World Poetry Day 2021

Preachers will sometimes use jokes, short stories, or poems at the beginning of their sermons to help capture the audience’s attention or to drive home a certain point. My dad was a Southern Baptist preacher who loved poetry. He couldn't write it himself, but he collected other people's works.

You would often find my dad reading his collection of poetry out loud or he would be copying poems into a five subject notebook, writing them out by hand. Dad would always write in print and all capital letters because he thought it was easier to read that way. If you ever saw his cursive writing, you would probably agree. When he had passed away there were a ton of spiral notebooks filled with different poems he had collected over many years. He even attempted to put his own tune to some and sing them for the congregation.

I had a favorite poem out of his collection. He had gotten it off of an old gospel tract. This poem was called Tom Gray’s Dream, written by Anonymous. It is a bit dramatic and can be a fun poem to read. In fact, I read it in a speech contest when I was in 10th grade and won first place with reading it. One Sunday, I even read it in church dramatically with Josh Turner's song, The Long Black Train, playing in the background. This gave me chills, but it was awesome together.

The poem, Tom Gray’s Dream, was about a man who had passed out after drinking in a bar and had a dream. He dreamed he had gotten aboard this train that was headed for Hell. The devil himself was the engineer. The devil’s imps were shoveling coal. It also described the variety of passengers. There were church members, atheist, and Jews. Yellow and black men, beggers in rags, rich men, and Tom we're all there too. They were all chained together and a horrible sight. The passengers were in agony, and the devil was laughing about it and mocking them all. When Tom awoke, his hair was soaked in sweat and he prayed as he never prayed before to be saved from the drink and the devil's power so he never road on the Hell-bound train again.

Notes ▼

PART ONE
In 500 words or less tell about a special poem that has influenced or changed your life in some way. Be sure to include the author and title of the poem.

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Word Count 378

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World Poetry Day

I decided to celebrate World Poetry Day.
Why not do it in the most appropriate way?
I will write this little poem about it,
While at my tablet I do sit.

I will separate it into paragraphs,
But I don't think I’ll get any laughs.
People think it looks better this way
So hopefully this will make their day.

I love to write some poetry,
But don't want any bad symmetry.
I couldn't think of any better way
To celebrate World Poetry Day.

Notes ▼

*Quill* PART TWO *Quill*
*FlagP* Write a poem of your very own! It can be on ANY subject and any style.
*FlagG* Keep it 15 lines or less.
*FlagB* Poems MUST be newly written for this challenge!
*AsteriskG* Extra Plus if you mention World Poetry Day in your poem

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Word Count 86
Line count 12