likely yes.

Are my reasons good enough to write off a whole integral part of a Slavic Baptist worship service? Maybe yes, maybe no, but I think we will never know.

Now that you have this context, maybe it’s a bit more clear why I find my sudden poetic streak rather ironic. The meter is a bit off (you have to emphasize “he” in the fourth line in order to have good flow) but nonetheless, it happened, and perhaps you’ll enjoy it.

Let me know what you think. It’s cutesy, simple, and sweet, so the intended audience is likely to be kids and kids at heart.

The Great Big Story
In the beginning, God created everything
The earths[planets], the suns, the seas
He made bacteria, the dinosaurs, the mammoths, and the trees
He loves his creation, and that is clear to see
As he gave sapiens a mind to think, and know, and feel, and be
He left a lot of clues for scientists to find
To figure out just how it’s made, to get into his mind
And as we study more and more, the bigger our God gets
For there is so much left to learn and much to keep us guessing
The universe reveals his power- black holes are glorious things
And so are tiny worker bees with pollen on their wings
In big and little, God is seen
A being full of glory
Look up and down and all around, take in the Great Big Story

• 

-Kris