On Writing

Featuring poetry by Skylar Sahakian and Abbi Bodager

📸 C.S. Lewis’s Writing Desk, Captured by Skylar Sahakian

When I came across Skylar Sahakian’s Substack several months ago, I quickly connected with her work. She writes with elegance and sincerity, and is a gifted photographer as well. We’re also in similar phases of life, so I can relate to the subject matter of many of her posts. For all these reasons and more, I’m so excited to share this poetry collaboration Skylar and I have been working on about what inspires us to write. Hope you enjoy!

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Logos

Today, the black ribbon of the interstate 
became a bookmark 
as divine love spoke through song. 

God seems to enjoy freezing time. 
I wonder just how often He has tapped the page,
raised a magnifying glass 
to enlarge the text for my weak eyes, 
and yet, I still do not perceive.

Meanwhile, I struggle to write,
like a woman with arthritis in her hands.
Meanwhile, Jesus is here in my car, 
longing to dip me in His inkwell.

—Abbi Bodager

Author’s Note: Recently, while driving home and listening to “Fix You” by Coldplay (of all songs), I was overwhelmed by God’s kindness—how He meets us in our brokenness, day after day, and heals our hearts. Skylar and I had already decided that this post would be about the “why” behind our writing, and the imagery of Jesus dipping me in His inkwell had been lingering in my mind. As I drafted this poem, all of these threads unexpectedly wove together in an exploration of the journey of surrender and viewing life within the framework of a greater Story. 

᠃ ⚘᠂ ⚘ ˚ ⚘ ᠂ ⚘ ᠃

Through Him  

Words so often pour 
from my heart onto the page, 
leaving me to wonder, 
“From whence do these words come?”  

But I never wonder long 
because of who resides in my heart: 
the Creator of all things — 
from whom creativity blossoms 
into something that can be lovely and true 
if our flesh allows it so.  

If we give up ourselves, 
allowing Him to guide us, 
directing our words and actions, 
so that we may look back and say,  

“Oh, for it was through Him that I was inspired, 
and through Him that I learned 
to not take this gift lightly.”  

—Skylar Sahakian

Author’s Note: At the start of this year, as I went about deep-cleaning my bedroom, I could not help but flip through all of my notebooks. Some are filled with sermon notes, others with my attempts at learning different languages, most with diary entries and prayer requests, but nearly all with poetry or prose scribbled unevenly, ignoring the guiding lines. Some I can recall writing down in a hurry, quick to catch inspiration before it flew away, while others I do not remember writing at all. But I recognize the tone of voice, the underlying theme of hope, the way my vocabulary expands, and the way my sentences flow when I stop trying to be a writer and simply focus on being a vessel for the Holy Spirit. These words were scribbled in the back of a filled notebook shortly afterward. I think of them often.

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