replace the blanks with a new word or phrase,
make the new phrase the title of your poem, and
then, write your poem.
True Happiness
True happiness is often found
when we forget to look for it
While, as we trek the common ground
of day-to-day, we pause a bit
To feast on sweeps of boundless skies
or peer into a flower-cup
Or trace a treetop with our eyes
or kiss baby when she/he wakes up
Or sip a cuppa with a book
or drink an autumn afternoon
Mauve-mulled, or linger by a brook
where leaf-boats pass, gold and maroon
Or in the thick of much to-do
hum a hymn or pray God to bless...
Then smile as wonder runs us through
with happiness on happiness
Janet Martin
True Wisdom
The world is full of books
of tales and poetry
of travel, from cozy chair-nooks
bound for yon land and sea
Knowledge and wisdom's schemes
Fill turn of page on page
In countless plots, events and themes
the reader to engage
...but true wisdom is found
In One Good Book alone
Though wonderful volumes abound
None are faith's Cornerstone
None tell of having borne
The cross of Calvary
No other love suffered hate's scorn
To ransom you and me
None fulfills prophecy
No bestseller transcends
Time, throughout all eternity
All earthy wisdom ends
Only One Book will prove
The All-wise Author, when
We trust His Word to help us love
And live and die, Amen
Janet Martin
True Love...
'well, at least they died doing what they love'
has become a common phrase of sympathy when someone loses their life
while doing what they enjoyed.
Perhaps that phrase comforts some.
We live in an age when it seems Personal Pleasure is reason enough...
but it flies in the face of much instructions from God's word
on how to truly love...and true love is able to discern
what is good and acceptable,
and doing enjoyable things is good and healthy in proper/healthy balance...
True Love
Sometimes we sacrifice the 'what we love' because the 'who
we love' is worth the giving up of what we love to do
Sometimes for the sake of the Best, we sacrifice the good
God alone knows the price we pay to love the way we should
True love is worth the 'less' of Self, for more and more and more
of love no phrase can fully tell where mercies pour and pour...
Janet Martin
some heart to heart chats with family and friends helped inspire this one...
It Helps To Know We're Not Alone...
It helps to know we're not alone
when it comes to love's trust-and-pray
to know some morrow may atone
what seems inglorious today
To know the present push and pull
of making love's ends meet and hold
May serve to make us more thankful
rather than grumble, fret or scold
...as together, we weather life
its holding close and letting go
its ups and downs of song or strife
As tears and laughter ebb and flow
It helps to know in change of plan
In hopes and dreams so trouble-prone
The help/love of God and fellowman
Reminds us we are not alone
Janet Martin
For today’s Two-for-Tuesday prompt:
Write a poetic form poem, and/or...
Write an anti-form poem.
I love the play of rhyme
lyrical rise and fall
unfurling a bucolic clime
within its madrigal
A little like a stream
that sparkles on the air
and winds its way into a dream
we did not know was there
Waking the girl or boy
in frames, weathered by Time
but never too old to enjoy
the magic of a rhyme
Janet Martin
Dear Rhyming Poem or Not...
You are not posh, 'they' rule
And some turn up their nose
At Pentameter, so uncool
Compared to today's prose
Some prose earns its esteem
But much is rank and base
Like a coffee with curdled cream
Repulsive to good taste
Whether it rhymes or not
Is of small consequence
Rather, the mind that bore the thought
This is the poem's Thence
Because the written word
Will either bless or curse
The ripple effect of thought stirred
For better or for worse
So, whether posh or plain
Whether its rhymes or not
Deems not the worth of the refrain
But how it affects thought
For all we say and do
Begins within the mind
Dear Poem/poet, let's keep this in view
As merit is defined
...and do the best we can
To spill salt of the earth
And honour our fellowman
By giving ink kind worth
Love,
Janet Martin
