Showing posts with label PAD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PAD. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Collections of Bit By Bit



Two-for-Tuesday prompt. 
Write to one prompt, both prompts, 
and/or combine them: 
Write a big poem, or...
Write a small poem.

Life roads/loads can seem impossible/impassable when viewed in a lump sum...



Sometimes, as a loved one bears a cross, 
 oh, how we wish we could
bear or ease it for them but we cannot, and should not! 
(sometimes we wish we could rid ourselves of our own crosses!)
 Only beneath life's crosses
does faith become stronger and humbler/meeker💗🙏
But we can and should pray for God's sufficient grace 
to be the strength in our weakness!!

2 Cor.12:9
And He said to me,
 “My grace is sufficient for you, 
for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”


Life roads/loads can seem impossible/impassable when viewed in a lump sum
Its weight of cares can topple the most hopeful optimist
For none can see what waits to be, what is ‘what-ifs’ outcome
What favor or calamity the hour may untwist
What detour must be taken or what leap of learning tried
What perseverance shaken or what darling wish denied

But one breath, one step, one moment and one prayer at a time
The feeble can scale mountains and great burdens can be borne
Courage can face the giant where faith’s steppingstones align
To make us more reliant on the Author of each morn
As we press on toward the place where troubles cease their cry
As step by step and grace by grace He whispers ‘here am I’

A small word of kindness begins ripple effects of cheer
Tis step by step, the victor wins the title victors claim
Moment by moment unravels seasons, marked year by year
And draws each road we travel back to He, from whence we came
Do not despair, the Whole of It, when analyzed will show
Life's collections of bit by bit, as by God’s grace we go

© Janet Martin



John 1:16
And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.




Monday, November 6, 2023

How Is It (that as Time goes by I do not come apart?)

Catch a Falling Star...


PAD Challenge. day 4: For today’s prompt, write a catching poem.

This is one of those poems that threatened to go into full gallop
unless I reined it in...

They get caught on last, little leaves still clinging to tree-limbs
And on dusk’s fading fringes, as eventide’s tableau dims
And on the corner of the street each time you board the bus
As love’s tether learns to weather the Apartness of Us

They snag on echo-wisps and on November’s brooding gray
And on a phantom frame filled with pictures of Yesterday
A tender memory of suppertime for at least six
Before I was acquainted with Time’s age-old bag of tricks

They catch on freckled noses and on orchards, doffed of fruit
And on the wind that moans outside the door, like a bold brute
And on the close-cropped counterpane of harvest gathered in
On the moon as it pins the sky with lopsided half-grin

They tangle in the awkward angles of a child, half-grown
And catch on flakes of first snowfall, on milkweed silk, wind-blown
And on the notes of vintage melodies at Christmas time
And on the big clock tower at the hour’s solemn chime

On gardens as they slumber after pummeling of feet
After summer-sweet laughter begets ballads, bittersweet
After Autumn has yielded to the order of the earth
After the spoil of toil displays the fruit of labor’s worth

…on four-season masterpieces delighting ardent gaze
On wonder’s unpredictable and unexpected ways
On commonplace, second-to-none familiarity
On silhouettes etched on sunsets, on Baby on my knee

On petals as the prime of bloom is siphoned from the stem
On the slow-but-sure weaning of youth’s teen-green diadem
On so much more than page can hold, or poetry can tell
On gladness of hello and on the sadness of farewell

How is it that as time goes by, I do not come apart
As often as life’s catches at the strings around my heart

© Janet Martin

A tender memory of suppertime for at least six
Before I was acquainted with Time’s age-old bag of tricks...




Better Be Careful, Poet...


PAD Challenge day 6: For today’s prompt, take the phrase "Better (blank),"
replace the blank with a new word or phrase,
make the new phrase the title of your poem,
and then, write your poem...


Because of the rain and the end to Daylight Saving Time,
darkness began to fall at 5:00 p.m.!




Dusk’s darkness drops an ethereal veil over the countryside
The night rolls in, an ocean driv’n by an invisible tide
You better be careful, Poet; November can cast a spell
And set beneath its brooding deep, a bottomless inkwell

The day dissolves, a little like a snowflake on Time’s tongue
It covers every window where November’s landscape hung
You better be careful, Poet; for the heart is easy prey
When standing on dusk’s shoreline watching daylight ebb away

© Janet Martin



(Love's) Better Poetry

PAD Challenge day 6: For today’s prompt, take the phrase "Better (blank)," 
replace the blank with a new word or phrase, 
make the new phrase the title of your poem, 
and then, write your poem.

This take on today's poem-prompt 
was inspired by yesterday's photo-session;
the aim being to get a few good ones
(aka everyone looking forward with eyes open!!) 
for a page in a family calendar for my parents for Christmas








You are the laugh-lines that I earn
And collect thankfully
As by the grace of God I learn
Love's Better Poetry

You overflow my cup of joy
Filling love's crooks and curves
With happiness, dear girl and boy
More than one heart deserves 

You are my gentlest lullaby
My tenderest of care
And each, the apple of my eye
And each, my humblest prayer

You are heaven-to-earth's caress 
You are my home-sweet-home
You are more holy thankfulness
Than pen can ever poem

© Janet Martin









Getting to the Root of the Problem...

 PAD Challenge day 3: For today’s prompt, write a problem poem. 

Below an excerpt from Peter Marshall's sermon-
Keeper of the Springs
(and this was in the 1940's!!)



One cannot fix a problem until one pinpoints the source
But one ought to note symptoms that should trouble you and I
For epidemic-proportion-populace on a course
Of Ignorance to Truth, where empty churches testify
A somber lack of reverence and interest and care
For the Great Certainty for which we all ought to prepare

...and so tis no small wonder that things go from bad to worse
 In laws of twisted logic of confusion gone berserk
Where right is wrong and wrong is right and God, a name they curse
And well-intended master-plans of Fix-it just don't work
In a world doomed to madness as they seek but cannot find
Hope's everlasting gladness that yields joy and peace of mind 

When truth is seen as lies and lies are heralded as truth
It is because the Word of God is trodden underfoot
Then darkened understanding errs and bears pitiful proof;
Denial of the problem that yields problematic fruit
And gross incomprehension of the sad state we are in;
Because they/we do not recognize the root problem of sin 

The problem is not war or poverty, but hate and greed
A proud and unrepentant heart, thinking, utterly flawed
A negligent apathy to sin's subtle, deadly seed
In seeking first this world rather than the kingdom of God
Where empty churches gape and children/people traipse toward a Goal
Ignorant of Love's problem-solving Saviour of the Soul 

Sad problem this; too many homes where God's Word has no place
And homes where the Bible is but a book upon a shelf
Ignoring that apart from God, there is no saving grace
Apart from the Vine the branch is a Dead Thing by itself
Revealing that the culprit in this problem's quandary
Until we surrender to God, is always you and me 

© Janet Martin

Rom.1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, 
because it is the power of God 
that brings salvation to everyone who believes: 
first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 
17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—
a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,[e
just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”[f]

So many do not know
or believe or care
about the day of redemption 
and reckoning drawing near...

Malachi 4:1-3
The Day of the LORD

1“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, 
when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble;
 the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,”
 says the LORD of Hosts.
 “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

2“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness 
will rise with healing in its wings,a 
and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.
  3Then you will trample the wicked, f
or they will be ashes under the soles of your feet 
on the day I am preparing,” 
says the LORD of Hosts.




Better Reason



PAD Challenge day 6: For today’s prompt, take the phrase
"Better (blank)," replace the blank with a new word or phrase,
make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.



Better critique better, Reason's Sleek Begetter
So eager to charm and entice
Desire's effulgence with instant indulgence
Better to first ponder the price

And weigh velvet voices that prey on quick choices
And trick us to trade truth for lies
Better, first to measure the worth of the treasure
And cost of the pleasure we prize

Because oft desire can be a soft liar
If we heed no Higher Decree
Than gratification of infatuation's
Accommodating fantasy

Better to look better where seduction's fetter
Is not always easy to spot
Better to fight battles before Fool's Proof tattles
On Reason's Begetter of Thought

To weigh the approach of a 'promise'-drawn coach
Where knights in shining armor plead
To study the path and the long aftermath
(of) Where Yielding to Impulse may lead...

...better to pray before we leap
Into the fray of Whim
Better to ask the Lord to keep
Thought's pleasure stayed on Him 

© Janet Martin

Today's devotion...


...from this book!



Saturday, November 4, 2023

Or, So It Seemed to the Dreamer...

 PAD Challenge, day 2: For today’s prompt, write a childhood object poem. 


up and away

undefined 

by time and place

brushing perimeters of space

or so it seemed 

to the dreamer, 

then

with honey-colored braids

and an insatiable

 yen

that turned out to be

the cocoon that cradled

 Poetry...


On that rope swing

 she would try

to touch the sky

...the monotony of

an endless July 

afternoon

no match for the butterfly

inside the

 cocoon...


Janet~

Celebration-Declaration or Celebration of Life

 PAD Challenge day 1: For today’s prompt, write a declaration poem. 

(I clicked on the Writer's Digest Chapbook Challenge every morning
but simply could not carve out the freedom to join...
Trying a few of the challenges here this morning!
BTW, everyone is welcome to join in the poeming fun
 at Writer's Digest poem-a-day challenge all through November!)


Yesterday morning a friend dropped by with some
homemade soup she made with some kale I had given her
the week before!
Such a sweet surprise seemed perfect for sharing so
I packed up an impromptu picnic lunch and visited my mother-in-law!


I told her our lunch was a group-effort/blessing...
Pears from my sister Lucy, soup from my friend Elaine
and Apple Bread baked by my daughter Victoria!
We had a most precious afternoon so
completely unplanned!

So today I call a celebration-declaration
for all un-expectation waiting to turn to joy!

I call a celebration-declaration for Today
A kind determination of joy-expectation when
We purpose to be kinder, and humbly thankful; to pray
And thank God for the mercy's that He renews once again

To thank Him for blessings that we too oft under-esteem 
Loved ones within arms reach; those never out of reach of prayer
To praise Him for His goodness no matter how bad things seem
To know that He is able, as we cast on Him our care 

To look a little closer at what we call Commonplace
And then to realize it is not common after all
But rather, celebration-worthy measures of God's grace
Each task a sacred mission as we heed love's creature-call 

...and suddenly sweet wonder steals our breath with gratitude
For favors humbly noted, that we overlooked before
A celebration-declaration for Regard renewed
As we reply with prayer, especially for countries at war
 💔😢🙏

Janet Martin~

I also received a very special love-created thank-you card from Elaine...




Let's make today our thank-you card to God!




Friday, April 14, 2023

Like Spring Chamber Music With A Twist


For today's prompt, we're going to try something a little different
 in that I want you to write an "And Now for Something Completely Different" poem. 
This prompt is inspired by the Monty Python skits that would suddenly shift gears, 
but your poem doesn't have to be humorous. 
It should aspire to be somehow different than what you've written so far this month.

We laugh at robin antics...




Like an invitation to spring’s festival, the sun
Unfolds the earth at daybreak, beckoning to everyone...



Like an invitation to spring’s festival, the sun
Unfolds the earth at daybreak, beckoning to everyone
To rise and shine like little lights of love into a world
To slow swift pace and pause where nature’s vendors are unfurled
Like gentle chamber music, and admission is free
A festival of bars and phrases primed for poetry
Where no one is elbowing neighbors for a better view
(Although we wouldn’t mind, on this fine day, a nudge or two)
Because we are honored to be part of this happiness
While wandering through April’s festival of friendliness
We laugh at robin antics as they sing, a merry troop
And praise this perfect…what the heck?!!!
Aw! I just stepped in dog poop!!!

© Janet Martin



Thursday, April 13, 2023

April Quadrille

 PAD Challenge-day 13-For today's prompt, write a forgive poem. 

Green murmur on the meadow...

First timid tufts of flora...



Green murmur on the meadow
 New nest tucked in the brush
And on the verge of birth, a surge
Of calm before the rush

A bud pulsing with promise
A garden, primed with dreams
A zephyr. soft, blue sky aloft
Earth, bursting at its seams

Marmalade-misted morning
Sweet, sun-kissed afternoon
Silhouette-show of dusk’s tableau
‘neath tusk of opaque moon

First timid tufts of flora
Nature’s most modest plumes
Presents its charms to open arms
And eyes, thirsty for blooms

The ground, like Berber carpet
Where tender bare feet dance
Earth’s spartan sweep cannot long keep
Its pristine countenance

April arouses laughter
Wakes joy akin to Heav’n
A robin’s trill, a daffodil
And winter is forgiv’n

© Janet Martin

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Happily Ever After



Write a form poem, and/or...
Write an anti-form poem.

Anyone who knows me well knows I love
the traditional style of form.
However, I do admire those who serve anti-form well!






Sometimes I am so happy
And sometimes oh, so sad
For all the fulfilled wishes
That I never had

Sometimes when I am waiting
For Wish, not granted yet
I retrace Intervention 
 That spared me from regret

Then, when my school of wishes
Swims past my dangling hook
Like sassy, flashy fishes,
I pretend not to look

Happily ever after
I've learned, I'm learning how to prize
The wealth in lilts of laughter
The stars in loved one's eyes
 
Janet Martin








Tuesday, April 4, 2023

The Dream of What Once Was


Write a dream poem, and/or...
Write a reality poem.

Sometimes I can't help but be re-astonished
by the estranged proximity
of outgrown dreams, where Bygone streams
with spent reality!

\...where rooms once full of mess/life have granted
the bitter sweetness of tidy silence... 


The messy rooms that made me lose
My patience, taunt me now
The days when I tripped over shoes
Have disappeared somehow
The constant noise of girls and boys
Adrift on childhood’s dreams
Have granted me the hard-fought joys
Of not-all-as-it-seems

 Who knew silence could thunder
In the aftermath of Then
 Where I dare not miss what yet is
While coveting the ‘When’
But embrace the Reality
Of Here and Now because
What waits to be will soon become
The dream of what once was

© Janet Martin





Monday, April 3, 2023

PAD Challenge day 3-Waiting for spring



PAD Challenge day 3-For today's prompt, write a connection poem.

My daughter sent me this picture of Dear Granddaughter, and three words
Waiting For Spring🌺☔🌞


'Do I have your permission to use it with a poem?' I asked 
to which she replied 'of course'

Ah, just beyond bedraggled fronds of remnant drifts of snow
Beyond the umber overtones before green starts to show
Beyond the gate where we still wait with umbrella in hand
While raindrops waltz from leaden vaults across storm-sobered land
I sense the steady trundle of a sturdy wagon heaped
With a three-season bundle to be sown, tended and reaped

Ah, just beyond the pond still chilled with winter’s aftermath
I hear the dance of bare feet spilled to dusty garden path
And like a teapot tipped to pour sweet sips of mint or chai
I feel the earth, an eager cup lifted to catch the sky
Where just beyond the bondage of what Time alone sets free
I sense an immense barrage of buds turned to melody

Ah, just beyond the wall we cannot scale or clap apart
I sense the love and laughter of a color-happy heart
After winter has gone the way of every winter-old
After earth’s rags of brown and gray are laid with green and gold
After the part after the art that draws ajar spring’s gate
I know once more we will admit that it was worth the wait

© Janet Martin

Ah, just beyond the pond still chilled with winter’s aftermath...


After the part after the art that draws ajar spring’s gate...










Saturday, April 1, 2023

April PAD Challenge Day One

Happy, happy April!!

 For today's prompt, write a foolish poem.

I love clipping branches in mid-March 
then bringing them indoors to watch them unfold!
(Pussy-willow, bridal wreath and apple boughs!)


 

Foolish to pout, fume, fuss/cuss and fret
Spring never has lost its way yet

Foolish to leap before we look
Then rue the foolish leap we took

Foolish to think if we veto
The truth somehow it isn't so 

Foolish to trust in the façade
Of dust to dust, rather than God

Foolish to live as if the soul
Was nothing but a donut hole  

Foolish to wish for what once was
and miss What Is, 
in wishing's Because

Foolish to lament growing old
While licking cones of moment-gold 

Foolish to scorn the wisdom of


Janet Martin

Thursday, November 10, 2022

Tug of Ink


PAD Challenge day 10: For today's prompt, write a struggle poem.

To board dawn's gleaming barge
While seasons ebb and flow...



To know when to say ‘yes’
To know when to say ‘no’
To hold to hope and happiness
Amidst love’s letting go

So much to touch and kiss
So much that used to be
So much to balance with the bliss
Of unpenned poetry

Today is always new
Immune it seems, to age
Let’s never grow too old to woo
Its poetry to page

Let’s slow dance, cheek to cheek
What is to be will be
Enough, my love to learn to speak
In tongues of poetry

Let the masses deploy
Long ladders to success
Enough, my love, to feast on joy
Of poem happiness

To press past the façade
Of front-line highs and lows
And to feel the *pleasure of God
In poems to compose

To board dawn’s gleaming barge
While seasons ebb and flow
To stay true to the humble charge
Of life’s ink undertow

© Janet Martin

"When I run, I feel God's pleasure" Eric Liddell


Acts 17:28
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ 
As some of your own poets have said,
 ‘We are his offspring.’

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Candor of the Clock



PAD Challenge day 9. For today's prompt, take the phrase "(blank) of the (blank),"
replace the blanks with a word or phrase,
make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.



Consummate toll of tick and tock
Determined undertow
Winnowing shorelines made of rock
With season ebb and flow

A minute and momentous merge
Of is, was, and will be
The gilded surface of a surge
Veiling eternity

…while dreamers dream and poets troll
The teeming deeps that mock
The pioneer of heart and soul
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock

The lilt that tuned the nudge that broke
The shell that held the bow’r
That grew into a mighty oak
Reclaims glory’s fleet flow’r /hour

Giver and taker synchronized
The candor of the clock
Grants and gathers eons comprised
Of teeny tick and tock

…unfurling a tempest of pearls
Some pray, some shake a fist
Tick tock, the clock replies, and twirls
Time’s carousel of mist

© Janet Martin

James 4:14
What is your life? 
You are a mist that appears 
for a little while 
and then vanishes.