To Bless and Keep

It is a prayer repeated daily

Because we so need it daily

...that God would bless and keep! 

  

This is one of those poems that can be read through as one poem 

or pick a verse 

for a quick rhyme-kick;-)

Before this day is swept away

Into the archives of the mind

Where echoes of its tendered love

Rise from ashes of daily grind

Before the doors on eastward shores

Swing wide then fade to midday blue

Above the noise that life employs

Of plans to make and work to do

Before we stare agape at air

That holds the lair where seasons sleep

Let’s bow beneath dawn’s baited breath

And implore God to bless and keep

This skin and bone that hours hone

With grin and groaning’s up and down

Soon learns the truth; suave, slick, fair youth

Falls prey to age’s hoary crown

…while we smiled, beguiled, like a child

By lollipops and laughing eyes

We licked Time's spoons and danced to tunes

That led too soon, to meek surprise

...no good, no good to mourn the ‘should-

Have, could-have, would-have’s trampled sweep

But with bowed head, to pray instead

For gracious God to bless and keep

Some days are rough, some slip silk-soft

Where pictures waft on Bygone’s breeze

How swift time’s gifted moments drift

From fingertips to memories

Dawn’s gold and gray that tips yon tray

Where come-what-may looms like thick fog

Is not some fluke kiss or rebuke

Tossed to us like bones to a dog

God grants His grace to human race

Where proud and meek till the same heap

And all may plea on humble knee

For His mercy to bless and keep

© Janet Martin