Category Archives: poets and poetry

Tony Funderburk Posted on by

Today, I’m gonna share a poem I wrote that has a hidden meaning. I remember writing this, way back in the 70’s. And I remember wanting it to sound serious, classic, and important.

But I can’t remember the whole hidden meaning.

Has that ever happened to you? But I actually like that I can’t remember because it means I’ve moved on. I’ve allowed those thoughts and feelings to have their place. And now that place is in the past where they should be.

So, if you think you can come up with any hidden meaning in this poem, and any reasons for it, share your thoughts with me. Here’s the quirky poem called…

For The Love Of Remandee

On a cold and windless morning
With a magical, icy mist…
There flies a raven across a ravine.
The tips of its wings are kissed by the dawning sunlight.
It carries a message to the chateau of Cheron.
The message reads…

There lies a man
In an auburn casket
Whose heart has been stilled by the cold.
His life had its shortcomings…
He wasn’t old.
Ferry him awhile lest, by chance,
He lives again.
Be kind to the poor soul.
He died bleak and penniless.
Death stole his wealthy future.
He was to be a writer
Writing stories for the world,
But it seems apathy was a spear
Aimed at his heart and hurled.
Therefore he died of hunger to be seen.
Pity poor Remandee.

So fly splendid raven,
And end your long journey.
Give Cheron the message
For the love of Remandee.  © 1974 TF

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Tony Funderburk Posted on by

Well, I’m not gonna really talk about links and kings, per se, but what I am gonna talk about kind of relates to that. And I’m basically just gonna share a couple of poems that I wrote for kids and other human beings years ago.

The first one is about missing links. And kings aren’t involved.

If your chain is missing links
And your cup is missing drinks,
Then I have to say methinks there is a snag…
‘Cause we need all of the parts
Before drawing up the charts…
Or we’ll feel it in our hearts, it’s just a gag.

Yeah, I wrote that because kids can get all the way through high school and into college and still believe the lies about so-called missing links in the evolutionary chain.

But here’s something to consider. There’s a  a wealth of “new” information readily available to anyone who’s willing to do more than cruise the internet for social media pop news. And it’s easy to find irrefutable information by even PhD professors and scientists that completely contradicts most of what you learned in school about so-called evolution. Oh sure, you can attempt to refute it. But I don’t recommend that. Especially if you don’t like to lose.

OK, let’s move onto a lighter, more pleasant subject, shall we.

I lived in a small town in Kansas at the time I wrote this next poem. But you’d be hard-pressed to find any indication of that in the words. I guess I just wanted do carry myself away, on the summer breezes, for a mental vacation. Anyway…enjoy this…

Pleasant Breeze

The island’s gentle zephyr
Ran its fingers through the sand.
The epitome of friendly winds
Must have held onto its hand.
Did you know the Lord supplies it
From a corner of the sky
So the people of the world
Can it enjoy it by and by?
Tie your hair up with some velvet…
Stroll a year or maybe ten
In the shadow of a zephyr…
You’ll stroll back and forth again.
And nevermore will you be blue.
Evermore be merriment.
Make no mention of the money
Or the time you must have spent.
And try not to be an island
In an air of all alone,
Because even with a zephyr
You’d be no more than a stone.
Gentle wind please come again…
Blow and flow just as you please.
Every island, every person
Needs your lovely, pleasant breeze.    © 1973 TF

See, I told you it wouldn’t be about links and kings. But I did share some insight about missing links. And I’m always inspired by the words I’ve read in the best selling book of all time. The book that was written by the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and the creation of the universe in every living thing. Jesus. So, there’s that.

If you got a kick out of these little rhymes, I’d love for you to connect with me. It’s super easy. Here’s how:

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I share it with believers who want to focus on the power of God’s love and rightly divide the word of truth. Spend your time reading, listening, and watching good stuff based on the power of God’s love instead of looking for it. And, to show my sincere appreciation for your time and attention, I’ll send you download links to music and The Very First 6 Days (a rhyming book for kids about the creation week) right away. Kids from 3 to 103 can enjoy these fun goodies. Just add your email to the form and let’s connect right away.

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Tony Funderburk Posted on by

I love wordplay. I love alliteration. And I love juxtaposed metaphors and impossible phraseology. I love working with words. And I love the one true, living, loving, creative God who gave me the language I can manipulate. Take a word like – Phoenix. In English, it’s not pronounced at all like it looks. How cool. And today that word popped up on my linguistic radar. And I decided to work it into a short poem, swirling with truth AND imagination.

Not wanting to simply “use” the word…I decided it would be an eight line metaphor. It would describe how my imagination has been prisoner to tasks. And it would show how it was only a temporary situation. And that’s somewhat metaphorical for how life is. Does that make sense?

Life, very often, gets in the way of creativity and dreams.

Do you experience that? Sure you do. I don’t think anyone is immune to the distractions and disturbances of life. But this earthly life is only a temporary existence…even though you (the true you) are an eternal creation. Where you’ll be forever comes down to who you choose to believe right now. Will you choose self over all else…and be emperor over a universe of one? Or will you choose Jesus, your Creator…and rise out of your own ashes, a glorious Phoenix spirit, soaring into the eternal presence of the One who created you?

Are those fair questions? Or do I sound biased? Yes. And yes. Based on the Truth and…

My Phoenix Imagination

It arises from rainbow ashes.
It takes flight on crystal butterflies.
Once forgotten and then forsaken…
Now it glows above translucent skies.
And it’s all mine…imagination,
A Phoenix, a ruby lightning rod.
I’m transported up through the heavens,
With a blink, into the house of God.

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I share it with believers who want to focus on the power of God’s love and rightly divide the word of truth. Spend your time reading, listening, and watching good stuff based on the power of God’s love instead of looking for it. And, to show my sincere appreciation for your time and attention, I’ll send you download links to music and The Very First 6 Days (a rhyming book for kids about the creation week) right away. Kids from 3 to 103 can enjoy these fun goodies. Just add your email to the form and let’s connect right away.

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Tony Funderburk Posted on by

You can’t live without love. Oh sure, you can exist. But you can’t live. And your existence will be an exercise in futility at best…or a dark. lonely place at worst. Why go there, when it’s so easy to just let love live? So how do you let love live? You nurture it, watch it grow, and give it away as much as you possibly can.

You might not “feel” love. I’ve heard a lot of people say they don’t. And I’ve read countless stories of people who “don’t believe in love” or “think it’s a crutch for wimps”. Can you believe people actually say those things about love? My guess is, they were never given love, or they were, and they rejected it for one reason or another. Regardless of WHY some people say negative things about love…it exists, and it is an awesome thing.

Here’s why it isn’t sensible to live without love.

You can’t see love. But you can see results from it. You can’t hear love. But you can hear someone express it to you. And you can’t experience love with any of your five senses. But all five come alive when love enters your heart.

So, here’s my challenge for you today.

Take 3 minutes and think about how wonderful it would be to let love live abundantly in your heart. Maybe your mind doesn’t want to believe it at first. But take the full 3 minutes and think about it.

Believe, for those 3 minutes, that it can and will transform your life. See yourself with a smile on your face as you tell someone you love them. And imagine how you’ll feel to hear them say it back to you. Picture those smiles in your mind. Do you see ’em? If not, close your eyes and conjure up some smiling images. You can do it. And relax. Ain’t nothing bad gonna happen to you.

After the 3 minutes are up, go on with your day. But if you did that exercise with an open mind, I’m guessing you’ll see smiling face images in your mind the rest of the day…at least anytime you allow yourself to think about it.

And I bet, before you know it, you’ll recognize the power of God’s love and be able to…

Let Love Live

Let Love Live.
It can turn your trials into sunny smiles.
Let Love Live.
It can beat the blues.
It demands no dues.
Take a chance and choose
To Let Love Live.

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I share it with believers who want to focus on the power of God’s love and rightly divide the word of truth. Spend your time reading, listening, and watching good stuff based on the power of God’s love instead of looking for it. And, to show my sincere appreciation for your time and attention, I’ll send you download links to music and The Very First 6 Days (a rhyming book for kids about the creation week) right away. Kids from 3 to 103 can enjoy these fun goodies. Just add your email to the form and let’s connect right away.

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Tony Funderburk Posted on by

It’s been a while since I did this. But about half an hour ago, I challenged myself to make up a rhyme out of thin air. No muse or other silly little inspirational fairy dropped by. I just make a decision, every once in a while, to fire up a skill I’ve worked most of my life to get good at. Lately I have been working on other projects, and I came up against a technical wall that stymied me. So I decided to change the rhythm. And for some reason, I came up with the idea of Cousin Aaron the heron.

The name wasn’t the first thing that popped into my head.

So, I didn’t start out with the idea to write about a bird character. Instead, the first line that flashed across my mind simply referenced where I live now. And the so-called experts say to write what you know. So I wrote, through the backdrop of a city twinkling on the Emerald coast.  And I looked at the line for a couple minutes and then started writing what bubbled up after that. It took me five lines before I came up with…

Cousin Aaron, the Heron

Through the backdrop of a city twinkling on the Emerald coast,
A reflection in the water of a heron on a post,
But the sun is in my eyes and I can not make out its face,
So, I’ll make up my own story as to why it’s in this place.
I will call him Cousin Aaron, and I bet he made some plans
To enjoy this sanctuary from the winds and pelicans.
And he just wants peace and quiet and a break from all his chores.
And he’ll get it from the rhythm of the waves up on the shores.
Several seagulls, circling tourists, check him out as they fly by.
Cousin Aaron couldn’t care less. He just hears a lullaby
In the waterfront cacophony of birds and winds and sea.
He’s oblivious to everything and that’s interesting to me.
But I must admit his lack of action, sleeping on that post,
I’ll go look for other twinklings somewhere on the Emerald coast. © 2026 TF

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I share it with believers who want to focus on the power of God’s love and rightly divide the word of truth. Spend your time reading, listening, and watching good stuff based on the power of God’s love instead of looking for it. And, to show my sincere appreciation for your time and attention, I’ll send you download links to music and The Very First 6 Days (a rhyming book for kids about the creation week) right away. Kids from 3 to 103 can enjoy these fun goodies. Just add your email to the form and let’s connect right away.

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Tony Funderburk Posted on by

I wrote this cold hard truth over 10 years ago. And it’s still true. Living on dreams is not a good strategy. Dreams require action. And action requires faith, determination, and commitment. Are your dreams good enough to put those things behind them?

So if dreams require action, do you

Dream The Dreams?

Waking up from silly dreams
Isn’t silly as it seems
Because dreamers are what makes the world go ’round.
With those pictures in your head
As you rise up out of bed
You might find the thing that needed to be found.
You might dream of flying cars
That go cruising through the stars,
Then design a brand new turbo rocket ship.
You might wake up from your sleep
With an awesome way to keep
People safer when they’re going on a trip.
What if you could dream a dream
That, to some, could sound extreme.
But your idea helped to ease a lot of pain?
Well, put on your dreaming hat
‘Cause we need more dreams like that,
And they’re waiting to be dreamed inside your brain.
If you’re eager to create,
And you find you just can’t wait,
And your dreams are overflowing from your ears,
Take a breath and write ’em down,
With a smile and not a frown.
Then your dreams become ideas you’ll have for years.
When you dream, don’t think it’s odd.
Dreams are thoughtful gifts from God.
They can help to give your weary mind some rest.
So relax and dream away.
Every day’s a brand new day
To begin to dream the dreams that you dream best.   © 2013 TF

Get Tony’s Rhyme and Reason Daily Devotionaldelivered to your inbox for free.

I share it with believers who want to focus on the power of God’s love and rightly divide the word of truth. Spend your time reading, listening, and watching good stuff based on the power of God’s love instead of looking for it. And, to show my sincere appreciation for your time and attention, I’ll send you download links to music and The Very First 6 Days (a rhyming book for kids about the creation week) right away. Kids from 3 to 103 can enjoy these fun goodies. Just add your email to the form and let’s connect right away.

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Tony Funderburk Posted on by

Just saw pelican landing in the water yesterday. It reminded me of a short memory I shared several years ago. It went a little something like this:

I remember my first ferry ride across Galveston Bay in Texas. Yes, it was a long time ago. My grandparents were visiting from Oklahoma. And my dad drove them and the rest of the family to see the sights along the coast. That included the ferry ride. Once a fairy left the dock, we were all able to get out and walk around for the whole . I noticed lots of seagulls, jumping fish, and one particular sloppy pelican.

First, I saw the pelican landing in the water.

Then, it just floated there and bobbed up and down in the gulf. And every once in a while it plunged its head underwater and came back up with a mouth full of small fish. The milk chocolate colored gulf water gushed out the sides of its mouth, too.

It must have been a memory I logged in my brain subconsciously. Because I haven’t really given it much thought since. Until today. I found a picture of a pelican, in my files, as I plotted out some of my writing. And it just so happened to have a sloppy mouthful of fish.

So, that’s how I came up with this rhyme…

The Sloppy Pelican

There was a sloppy pelican who lived on a dock
That stood by the bay that lead to the deep, blue sea.
He would float in the water and eat lots of fish
But wouldn’t clean up no matter how others would plea.

And when a sloppy pelican who lives on a dock
Won’t leave it the way it was when he first got there,
Well, he shouldn’t be surprised if friends disappear…
‘Cause wouldn’t you, too, if you saw some junk everywhere?

So if a sloppy pelican was found on your block
In a house like yours, in fact in your very own room,
And you saw him in the mirror, and he looked like you…
Would you just take a nap…or go get a mop and broom?

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