Showing posts with label collections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label collections. 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.




Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Collecting Echoes

This is the time of year when I start to concede that maybe 
I have too much junk many collections... 

My largest collections are
rolling pins ...
...enamel-ware
 and poetry books
...and oh, what pleasure they have added to the ordinary!

Collectors walk that fine line between pack-rat and passion😏

some day
when I die
they
will pile a wagon high
and people will come
and sort throught the conglom
-eration
of these pieces of 
love
...and the auctioneer will call
what am I bid
the pictures of
the living they did
  hidden from eyes 
as they surmise
the size of the lot
and contemplate the price
and someone says
maybe 'I could use that' 
and another replies, 
'yeah, this might be nice'

...for the hands have been stilled 
that once thrilled
with the warmth of honest toil
as they filled
dishes with dinner
(fresh-from-the-garden-spoil)
Folded forever,
the fingers 
that lingered
between pages
as they highlighted a line 
here and there
The lips have laughed 
and kissed the last
tears of tots
and teddy-bears
when the milk was spilled

...here is the apron,
oft flour-dusty
as pies were rolled and filled
Now the rolling pins are passed on
like wooden batons
to the next generation
for stories not yet told
'what am I bid'
cries the auctioneer
'going once
going twice
sold!'
("throw in an extra rolling-pin"
he tells the bid-spotter
"We've got a lot of them to get rid of
...and just for the sake of love
a poem book or two
The things people collect!"
he said)

...and if I could I'd say
'yes, it's true,
it's true
Soundless echoes of 
home-sweet-love
that once upon my
little life
I knew'

Janet Martin


..