Last Resort? No!

 PAD Challenge day 13: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Last (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the poem.

It is mankind’s best defense

Against worry’s vices

Divine-dealt deliv’rance when

Temptation entices

Bulwark bearing us to God

Transport from our sorrow

Warrior in whispers shod

Lifeline all may borrow

Faith and hope-sweet fellowship

Fading fear’s foreshadow

Quiet haven in the grip

Of heart-bleeding battle

Communion with He who knows

The Unknown stilling waiting

Light where darkness bares its woes

…hunger, hurt abating

Soul-aches searing Cup resigned

Rod of trust and courage

Surrender and strength entwined

Worship’s humble homage

Peace in life’s complexities

And as death releases

Confession and Favor’s pleas

When we pray to Jesus

© Janet Martin

Hold To the Hand That Holds Us

For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Isa.41:13

Hold to the hand that holds the sand that trickles through time’s glass

The Keeper of His promises knows what will come to pass

Then should the fight be hard and night reach far into the day

Still, hold the hand that holds us in each untold come-what-may

Hold to the hand that holds the land and sea in folds of blue

He parts the waters of the deep so that we may pass through

And should the way that he allows seem foreign to our want

Still, hold the hand that holds us close where fear and worry taunt

Hold to the hand that will not fail though oft it seems, we must

Yet, if we never failed then would we ever truly trust?

His hands are rich with mercy, granting courage for this strife

Hold to the hand that holds us in the gray and gold of life

Hold to the hand that holds the plans for every one of us

And wore the nails and bore the cross for our sin; Jesus

Hold to His hand, He understands what we can never know

Hold to the hand that holds us near and never lets us go

© Janet Martin

Beyond the Curtain

(I know, I've posted this song before, but I love it; the voice, the message and melody:) May we trust God with our tomorrows and thereby know peace. Wishing each of you His blessings in 2015.

Uncertainty is certain

Not one of us can know

What waits beyond the curtain

From whence all moments flow

And none of us are able

To see what lies ahead

Or weights tomorrow’s table

Where today’s spoil is spread

But, though we cannot vision

What lies beyond The Veil

It pours in pure precision

Through Hands that will not fail

© Janet Martin

Of Soul-brooch and Heartstrings...

Where are your heartstrings moored?

We adjust, get used to what once was but is no more

That ache of ‘missing you’ is like love’s brooch pinned to the soul

I’m glad to love and have been loved enough to bear the roar

Of ‘missing you’ where new loves and new memories console

Time laughs in our faces like a bully without spite

Its hand brimming with graces we are oft not ready for

Darling, we cannot travel back even to yester-night

Save in a frigate wrought of thought’s bittersweet troubadour

…so, we adjust because we must; to pine is but to miss

Our present ‘missing you’s’ still held too close for memories

Forbid that I would squander its touch-taste because the kiss

Of yesterday is more than I am willing to appease

© Janet Martin 

Last night when you burnt supper then 'forgot' to do the dishes

I didn't reprimand, for I have seen firsthand the speed of years

and I would rather not waste moments spouting futile wishes

where daily I'm reminded of how fast time disappears...