Between the Lines, page 1
Between The Lines
A Poetry Anthology
Autumn Acosta, Rachel M. Adams, Sana Baig, Jaela Deming, Anna Kailin Fletcher, Autumn Grace, Alladene Grace Hadden, Evelyn Harwood, Hazel Honegger, Ava Hope, Blessing Hope, Erin Hylands, Lissie Laws, Leighton Opperman, Margaret Pierce, Skylar Rivers, Owen Leo Snook, Jessica Sprecher, Emily Sweeney, and Cadence E. Witt
Featuring a poem by Kanasy Yeager
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright 2024 by Autumn Acosta, Rachel M. Adams, Sana Baig, Jaela Deming, Anna Kailin Fletcher, Autumn Grace, Alladene Grace Hadden, Evelyn Harwood, Hazel Honegger, Ava Hope, Blessing Hope, Erin Hylands, Lissie Laws, Leighton Opperman, Margaret Pierce, Skylar Rivers, Owen Leo Snook, Jessica Sprecher, Emily Sweeney, Cadence E. Witt, and Kanasy Yeager.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
Copyright © 2024
Edited by Erin Hylands
Interior Formatting by Rachel M. Adams
Cover Design by Lori Scharf
Published by Skillful Pen Press
Dedicated to Kanasy Yeager. Your light and love in the midst of pain is a reminder for us all that God’s not done with us. We miss you, friend, and we eagerly await the day we can meet you in Heaven.
We thank you, Kanasy, for your beautiful words, and for this poem we share here.
Quietly Blessed
By Kanasy Yeager
I sit quietly in my room,
Thinking of all I have lost:
Strength,
Time,
A limb.
I’m blessed,
For I have not lost
Love,
Family,
Friends,
Hope.
My faith is stronger than before,
For when all was dark,
He held my hand.
I have no need to falter,
He pulled me close;
I learned to trust Him more,
For He has a plan,
Tho’ I know it not.
He knows my limits;
He loves me still.
For all these things,
I shall sing,
I will shout
From the hilltops:
I am so blessed!
Between The Lines
A Poetry Anthology
Skillful Pen Press
Table of Contents
Introduction
A Call To Adventure
A Friend’s Agony
America!
Another Funeral?
A Petition
A Prayer
Beauty For Ashes
Chiastic Lies
Come To Jesus
Conflicted
Consider It All Joy
Courage.
Darkness Is In Vain
Dearest Friend
Death Defeated
Despair the Messengers
Dross
Eclipsed
Falling
Flame
Friendship
Heartsong
Heavenly Maze
History
Hold On Tight
Hopeful or Hopeless
Hope in Five Senses
I Can’t
Jasmine
Joy
Keilah
Lies
Moonlight Dawning
My King
My Turntable
Narrow Route
Next Steps
Oblivious
Once I Looked Up
Overwhelm
Perfect Storm
Reassurance
Refuge
Resilience
Shades
She Looked Back
Silence
Sometimes
Surrender
Tears
The Seashell
The Storm
The Whole World Is In Your Hands
This is Reconciliation
This Monster
Tirade
Violets
What Is True
When Peace Like a River
Your Love, My Lamp and Light
About the Authors
Acknowledgments
Other Works by the Contributors
Introduction
Let us share a story.
This is a story of hope and loss, of finding healing in the midst of pain and grief.
In 2023, Kanasy Yeager went up to the Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio to have surgery to remove a mass in her left upper arm that was the size of a butternut squash.
Skip to the new year. The mass in her arm started coming back, so she went back up to Ohio to get her left arm amputated. Thirteen days later, she had cancer removed from her lungs.
She healed and was better for two months, but then the cancer in her lungs began to come back in April. She considered going back to Ohio for surgery again, but ultimately decided against it because the spread was already extensive and more tumors would grow back quickly anyway.
Kanasy always looked on the bright side, never complained, was optimistic, and never lost faith in Jesus even amidst her pain.
Sadly, Kanasy went Home to be with the Lord the evening of June 8th, 2024.
She was healed, but not in the way we were wanting and praying. She is forever healed now. Now, she’s not in pain and can rejoice in Heaven with both of her arms hugging Him.
During one of her last conversations on the YDubs Community, she said, “But death isn’t the end.”
Death feels like the end—the end of everything. Grief overwhelms us all. But, just like Kanasy said, death is not, and will never be, the end. It is only the beginning for the believer.
Even though Kanasy’s earthly life has passed, her life continues on, and that is something to rejoice over.
We pray you will be blessed by Kanasy’s life and words, and that the poems featured in this anthology remind you of that. God’s not done with you, nor is He done with Kanasy and her legacy.
Blessings,
Erin Hylands & Rachel M. Adams
A Call To Adventure
By Autumn Acosta
A nation of houses like soup cans in a row
Complacently feeling secure in the flow
Icarius’s opposite, too scared to fly
You’re safe in the box you were cultured inside
You’ve built up your foundation on the bright sand
But complaining you are about drowning on land
What’s stopping you from rowing out to the deep?
Relief comes in braving the change that you seek
What is the good of a ship that won’t leave the shore?
Or one wary to move for fear of being sore?
Tired souls always stuck living in the past
Never realizing all of the life that they lack
These mountains need climbing, and it’s up to you!
You can choose to keep your feet frozen or lace up your boots
Full or peril and failure is the way to the sky
But you banish success if you never dare try
Raise up the sail, pull the ropes, let us go!
I’m by your side on this narrow road home
There’s fear in our hearts, but courage, too, I believe
They who call us dreamers are the ones fast asleep.
A Friend’s Agony
By Autumn Acosta
The battle rages ‘round
The storm beats at you with waves so tall
I can see the fire in your eyes
As you insist that you can take it all
Why do you deny the truth?
I want to fight for you
To me, the weight of your steps is plain to see
Yet you try to mask your struggle
The road is long, the hike is hard,
But still you hide your troubles
I’m right here, watching you labor through
Won’t you please let me carry you?
Pride keeps you from the help you need
But it’s not a shame to ask for help
The greatest obstacle you face
Happens to be yourself
Your deepest pain, it kills me too
Know that in a blink, I’d die for you
So I’ll stand here patiently
Waiting for you to lean on me
My hand is out for you take
I promise I won’t let you break
In the meantime I’ll do all that I can do
I’ll love and pray and live for you
America!
By Jaela Deming
Oh America, America!
Where are you?
Where have you gone?
Where did your Biblical foundation go?
When I look for you,
I find a nation who’s run away
From her founding doctrines,
Who has apparently forgotten
That her only purpose
Is glorifying her Creator.
When I look for you,
I find a nation of evil,<
Sexual perversion and violence,
School shootings and riots.
I find a nation who accepts
The slaughter of the unborn,
Of terrorism and lying politicians.
I find a nation of sin,
Who traffics and lusts,
Who allows government overreach.
Oh America, America!
I weep for you,
I mourn over your deeds
And dread your imminent destruction.
Why will you not return?
Repent, O you evil country,
You are doomed to destruction,
But there may yet be time!
Go back, I plead with you,
Back to a time,
Of justice and mercy,
Of liberty and principles,
Of morality and godliness,
Of happiness and prosperity,
Of life for all.
Back! Back I say!
Become once again
The nation you were made to be.
Return to your Creator
Before it is too late.
Oh America, America!
Your days are numbered.
Will you return to be
The beautiful rising sun
Your Founding Fathers imagined?
Or will you remain
The dying sunset,
Whose final rays of light
Are smothered by clouds
Of evil darkness?
You must choose quickly,
For destruction looms
On the near horizon.
Another Funeral?
By Leighton Opperman
i don’t want to
go
to another funeral.
don’t want to
just have to be the
distant relative, or the
friend who doesn’t really matter.
don’t want to have to stand there
and pretend
i wasn’t closer
to them
than half the people there.
i don’t want to cry
and wonder why
we don’t
wear black and mourn
like we used to.
’cause in that moment,
i don’t think i’ll ever be the same.
And i won’t.
please God, give me strength.
give us all strength.
none of us want
to stand there
and cry.
can we be
okay?
everyone’s trying,
at least.
patting each other,
saying,
‘it’s not over yet. we’ll keep fighting.’
and i wonder, how long
has it been since
i stopped fighting?
my tears are cold
against my face, and
even though i know it’s not
over yet,
despair fills my heart.
how long has it been
since i
knew how to smile?
‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done,’
i say, and hope
with clasped hands
and dreams made of satin
that i would be okay with His will
being done.
’cause right now, i’m not okay.
i raise my arms as
the tears roll down my face,
posing like Christian with his burden.
“take it,”
i scream,
“take my burden and fears!”
and pray
in wet, shrieking prayers,
that everything would be
okay.
A Petition
By Autumn Acosta
Fix my faults into your flourish
Change my pain into your poem
Model my cares into your clay
Carve my aches into your stone
Write my life into a story
Better than any I could make up on my own
Turn my sorrows to a song
That will make your glories known
Paint your laughter in the landscape
Add your own tears to the wood
Dab spots of sorrow in the background
And brush it over good
Spot upon the canvas, please,
Your love in bright red streaks
Turn this unworthy being
Into your masterpiece
May your mercy be a melody
Strum your spirit on these strings
Write your virtue into verses
And let a joyous refrain ring
Weave your heart into the harmony
Play your riff upon the keys
May your goodness echo in our souls
As this, your song, we sing
Use these hands to hold your pen
And scribble words across the page
Retelling in a different way
The truths that never age
Sow seeds inside my stories
Of all that’s good and true
So that, in time, they can sprout and grow
Inviting others closer to you
A Prayer
By Margaret Pierce
Here I am, Lord
Take my life
Today I laid it down for You–
Live inside me
Holy One
Teach me only what is true.
Without You, I am
Dead, a slave
But You have set me ever free
I died today
And rose again
Because You resurrected me.
Now let me be
A living flame
To now proclaim
My Savior’s name—
The One who free salvation brings,
Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.
Amen!
Beauty For Ashes
By Jessica Sprecher
Nothing but ashes
That's all that remains
The world's cast in gloom
When will sorrows end?
It seems quite so strange
That it's possible
To trade these sorrows
These sorry ashes
For something better
For, in truth, beauty?
Can one truly trade
Beauty for ashes?
How can it be so?
Why would someone want
All my burnt ashes
And give me beauty
In exchange for it
It seems mad, insane,
But it’s heartfelt, true
Chiastic Lies
By Skylar Rivers
Have you lived? Yes, you’ve been living,
But, dearie, is that you?
Are you still living?
Are you slave, a puppet,
To your own sweet self?
Those lies you tell yourself,
You’ve taken self-esteem and dumped it.
Lately I’ve been quite forgiving,
But there’s only so much I can do.
Lately you’ve forgotten how to be living.
Come To Jesus
By Margaret Pierce
Are you weary as you read this?
Do you long for peace and rest?
My Jesus’ yoke is easy
And He knows and loves you best.
Are you lost and seeking guidance?
Do you long to find the way?
My Jesus is the Way to life
He authored every day.
My Jesus is the Shepherd
For the soul that’s gone astray
He’s the Healer, Light and Comfort
And His steadfast love will stay.
Come to Jesus, strong and kind
Gentle, faithful, true
Trust in His eternity
And let Him carry you
Conflicted
By Cadence E. Witt
I’m not much for people
But I can’t stand to be alone
I let fear control me
Though Christ sits on the throne
I lock myself in my room to read
But say yes to every RSVP
When I look to God
I can see my beauty clearer
But I feel nothing but ugly
When I look in the mirror
I believe I am the greatest
Until I hear another’s latest
I want to travel and worship
