Life Is Poetry Waiting to Be Tasted (Days 8, 9 & 10)

PAD Challenge: Day 8-For today’s prompt, take the phrase "True (blank)," 

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

PAD Challenge: day 9; write a help poem

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

 

PAD Challenge-day 10

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