Poetry can often seem so difficult to write that we don't even bother. Yet it can harness images and tell picutres in ways which are very difficult using other types of art or media. This resource is both the poem itself and a call to action; try to write something yourself!

Think about images and pictures you want people to think about, how you want someone to react, how you want someone to hear what you are telling them. Start writing something, don't be afraid to cross things out, change them, or go back to what you started with. Poems are crafted, they do not come out fully formed! Get people to give you feedback before you try to use something you've written. Which bits do they like? Which images do not work so well? Above all, just have a go and see what you come up with.

At the Cross

I wait,
And time ticks past.

I gaze,
Made silent by the sight.

I watch,
As soldiers meticulously move
Executing each terrible, torturous task.

I gasp,
Still life lingers in His fragile, broken form.

I flinch,
As blow by blow,
Nails bite deep through flesh to find wood.

I stand
As He is lifted high,
Silhouetted 'gainst the sky which He has made.

I weep
As His cry echoes deep in my hardened, calloused heart.

I wail,
As He screams 'it is complete,
Finished, final, said and done.'

I fall,
As the sky turns inky black
And the sun and moon and stars forget to shine.

I kneel,
As worlds collide,
And time ticks by;
What once bound, no longer seems to hold.

I bow,
For part of me is gone,
Kept forever on Calvary's painful peak.

I wait,
At the foot of the cross, to begin my journey home.

Andy Stinson - April 2011