Ravish Me.

The gift of writing has seemed to dwindle down into lost generation where people don't know great writers like John Keats or John Donne(I don't have a thing for John's). I wrote this paper once about John Donne's 'Holy Sonnet 14.' I was drawn to it because it is raw. I could feel his exact emotion and unite it with my own. Its words are still alive.

I admire his ability to share his confusion, struggle, and disconnection with a higher being. And in this case, God the father. Often times in moments of despair I run away, disown, cut off, retreat, go into my fetal position rejecting anything of him and go on my way. But then there are those moments when I simply can't go anywhere else. I come to him as simple as a daughter who is flawed, broken, lost, and confused. A daughter who ignores the love that is indescribable, infinite, and impossible to fully understand.

John Donne sheds himself. He doesn't hide any emotion and reveals his deepest struggles and desires. I want that. I want my life to be full of shedding and sharing. I want my life to not live by, "if only I could" or "if only i did that." I want to feel the twist and turns of life. I want realness. I want to close my eyes and feel the freshness of a new day, a new life, and new decisions. I want to dine with others, I want to hear their stories, I want to validate their questions and fears, for that only make us more human and fraternal.

Holy Sonnet 14

So cheers to John Donne for inspiring and encouraging me.

Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

-John Donne