Wonder-World

 PAD Challenge 26;

For today's prompt, take the phrase "(blank) World," 

replace the blank with a word or phrase, 

make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.

I wonder what today will bring

As morning spreads glistening wings

Above earth’s-re-emerging bars

As heaven blushes away stars

And darkened awnings thin until

Dawn fills a worldwide windowsill

I wonder at mercy renewed

My heart, a cup of gratitude

That while we slept God didn’t scorn

His promise and withheld new morn

(Though we have made a sorry mess

Of reverence and righteousness)

I wonder at the way the world

Now wide awake and dew-drop pearled

Invites the likes of you and me

To endless possibility

As sky-wide gates are flung ajar

And mercy meets us where we are

I wonder at the world at large

Where we, aboard its season-barge

And fellow-travelers; as such

I wonder why we fight so much

Instead of using Time’s Short-Sweet

To help each other to our feet

I wonder what today will bear

Before it slips into thin air

And earth is tucked beneath a quilt

Of stars on blue and echo-gilt

I wonder, nay, pray it will be

Memento-of-love memory

© Janet Martin

Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, 

who alone works wonders. 

And blessed be His glorious name forever; 

and may the whole earth be filled with His glory. 

Amen and Amen.

 – Psalm 72:18-19

Thought-scope/scape

 

 PAD Challenge 25: For today's prompt, write a thought poem. 

A thought can be...a bloom bouquet

(first fresh-picked bouquet from my garden)

I love these cheery little pansy-pixies 

that wander at will through my flower-border

and eagerly burst into smiles as soon as the snow is gone!

A thought can try to fool us into trusting our own eyes

Or not; a thought can climb above complaint, or criticize

A thought can be a candle in the dark, a bloom bouquet

A blow below the beltline or a high-five hip-hooray

A noose around the neck of dreams or hope and trust’s lifeline

A labyrinth of vengeful schemes, both trellis and the vine

A lavish wander-land of want, a ladder to the stars

A dungeon where dark demons taunt, a cart that bumps and jars

A thought, intangible at first, but if indulged at length

Can be an unquenchable thirst, great weakness or great strength

A thought can be a comrade or a bitter enemy

A playground or a battlefield, it’s up to you and me

© Janet Martin

To Hosts of Homage

 PAD Challenge 25: For today's prompt, write a thought poem. 

'Everything we do/become begins with what we think,

and which thoughts we entertain! we do not fall prey to

a passing thought, but the one which we indulge'

our father would caution us, as teens.

'We all have terrible things that enter the mind but as the old

proverb goes;

Just because a bird flies over our heads

doesn't mean we need to allow it to build a nest'

***

So many thought-guests drop by!

We need to be careful to whom we offer a chair!

***

We become what we feed thought...

Such a huge buffet!

choose well

Something like this is nice for

thought's breakfast...

One life to live;

A gift to give

Our uttermost attention to

Where thought gives birth

To waste or worth

Of everything we say and do

Thought entertains

In boundless veins

Guests of both honor and deceit

Its rendezvous

(no matter who)

Soon bursts through gates of mouth-hands-feet

This control tow’r

Of holy pow’r

All other boasts of might exceeds

Therefore, we ought

To give much thought

To what we think and where it leads

© Janet Martin

Whatever is noble, 

whatever is right, 

whatever is pure, 

whatever is lovely, 

whatever is admirable — 

if anything is excellent or praiseworthy —

 think about such things.

-Philippians 4:8

Dear Child, Why Do We Spend Precious Time With You?

Train up a child in the way he should go,

And when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

PAD Challenge 24: 

For today's prompt, write a question poem. 

Bird-watching/learning

Grampa-trampa-line...

Aunty-secrets

Order up; Pine-cone Corndog

puppy-love

Next two photos; photo credit Brittany Ruppert

Uncle antics...

Aunty-acrobats

Why do we walk, talk, read, sing, pray

And spend precious time patiently

With you? Because, sweet child, someday

The sapling will become a tree

How swift the seed begins to sprout

To crucial pliability

Thus, it takes love’s diligent clout

To train the tendrils of a tree

…the kind and gentle touch, the knife

To prune weak offshoots faithfully

So, you can weather storms of life

When you become a full-grown tree

How brief the shaping season is

How swift the tender sapling grows

Why do we scold, hold, hug and kiss

To make you strong when life's wind blows

© Janet Martin

Why Do I Look The Way I Look?

 To Whomever it may concern😂

PAD Challenge 24: 

For today's prompt, write a question poem. 

So while a scale horizon-lines...

Why do I look the way I look?

Well, I get lost in thought your see

My mind is like a picture book

When thinking gets the best of me

So, if my gaze seems far away

Though we are sitting, eye to eye

And I miss most of what you say

And make no sense with my reply

Forgive me, if you can, my dears

I am still learning the fine art

Of fitting words inside my ears

When I am lost in worlds apart

So while I scale horizon-lines

And fail to listen, please be kind

And smile as I wrangle with vines

 Tangled in mazes of my mind

© Janet Martin

Why Do I Love You, Poem-hon?

 

Sometimes Poem does not want to be

only the lover, but the loved!

PAD Challenge 24: 

For today's prompt, write a question poem. 

Sway Michael Bublé

(for my poem-hon)😊 

Why do I love you, 

Poem, so?

Your sweep and surging

Ebb and flow

Fills nooks and crooks

And crannies of

Life’s lackluster layouts

With love

While the world seems

To fall apart

You stay the course

And cheer the heart

You are courageous

And uncouth

And not afraid to

Tell the truth

Yet when you do

You are not cruel

Or treat the student

Like a fool

But with the woo of

Lilt and rhyme

You tune the truant

To the crime

You test and tame

And teach and tease

And vex and calm

With melodies

Drawn from a fresco

Flushed with stars

Or siphoned from

Dusk-brumal bars

You train me how

To dance or fight

To fly, to fall

To read and write

You make me brave

When I am not

Dare me to dredge

The grave of thought

Or surf the turquoise

Wave of dreams

To take me where

Brigadoon gleams

Like ancient castles

In the sun

You are my prince

Dear Poem-hon

You are a leaf

A silhouette

Of Grief and Wonder's

Pirouette

You twist fear's fist

 To figure-eights

As ink and sigh

Amalgamates

You are a candle

On a sill

A flicker on

Wicks of 'Until' 

Why do I love you,

Poem-hon

Your empathy

Second to none

You lend an

Understanding tear

Your page

A patient, listening ear

You spill and thrill

And fill time’s toll

With treasures chiseled

From the soul

© Janet Martin

Appointment With Laughter

 PAD Challenge 23: For today's prompt, write an appointment poem.

No matter how hard 

life is

Here's hoping 

now and then

it grants 

the goodness

of laughter

***

No matter how hard 

life is,

Here's to puppies 

and children...

because both have 

the beautiful, innocent 

ability 

of bringing the blessing 

of laughter

***

We have the neighbour's permission to 'enjoy' their pup

so Victoria loves playing with him till he's tired out...

These stomping grounds of dreams and dread

Confounds the bounds of heart and head

Where tug and hug wage wonder’s war

Midst beauty’s boast and duty’s chore

…where good intent is not enough

To reinvent the bent of love

Or the cement of moment-gold

As it pours into Bygone’s mold

These haves-and-holds of here-and-now

Of flying high and pushing plow

Is either ink of drudgery

Or patina of poetry

These stomping grounds of sound and sight

Abound with downer and delight

Yet, this grab-bag of groan and smile

Makes nabbing life’s coattail worthwhile

For appointments with hurt and hope

And dirt dappled with ‘nope-nope-nope’

Surprise us with sweet happiness

Because of laughter's ‘yes-yes-yes’

© Janet Martin

Date With Destiny

PAD Challenge 23: For today's prompt, write an appointment poem.

This date with Destiny

That no one can deny

Or somehow go unnoticed in

That Ledger in the sky

This date with Destiny

Ought to make us think thrice

About filling each moment with

Love’s gentle sacrifice

For what we leave behind

Becomes our legacy

While each breath draws us closer to

This date with Destiny

Ah Death! None can escape

The Reaper’s Swinging Scythe

Or the Appointment that awaits

As we step from this life

Then, pray that we prepare!

For Exodus Profound

For death is life's one certainty

The grave, it's common ground

This dust we stir with feet

Soon claims its due return

As Deathless Soul transcends time's toll

Far from earth's umber urn

The shadow that still falls

Across stone-stippled lea

The sacred image of the Soul

Awaiting Destiny

© Janet Martin

Heb.9:27-28

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 

 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, 

will appear a second time, not to deal with sin 

but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Date With Daybreak...

PAD Challenge 23: For today's prompt, write an appointment poem.

Ah, let me look at you longer

You always hurry by

As if you had appointments too

Up in the big blue sky

Ah, let me linger in your blush

Of young and fresh appeal

…yet, as I plea I sense the tug

Of duty’s tireless zeal

Ah, let me lean over the brink

Of where no one has been

To touch the hemline of your robe

Shimmering, silver-green

Ah, from my perch upon my porch

Let me learn, sweet and slow

Beneath the sunshine of your smile

The art of letting go

© Janet Martin

For Thee, Dear Earth's Creator

 PAD Challenge day 22: Write a nature poem.

For Thee, Dear Tree

For Thee, Dear Bud

For Thee, Dear Seed

For Thee, Dear Bird 

and Brook...

For Thee, Dear Lord...

For The Beauty of the Earth

For thee, dear tree that spreads thy root-webbed skein

Beneath our feet, to drink from darksome spring

While overhead thy leafy mezzanine

Spills shadow-rooms fit for beggar and king

For thee, dear bud, that cups a wondrous loom

Where none can witness nature’s steadfast law

Until thy broken seal reveals the bloom

And steals our breath, ten-thousand times, with awe

For thee, dear seed, of grand potential

A miracle within a speck-sized brood

Yet, from these origins so miniscule

A feast unfolds; earth’s table groans with food

For thee, dear bird and brook and butterfly

And buzzing bee in petal-portico

For hills and plains that roll out to the sky

In tides of green and gold and indigo

For Thee, dear Lord, that didst entrust earth’s heart

To be cared for and tended by mankind

I humbly vow to try to do my part

To labour well, with future-kin in mind

© Janet Martin

Isa.6:3

And they were calling to one another:

 "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

Psalm 24:1

The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; 

the world, and they that dwell therein.

Reminder To Me or Tangled Work of Art or Strings Attached

PAD Challenge 21: Here is Robert Lee Brewer's Prompt for Today

For today's prompt, take the phrase "(blank) Me," 

replace the blank with a word or phrase, 

make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.

 

How pure the banter of the breeze

That skims the rippled brook...

How precious, child's boots caked with mud...

How beautiful is joy, how bright

Its happiness, unmatched

But remember, the sheer delight

Of joy has strings attached

How pure the banter of the breeze

That skims the rippled brook

And plucks joy’s strings in melodies

Not written in a book

How lovely is the laughing child

How darling and how dear

How sweet the street where dreams run wild

Before Doors interfere

How precious, child's boots caked with mud

After heads bow with grief

Beside a grave, where Mortal Bud

Is restored to Time's Chief 

For strings of joy both bind and rend

Oh, how they tug and throb

As sorrow sears the tender end

And keens the soul to God

How frayed, joy’s strings, through letting go

How stained with salty tears

How stretched by high five and low blow

How seasoned with the years

How priceless then, joy’s sacred strings

(Though tangled works of art)

For from the loom of sorrow wings

A humbly, thankful heart

© Janet Martin

You Will Forget Me (when I'm gone)

PAD Challenge21: Here is Robert Lee Brewer's Prompt for Today

For today's prompt, take the phrase "(blank) Me," 

replace the blank with a word or phrase, 

make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. 

Possible titles include: "Tell Me," "Forgive Me," and/or "You've Got to Believe Me." 

Of course, feel free to bend the rules 

and have a title like "Home Sweet Ho(me)" or "Pick a The(me)."

Okay, so I acknowledge,

my homespun scribblings will never grace the Literary World's Center Stage,

but it's still important to remember,

'that fields of ink may live from age to age'

These volumes below are living proof !

 

These few pages above are just a glimpse of 

this volume packed with ancient masterpieces,

as powerful/relevant today as the day they were penned!

My name will fade from thoughts and lips when I am dead and gone

The echo-world of 'us' will slip as Time’s Corp marches on

The bulk of my possessions and the things that I held dear

Will pass through hands; for we are all just brief sojourners here

All bound to be forgot, as generations disappear

Thus, here’s to poetry; its sea of passion undeterred

For though the poet may be gone, long lives the written word

The hand that held the pen, long after it returns to dust

May cheer some future fellowman, may buoy failing trust

May remind him or her though we are centuries apart

Time never really could deter the matters of the heart

Where love is our utter need and longing is its dart

Then write, dear poet, write; but bear in mind the grit of ink

Though we are gone a poem might live longer than we think

My name will fade like morning mist beneath the glaring sun

Soon all the faces that I kissed will to death’s tryst succumb

Who knows who waits to turn the leaves of Poet’s printed jot

What thread of influence will weave through some far future thought

Or who will glean the remnant sheaves of harvests, long forgot

Therefore, dear poet, as we plant the pastures of the page

Let’s not forget that fields of ink may live from age to age

© Janet Martin

Unfailing Love

 PAD Challenge day 20;

For this Two-for-Tuesday prompt:

Write a love poem and/or...

Write an anti-love poem.

His Love Never Fails

(I share this song repeatedly because I love it)

Love in blood-veiled glory, bowed

Did not fall or fail

Gave His life, though, loud the crowd

Mocked and scorned Hope’s Grail

Love in utter Mercy groaned

It is finished, then

With his dying breath atoned

Fallen sons of men

Love in glorious triumph rose

Scorned death's lowly tomb

For no burial could enclose

Resurrection’s Bloom

Love in kind compassion waits

To rend Yonder Veil

Too many outside the gates

Where love did not fail

© Janet Martin

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.

 Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, 

but everyone to come to repentance.

Love Is A Tangle of Bed-sheets...

 PAD Challenge day 20;

For this Two-for-Tuesday prompt:

Write a love poem and/or...

Write an anti-love poem.

💕

Love is a tangle of bed-sheets

To launder

Love is a naked undoing

Of hearts

Love is the bliss of a kiss

That might wander

Love is exploring its

Less private parts

Like ears to listen when the story

Gets longer

Like eyes to glisten with kind

Sympathy

Like arms to let go with and thereby

Grow stronger

Like feet to walk miles that nobody

Will see

Love is the truth that is proven

With action

Love tells the proof without saying

A thing

Love is not pretty when stripped of

Distraction

Love is a servant, not enthroned like

A king

Love is life’s very imperfect

Perfection

Love is the stuff heroes are

Made of

Love never leads us in the wrong

Direction

No wonder the greatest of these

Is love

Oh, pity the poor, poor creature 

of dust

Who never learns the difference between love 

and lust

© Janet Martin

Ink-Casanova

PAD Challenge day 20;

For this Two-for-Tuesday prompt:

Write a love poem and/or...

Write an anti-love poem.

An intangible tempest

How innocent your stance

While teasing me with glimpses

Where unpenned poems dance

Your brooding predilection

Makes me the perfect prey

Your eyes full of suggestion

My sighs full of ‘you may’

My, but you are a heart-throb

Of possibility

How silver-blue your lures bob

On streams of dream-and-see

Darling, you turn a woman

To Hunger’s Masterpiece

You rouse in Her a poem

That begs for sweet release

No, I have never seen you

But every now and then

The page is our ballroom

Dear lover in my pen

© Janet Martin

Love Is A Shawl with Holes

PAD Challenge day 20;

For this Two-for-Tuesday prompt:

Write a love poem and/or...

Write an anti-love poem.

Love is far more 

than daisy-lore

of love me-love-me-not

It runs us through 

with bronze and blue

that weathered years allot 

Love is the stuff

of fist-a-cuff

and kiss me sweet and slow

The grit and grin

through thick and thin

of hold and letting go

A tango, dear

of smile and tear

A ballad, dissonant

It's tea-and-toast'

Making the most

of each precious moment

It is a hug

a push-and-tug

together, not apart

A sacred pact

twixt faith and fact

not for the faint of heart

It's what-a-mess

and happiness

mysteriously entwined

It is a vow

of curtsy-bow

with Other first in mind

A breath of spring,

The weathering

of winter's wildest storm

But best of all

Love is a shawl

with holes, yet keeps us warm

Janet Martin

Cloud-sheep Shepherdess

 PAD Challenge day 19; For today's prompt, write a poem with an animal in the title.

Through welkin mead spring's shepherdess

Wanders blue, flock-strewn hills

She plays Her flute with keen finesse

Where sun-sweet zephyr spills

To woodlands primed with pulsing bud

April's cantata falls

It teases flowers from the mud

To deck dull, barren halls

And from her perch beyond the scope

Of earth's four-season isle

We hear her happy hymns of hope

We sense Her friendly smile

Her sunny-honey-colored tress

Gleams like a diadem

The cloud-sheep love their Shepherdess

She loves each one of them

We kick off shoes to dance footloose

Beneath  flock-dappled glade

While tree-tops throb with soft chartreuse

'Neath April's serenade

Janet Martin

Song of Solomon 2:14

...let me see your face,

let me hear your voice;

for your voice is sweet,

and your countenance is lovely.

  

Garden Stroll

PAD Challenge day 18:

For today's prompt, write an ekphrastic poem.

An ekphrastic poem is one in which the poet writes a poem based on another work of art, 

whether that's a painting, photograph, sculpture, mixed media, or other piece of art.

This painting, almost 30 years old was at the time, a splurge!

I purchased it Brand New! (likely from Zellers) 

In 'young mom/homeowner' days that was quite an

extravagance, but I'm so glad I did. I still love it.

 (it was not expensive, by any means but still, an extra)

I feel so much more than meets the eye when I look at it!

(I took the liberties of adding a few extras to the poem,

perhaps the pond and arbor are just beyond the scope of the lens??)😉

It is so much more than flowers

More than birdsong that beguiles

She and Child to garden-bowers

It is Time and Touch and Smiles

She looks down at her sweet daughter

Who does not yet see beyond,

Picket fence, wisteria arbour

Ducklings paddling in the pond

She is not attuned to hours

Or the mementos they spill

Happiness is picking flowers

In a place where time stands still

The world fits inside her pocket

She fits into mother’s smile

They fit into a heart-locket

Forever Mother and Child

© Janet Martin

Worth The Wait

I was about to post this poem of two stanzas when I received a text from my daughter!

Grandsonny FINALLY had 7 checkmarks;

one for each day he did not rebel tantrum-ishly when the answer to a want was 'no'.

 7 checkmarks earned him the reward of a bag of Lego 

Grandma gave him at the end of March, but his reaction to

'no, you may not open it tonight because it's bedtime' was not nice (to put it mildly)

so, we decided this might be a good motivation to weigh consequences when reacting!

How sweeter the Lego after the waiting, inspiring one more stanza to the poem😊

PAD Challenge day 17: For today's prompt, write a waiting poem.

Wait; a word with which we struggle

Wait; the gate to faith-hope-grace

Wait; for better days or trouble

Wait to take This Present Place

Wait without doubting or fretting

Wait with love’s humility

Wait without blindly forgetting

Who waits on us faithfully

Wait tests restless human mettle

But the beauty of the bloom

Must unfold, petal by petal

From dark, bud-shaped waiting room

So then wait with patient biding

Do not rush the soldered gate

For The Masterpiece still hiding

In a little word called Wait

Sweeter then will be the After

And the holding oh, so dear

When our tears are turned to laughter

In the wake of waiting's Here

We do not wait without reason

Test of time precedes the goal

Waiting is the growing season

For the faith that makes us whole

 

© Janet Martin

Oh, The Longer The Waiting...Josh Turner