Once Upon Youth I Tricked The Truth...

PAD Challenge day 8: For today's prompt, write a what they never tell you poem.

Echoes run deep

Wild oats aren't cheap

Beware of clocks that feast on rhyme

Youth's eloquence

A vain defense

Against the hands of Father Time

Reflections of

Spent live-learn-love

Can serve up quite a picture show

Sometimes the dark

Just needs a spark

To teach us things we didn't know

A book, a hill

A windowsill

Expands four-season points of view

No one can steal

The way I feel

After an afternoon with you 

Discovery 

Will always be

Life's bitterest, sweetest surprise

The greatest death

While we have breath

Is life, after love's laughter dies

...and, sure success 

To happiness

Will be impossible until

We realize

To our surprise

It is a selfless miracle

Once upon youth

I tricked the truth

Or so I airily supposed

Until I found

It safe and sound

Unfazed by ways it is exposed

I have been told

That growing old

Is not for the faint or the weak

But they left out

The part about

How soon I'd learn of what they speak

© Janet Martin

Abundance Masterpiece

Poem-a-day challenge day 7: For today's prompt, write an abundance poem

But do not weep, no one can keep

Night’s undoing at bay

Upon the east dawn spreads a feast

Abundant with Today...

A smile, a bird, a gentle word

Dear little girl or boy

A nature nook, a brimming brook

Rouses abundant joy

A cup of tea, a hug, a tree

Eager for spring’s seamstress

Wakens a woo that turns into

Abundant happiness

Dream-streets to roam, page for a poem

So many yet to write

Can tune the part that thrills the heart

With abundant delight

The Hand that brings to little things

The speechlessness of awe

Opens our eyes in meek surprise

To love’s abundant law

…where He bestows to thorns, a rose

To winter’s waning, spring

In flowers, frogs and puppy dogs

Abundant anthems ring

Like rolling seas, life spills with ease

Across dusk’s shadow-shore

Gold-gray, blush-blue all meld into

Abundant worlds of yore

But do not weep, no one can keep

Night’s undoing at bay

Upon the east dawn spreads a feast

Abundant with Today

Where faith lifts up hope’s battered cup

Where Mercies/wonders never cease

But fill time’s frame to earn the name;

Abundance Masterpiece

© Janet Martin

Psalm 86:5,15
For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; 

and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee…

Lam.3:22-24

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;[a]
    his mercies never come to an end;
 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

What in the World

Poem-a-day challenge day 6:For today's prompt, write a blank in the blank poem.

wishing all a day of purposeful happiness

(or, in some cases happy-mess😅💗💕)

What in the world would be better than trying

To be the person we would like to meet

Always the hour’s fleet flower is dying

Scattering echoes beneath our feet

What if we tried to be part of the beauty

On today’s canvas, soon splattered with paint

What if we honored dictations of duty

Rather than airing our curse and complaint

What if we counted the ways to be grateful

If living kindly was our true delight

What if we saw each new day as a plateful

Of blessings whetting worship’s appetite

What if we turned fisticuffs into handshakes

What if we didn’t ‘bite-back’ quite so much

What if we softened this journey of heartaches

With often-uttered endearments and such

What if, because we so cherished each other

Words would be gentle and patient and sweet

And we would see, through the eyes of a mother

A world full of people we would like to meet

...how, in a world full of fasting-fading flowers

We can be part of love’s heart-throbbing song

What would be better than scattering hours

In echo-petals of fondest so-long

© Janet Martin

Job 14:1-2

“Mortals, born of woman,
    are of few days and full of trouble.

They spring up like flowers and wither away;
    like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.

1 Peter 1:24
For, "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field;

 the grass withers and the flowers fall,

Handful of Seeds?

 

Poem-a-day challenge day 5:

For today's prompt (the first Two-for-Tuesday prompt of the month),

write a make sense poem and/or don't make sense poem.

It doesn’t make sense that something so little and brittle should kindle such joy

The rush of elation roused by contemplation of what waits within its employ

Of places to wander and graces to ponder as wonder its plunder beholds

Completely breath taken by what will awaken, that raindrop and sun-kiss unfolds

Each April as surely and sweetly and purely as winter’s traces disappear

A feeling comes stealing, nay, reeling and pealing like bells tolling in the new year

As seeds for the garden (so seemingly common) then, utterly awe and amaze

And fill heart-recesses with thrilled happiness-es that spill into anthems of praise

Because we remember stunning petal splendor, the fruit of our labour’s reward

The way that a kernel begets virgin, vernal abundance of goodness outpoured

Instilled with cool bowers, bright rainbows of flowers, provision for needs great and small

So little and brittle, ah, handful of miracles; Perhaps it makes sense after all

© Janet Martin

Because we remember stunning petal splendor, the fruit of our labour’s reward...

the fruit of our labour's reward...

Defying Common Sense of Sequence

Poem-a-day challenge day 5:

For today's prompt (the first Two-for-Tuesday prompt of the month),

write a make sense poem and/or don't make sense poem.

Why is it in the night

sweet slumber 

will not shut my eyes

but oh, sleep shuts them tight

around the 

hour of sunrise

Janet~

Beyond Comprehension (John 3:16)

Poem-a-day challenge day 5:

For today's prompt (the first Two-for-Tuesday prompt of the month),

write a make sense poem and/or don't make sense poem.

There Is A Fountain

You loved the world so much You gave your Son; for none could earn

Enough to pay sin's ransom; what can I give in return?

For whatever I think of in the name of love seems small

Compared to what You gave; sinless, You came and gave Your all

No matter how I ponder it I cannot comprehend

Such height and depth and breadth of love all sinners to defend

The cross you bore, the bloody gore to redeem human race

Defies all explanation except one; amazing grace

 

...and all that You ask in return, redemption to receive

Is faith to take what none can earn; to repent and believe

Thus, surely it makes sense, in the light of eternity

That I should trust love so immense, that You would die for me

© Janet Martin

John 3:16-17

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,

 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world;

 but that the world through him might be saved.

Can You Smell It?

Poem-a-day Challenge day 3:

For today's prompt, write a smell poem.

It fills picnic baskets with quilt-and-book dreams...

It flutters and twitters in finch-frilled treetops...

It gleams in each sunbeam...

It gleams in each sunbeam, streams where brook-song brims

It sparkles in jewels that gild barren limbs

It quivers and gushes from heaven to earth

A river that rushes death’s graveyards with birth

It lilts in the lyric that landscapes compose

Hint of minty tincture and pink wink of rose

It wafts in the softness of purple mist-crowns

Hiding yonder hill, still steeped in grays and browns

It billows in breezes that test laundry lines

It melts in mosaics of last summer’s vines

It purrs in the fur of pussy willow trees

And laughs in the garden that wakes from its z-z-z-z’s

It spills like a love-song we had long forgot

A duet of bluebell and forget-me-not

It fills picnic baskets with quilt-and-book dreams

The shrieking of children knee-deep in cold streams

*It romps in the rollick of puppy and cat

It makes happiness feel so jolly and fat

In spite of mud-messes and shivery show’rs

Washing dowdy tresses and waking the flow'rs

It takes winter-weary woodlands in its arms

In renewals wrought only by nature's charms

It reinstates pulpits and preachers named Jack

And carpets its chapels with violet bric-a-brac 

It flutters and twitters in finch-frilled treetops

It shimmers in puddles, glimmers in raindrops  

It runs in the sap boiled to maple-sweet yum

First harvest's gold gathered in drum after drum

It flings wide the sense of a rust-jaded gate

Where havens of trillium and daffodils wait

Where choruses warble in numberless laud 

It rouses from slumber the gardens of God

It bobs in the step of farmer’s pep restored

It steams up from cups where outdoor tea is poured

It makes home-sweet-homers feel like queen and king

The pure, pungent, heady aroma of Spring

© Janet Martin

* click on link for a pure-happiness treat

Catch Me If You Can

Poem-a-day challenge day 4:

For today's prompt, write a catch up poem.

I'm playing poem-challenge catch up today after a busy weekend!💖

Always so much to do/love/write...

This morning was no exception...

Beauty dangled its poetic lure for all the world to see!

Morning to morning, night's mantle is rent

With the renewal of love's covenant 

So between Beauty and Duty...

Poetry

So much to cherish in so little Time

Moment-mementos to capture in rhyme

Duty's staid summons to tend and disperse 

Beauty (never common) to secure in verse

Love-lassoed lyrics so when day is done

Though the dust settles the music plays on

So much to whisper to He who resides

Over the glister of dawn-to-dusk-tides

Morning to morning, night's mantle is rent

With the renewal of love's covenant 

So many sins to repent of, oh my

 Praise God, redemption's fount never runs dry

I know, no poet can ever deplete

Ink-wells refurbished with bitter and sweet

Still, the bard blissfully pledges to try/dare

Desire dredges its deeps with a sigh/prayer 

So many syllables to twist and tease

Into haiku, ballads, odes, elegies

Darling, I do believe poets are kissed

With the loveliest unmet to-do-list 

Forbid that ever I should live to see

The consummation of all poetry

For the fulfillment of poet's delight

Is the instilled bent to write and to write

Garden and galley, brook-creased countryside  

Hilltop and valley, fleece-cloud, blushing bride

Babies and butterflies, loved-one-come-home

Forming the font that turns into a poem

Turning what might be a most mundane day

Into a breath-stealing hip-hip-hooray

The alphabet fills an infinite pen

Spilling and thrilling, again and again

Thoughts become children we hold then let go

 Page after page falls like epical snow

Where want and wonder grapple and set free 

Life-sparkles canonized in poetry 

Blue, twilight shadow falls, troubadour's bliss

Snaring a madrigal from farewell's kiss

Only to be wakened by dawn's hellos 

Morn, noon and night; ink-delight ebbs and flows 

Where, no matter how many poems span

One more is calling 'catch me if you can'

© Janet Martin

  

Call To Dance

Writer's Digest poem-a-day (PAD) Challenge Day 2;

For today's prompt, write a second chance poem.

A ballroom, misty blue and gold dangles from waning moon

A sense of more than 'growing old' unfolds from night's cocoon

 The heavens, like a butterfly, spreads ethereal wings

 Hope's magnum opus fills the sky; creation sings and sings

For, to a track record of stumbles comes a call to dance 

 As from the Hand of mercy tumbles mortal's second chance

Upon its maiden voyage, morning's gleaming barge embarks

Laden with leaps of courage and the heralding of larks

Desire drives the dreamer wild with bud-bejeweled sweeps

Where quiet poet is beguiled to dredge ink-fueled deeps

And never waste the wonder that deserves more than mere glance

As boundless heavens thunder, soundless, with love's second chance

Janet~

Lam.3:22-23

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;[a]
    his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Family...(or Best Gift Ever)

'This is the BEST day ever!"

declared Little Girl through a mouthful of raspberry jello and whipped cream💓😊

(don't we all feel like that when we have our mouths full of our favorite food?! lol)

Here's a fun little take on the poem-prompt below

Favourite Food

It is extremely hard to be rude

When one's mouth is full of one's favorite food!

So maybe the way to treat our fellowman

Is to eat as much favorite food as we can!😅

Happy April!

Writer's Digest poem-a-day (PAD) Challenge Day 1:

For today's prompt, pick a word that begins with F, 

make it the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.

Today, ah, what a gift

Of sacred tears and smiles

As morning sets a barge adrift

That dusk deftly exiles

Today, ah, what a course

Of forceful ups and downs

A gift that God’s mercies endorse

And twilight’s tableau crowns

Today, a tray that tips

And who knows what will spill,

But He who permits and equips

According to His will

Today, ah, what a lease

From God to man is borne

The canvas of love’s masterpiece

-es restored morn to morn

Today, ah, what a call

It bears for you and me

To remember that we are all

A great, big family

Let’s treat each other thus

And treasure each Today

For nobody knows which of us

Will next be called away

Today, always today

The page where ink runs rife

And writes with what we do and say

The story of a life

Today, let’s live and love

As kindly as can be

For you and I are all part of

God’s great, big family

© Janet Martin

Rom.12:9-21

Love in Action

9 Love must be sincere. 

Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 

10 Be devoted to one another in love. 

Honor one another above yourselves. 

11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

 12 Be joyful in hope, 

patient in affliction, 

faithful in prayer. 

13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. 

Practice hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 

16 Live in harmony with one another.

 Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[c] 

Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. 

Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 

18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you,

 live at peace with everyone.

 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends,

 but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: 

“It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[d] says the Lord. 

20 On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;

if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”[e]

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

As Long As Life Remains

PAD Challenge day 3: For today's prompt, take the phrase "As (blank)," 

replace the blank with a new word phrase, 

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

(Playing with these prompts as time allows!)

Oh there's another title for this prompts haha! '

As Time Allows

Young at Heart Frank Sinatra

As long as life is granted, pray

That I/we may learn the art

(Though nothing keeps the years at bay)

Of staying young at heart

Then though the seasons take their toll

Beneath their staid finesse

May I/we retain in heart and soul

A youthful loveliness

Where as the winds of change persist

To weather wizened limb

Beneath the tresses, silver-kissed

May Youth’s sparkle yet brim

Like a gnarled tree laden with fruits

Of pure and humble truth

May Beauty’s finest attributes

Inspire green of youth

Each season is a work of art

Like links in daisy-chains

To keep us ever young at heart

As long as life remains

© Janet Martin

Word 'Count

PAD Challenge day 2: Two-for-Tuesday challenge...

Write a ready poem, and/or...

Write a not ready poem.

the words we use 

to think 

and write 

and speak

should always be

seasoned

with discipline

and grace

kindness 

and honesty

it seems the tongue 

has quite a gift

for swift, 

ready reply

So pray the words 

we choose 

to use

will aid

and edify

So when we bow

 before 

the One

who taught

 us how to live

we will 

be ready

by God's grace

a word-account

to give

© Janet Martin

Matt.12:36

But I say to you 

that for every idle word 

men may speak, 

they will give account of it 

in the day of judgment.

Just Between You and Me...

I wasn't going to do this November's PAD challenge but just too tempting!

So many great prompts to lure me out of my writing ruts...

PAD Challenge day 1:

 For today’s prompt, write a correspondence poem.

I lack poetic confidence 

Just between you and me

These days a phrase with prominence  

Passes as poetry

 To write with utter disregard

For what was once the rule

Confuses this out-dated bard

Who is still quite 'old-school'

What authenticates poetry

These days, quite mystifies

In fact, it is not clear to me

If rhyme still qualifies

I want for poetry that steals

The earth beneath my feet

To make me fall head over heels

In love, when first we meet 

These days ink puts on quite a show

Just between you and me

I lack the confidence to know

What is still poetry

© Janet Martin

P.s. maybe I'm just envious of the poets who have mastered free verse

but either way, I enjoy this quote below...

Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down. ~Robert Frost

Good-bye Is a Gateway...

 PAD Challenge day 30:For today's prompt, write a goodbye poem.

Adios Amigo

Is It Really Over 

We pave the path to aftermath with joy and sorrow’s tears

How fleeting is the filigree that weaves whispers to years

Where hello always turns to farewell far too soon it seems

And we are always learning how to readjust our dreams

I love the way life dishes out surprise; I hate it too

The color of goodbye flows in a thousand shades of blue

Where nothing new under the sun still stuns us all the same

And time will always be a rebel that no one can tame

Darling, let’s take the long, slow way to farewell’s parting kiss

I know we both knew from the start that it would end like this

But we are poets; life runs wild with opportunity

Thus good-bye is a gateway to tomorrow’s odyssey

© Janet Martin

 

 

Twilight Tableau

 PAD Prompt 29: For today's prompt, write an evening poem. 

The rush of morning-tide to dusk softens its color-show

The artist picks a velvet brush to paint twilight’s tableau

With coral hues and purple-blues, and periwinkle tulle

The edges of the earth are tucked beneath night’s crepuscule

With kiss and hug he bids each sleepy fledgling sweet goodnight

Then dabs a curve of silver, crescent moon as a nightlight

© Janet Martin

Will You Believe?

  PAD Challenge 27:

For this Two-for-Tuesday prompt:

Write a believe poem and/or...

Write a don't believe poem.

John 14:27

John 16:33

This world

will wound

And disappoint

And betray

And pretend

But I 

will bind

Grief’s gap

-ing groans

And be 

Your 

Faithful 

Friend

This world 

will pass 

away;

This life 

on earth

Ephemeral

But I AM 

Alpha

and 

Omega

I AM 

Eternal

This world 

at best

Brings out 

the worst

In mortal’s 

sin-cursed 

glove

But I 

transform

Fear, 

doubt,

and hate,

Into 

faith, 

hope 

and love

This world 

is chaotic 

and cruel

with wars 

that will not 

cease

I AM gentle

patient 

and kind

I AM

Your perfect

peace

This world

makes promises

that it 

cannot keep

or control

I AM

the Word, 

Way,

 Truth 

and Life

the Daddy

of your

Soul

Will you 

embrace 

this world's 

illusions; 

trust death's 

loveless 

lies 

Or will 

you believe

 and receive

 life's

 everlasting

 Prize?

Love, God

© Janet Martin

Compact Version😊

This world will wound and disappoint and betray and pretend

But I will bind grief’s gaping groans and be your Faithful Friend

This world will pass away; This life on earth Ephemeral

But I AM Alpha and Omega; I AM Eternal

This world at best brings out the worst in mortal’s sin-cursed glove

But I transform fear, doubt and hate into faith, hope and love

This world is chaotic and cruel with wars that will not cease

I AM gentle, patient and kind; I AM your perfect peace

This world makes promises that it cannot keep or control

I AM the Word, Way, Truth and Life, the Daddy of Your soul

Will you embrace this world's illusions; trust death's loveless lies 

Or will you believe and receive life's everlasting Prize?

Love, God 

 © Janet Martin

John 1:12

But as many as received Him, 

to them He gave the right to become children of God, 

to those who believe in His name:

Thou Wilt Keep Him in Perfect Peace

Onus of Belief (and unbelief)

 PAD Challenge 27:

For this Two-for-Tuesday prompt:

Write a believe poem and/or...

Write a don't believe poem.

We Believe- Newsboys

 

Some are afraid to Believe

For the onus it will bring

Because belief is grounded in

The soil of reckoning

And reckoning becomes

When this mist-kiss is through

The price of Belief’s soldered sums

Not in the what, but Who

Still, some avoid Belief

As if this will annul

The Soul that cannot die

And reply's inevitable

They scorn love’s Beckoning

Disregard the reward

But oh, unbelief's reckoning

Ought not to be ignored

© Janet Martin

John 3:16-21

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,

 that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, 

but to save the world through him. 

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, 

but whoever does not believe stands condemned already 

because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 

 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, 

but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 

 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light 

for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 

 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, 

so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done 

has been done in the sight of God.

Mark 16:16

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,

but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Romans 10:9

that if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord,"

and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,

you will be saved

Beauty of Believing...

PAD Challenge 27:

For this Two-for-Tuesday prompt:

Write a believe poem and/or...

Write a don't believe poem.

For Beauty of being is climbing the hill

But then, taking sweet time to enjoy the view

Believe in the largeness of faith's little leaps

Of finish-lines not too far-off to forget

For Beauty of living lies not in yon deep

But Here, in Now's Very Present Pirouette

Believe in a Power that surpasses thought 

Believe that God's goodness will never depart

In Beauty of loving; its masterpiece wrought

Not in fairness of form or face, but the heart

Believe in small syllables like 'us' and 'we'

Believe in the potent potential of ink

The Beauty of learning in poetry

In eth'real elixirs, sky blue, gold and pink

Believe in Becoming; not in standing still

Braving the battle of Seasons, strange and new

For Beauty of being is climbing the hill

But then, taking sweet time to enjoy the view

Believe He is able, Who breathes life to dust

And spreads out a feast for taste buds of the soul

Beauty of Believing accomplishes trust

While poised on Percussion of Unknown's drum roll

Janet Martin

Ephes.5:15-17

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 

 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 

I Believe -Redeemed Quartet