Ink of Affliction

I wrote this piece for the 2019 Colorado Christian Writers Conference contest with the theme of “Write His Answer”. Inspired by Octavius Winslow’s quote, “David’s pen never wrote more sweetly than when dipped in the ink of affliction,” and my own experiences with adversity, I poured my heart into this poem and was awarded first place in the Not Yet Published Writer division.

Ink of Affliction

In tempests on the heels of one another,
I am emptied,
Barren with parchment and nary a thought of You.
Adversity presses on the midnight of my soul
To the call of Your glorious morning.

Beads of sorrow gather into my dry inkwell,
Drenched in distress, Your answer to my withered soul
Is more of the same.
For you fill to overflowing the ink of affliction
Your Light and Truth moving across the page.

In quiet contentment, I pen your Glory
Abandoned to truth, to resolve
To endure for a night the sweet deluge
That others may see through my storms
And praise You in theirs.

C. L. Stansberry

C. L. Stansberry is a Christian speculative fiction writer and blogger with a desire to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and make Him beautiful and glorious in the eyes of the people.