Advent IV: Simeon
at the beginning he felt full to bursting with the promise sparking through his veins he would touch his hand to his skin and be surprised it was still intact and not split apart by glory like the skin of an old grape as decades passed the star within cooled, compressed into an ember a dense seed buried between his ribs watered by years of waking up to the same slant of light over the same slice of wall now when he touches his skin he feels how like an animal hide it is, too tough to be torn apart strong enough to hold together under the peculiar pain of a promise that is paired with one’s own death once, he had imagined dying young strong-armed lieutenant of Israel's King with the first gray hair he realizes he will barely be able to raise his hands in praise when the day finally comes this hope is wine blossoming in a barrel agony of metamorphosis in isolation slow growth of sweetness and depth in the dark one day to be poured over seeking lips and named as a glory, glory hallelujah safeguarded until then as a seed that says someday will still really become now
Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
- Luke 2:25-32
Some of you may be experiencing a strange sense of deja vu, and I’m here to assure you you’re not going crazy. (At least not because of this.) I did post this very poem last year, and I’m re-sharing it now because it fits this year’s character theme and also because it’s one of my favorite poems I’ve written.
You can read more of my thoughts about Simeon in the original post (see the link above) but I think I’ll leave this one by itself for today. This is the last Sunday of Advent, and we are so close, friends. Like Simeon, we are so close to everything promised to us coming true, even if it looks nothing like what we expected. Here in the untidy truth of that, let us wait these last few days.
In Other Words…
Goodreads reviews:
I am so looking forward to my best-books-of-2024 post which should be coming sometime in the next week or two (I’m trying to finish a few more books before then, haha). For now, here are my newest reviews:
Can I Say That? How Unsafe Questions Lead Us to the Real God by Brenna Blain (4.5 stars)
Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood by Aimee Byrd (3.5 stars)
In the new year, I might experiment with posting full reviews here on substack. Let me know what you think about that in the poll below (I’m not offended if book reviews just aren’t your thing!) ⬇️
Lastly, for my fellow poets and authors out there, I’d love your advice: I’m exploring self-publishing some of my older poems. The goal is primarily to preserve those memories for myself but I’d like to make them available to purchase for anyone who’s interested. For those who have self-published before, do you have any tips, warnings, sage pieces of advice? Favorite or least favorite platforms? Things that were unexpectedly tricky? I want paperback, and I want to own the rights to the book. Right now I’m leaning toward Amazon’s KDP but I’d love to hear people’s experiences with other platforms too!
I’ll be sure to keep you all updated as I work on this—I’m beyond grateful to all of you who’ve encouraged me in my writing over the years. It consistently floors me to think that there are people who take time out of their busy twenty-first-century days to read my words. I always pray they are meaningful.
to staying awake ~
Aberdeen
Oh, the comparison of hope to wine is sooo good!!
As for self-publishing...KDP has been the best for me. I've tried Draft2Digitial and wasn't really impressed, and I've heard too many horror stories about IngramSpark to dare trying it out. Granted, it's been two years since I've published anything, so KDP may not be all that it was then. But it always offered me everything I needed and was outrageously simple to use, in my opinion.
My advice is to take your time and be slow and intentional about this process. It can be all too easy to jump the gun on something that's so easy and convenient, but that's where most folks go wrong. Do as much research as you can on publishing and the market. Even if you're publishing just for yourself, you want it to be something you're proud of and something that can bless others, so do your very best. Commission a cover designer. Hire an editor or at least get some form of feedback on your work before putting it out in the world. (This goes for the greatest of writers and poets as much as the not-quite-greatest. Needing feedback or constructive criticism is not indicative of a lack of skill or talent.)
Formatting may be a struggle, so be prepared and take it one step at a time. If you format your manuscript yourself, it'll be a learning curve with lots of trial and error, and that's okay. Just don't ever put unnecessary deadlines or constrictions on yourself. Doing things at your own pace, in your own time, is one the greatest benefits of self-publishing, so take advantage of that!
Make sure you're 110% ready, committed, and pleased before you hit publish. You may look back in a couple of years and see something you could've done better (if so, that's good; you're learning!), but until that point, you want to be absolutely certain you're doing the right thing, the best way you can, before you make it official.
And if you do want this collection to be something that brings in revenue and helps grow your platform (that may not at all be your intention, but still), that takes a lot of extra time and effort and, in some cases, moolah. So again, be intentional and serious about what you do, because whether you like it or not, it will have a lasting impact. It's up to you if that's positive (e.g., monetary profits, platform growth, just being a blessing to folks) or negative (e.g., detracts from your work, platform, brand image, etc.; loses you money; you look back on it and are embarrassed).
In the end, be prayerful and gracious with yourself. Find joy and peace in the process. Publish for yourself, market for yourself, create for yourself. Yes, others will see what you do, whether you actually publish it or not. But when it boils down to it, you're the one that lives and dies with the content you create as a piece of your legacy, so your focus shouldn't be on pleasing or catering to others, but on pleasing and serving your Creator and leaving something you're proud of.
Well, that was longer than intended (I could talk about this stuff all day), but hopefully you'll find something relevant and helpful in my comment essay! 💕