Showing posts with label waiting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label waiting. Show all posts

Monday, April 3, 2023

PAD Challenge day 3-Waiting for spring



PAD Challenge day 3-For today's prompt, write a connection poem.

My daughter sent me this picture of Dear Granddaughter, and three words
Waiting For Spring🌺☔🌞


'Do I have your permission to use it with a poem?' I asked 
to which she replied 'of course'

Ah, just beyond bedraggled fronds of remnant drifts of snow
Beyond the umber overtones before green starts to show
Beyond the gate where we still wait with umbrella in hand
While raindrops waltz from leaden vaults across storm-sobered land
I sense the steady trundle of a sturdy wagon heaped
With a three-season bundle to be sown, tended and reaped

Ah, just beyond the pond still chilled with winter’s aftermath
I hear the dance of bare feet spilled to dusty garden path
And like a teapot tipped to pour sweet sips of mint or chai
I feel the earth, an eager cup lifted to catch the sky
Where just beyond the bondage of what Time alone sets free
I sense an immense barrage of buds turned to melody

Ah, just beyond the wall we cannot scale or clap apart
I sense the love and laughter of a color-happy heart
After winter has gone the way of every winter-old
After earth’s rags of brown and gray are laid with green and gold
After the part after the art that draws ajar spring’s gate
I know once more we will admit that it was worth the wait

© Janet Martin

Ah, just beyond the pond still chilled with winter’s aftermath...


After the part after the art that draws ajar spring’s gate...










Friday, February 10, 2023

Where Soon The Barren Tree Will Sing


The idea of this poem started the other day
while soaking up some much-coveted rare sunshine...


Soon, soon the barren tree will burst and be barren no more...


Soon gardens, fantasy-immersed will brim with hymn and chore...


Soon backdrops white, like canvases showcasing stencil-art
Will roll like emerald oceans to where earth and heavens part...


And living rooms will spill to patios and balconies...

As words like ‘b-r-r-r’ and ‘with-wind-chill’ will turn to memories...

Soon finches will wear gold again instead of dull chartreuse...

(It seems for every snow-storm we get this winter
a mild spell follows to keep the drifts from getting too massive,
and constantly teasing us with thoughts of spring)


Soon, soon the barren tree will burst and be barren no more
Soon gardens, fantasy-immersed will brim with hymn and chore
Soon backdrops white, like canvases showcasing stencil-art
Will roll like emerald oceans to where earth and heavens part
And living rooms will spill to patios and balconies
As words like ‘b-r-r-r’ and ‘with-wind-chill’ will turn to memories

Soon finches will wear gold again instead of dull chartreuse
And though we will be older then, we will feel more footloose
After we trade our parkas for the longed-for luxury
Of soaking in the sunshine or in shade beneath a tree
As daffodils with yellow, ruffled frills spilling spring’s mirth
A-dapple hills and dells from legacies held in the earth

Soon indoor tasks will wrangle with flasks welkin, zephyr-kissed
And set at odds the law and order of the to-do list
And winter will slip from its perch with every drip and drop
Where now we slip and slide and lurch and honk and hope we stop
Where now we sip slow cups of java and traverse the world
On parchment schooners, into sagas, page by page unfurled

Soon the gray-drenched duvet that drapes dusk’s dormant countryside
Will flush into a blossom-blushing dew-brushed eventide
And we will pause, perhaps, to marvel at how swift time flies
Through winter, now a sparkle on the landscape of spent sighs
...where hues that brood in wait for spring have rent bud-gates to soar
And stir the barren tree to sing and be barren no more

© Janet Martin

Soon winter will fly away like a blue jay
with beak full of peanut😂

Soon the gray-drenched duvet that drapes dusk’s dormant countryside
Will flush into a blossom-blushing dew-brushed eventide...


Friday, September 2, 2022

Where Faith's Unfinished Business Groans...


Waiting is the sacrament of the tender surrender,
the art of a soul growing large.

Most of us are waiting on something aren't we!
 Lifting up love's herculean cry of
'how long, oh Lord?!'
Till 'they' truly see only You reflected in me?
Till I truly live 'I love You most, Lord!
Till we are the parent with outstretched arms welcoming Prodigal home!
Till thanksgiving becomes thanks living!
Till we surrender the why to 'Thy will be done'
Till we see you face to face!

I have been waiting, and waiting and waiting for the dahlia blooms!!
The bud seems reluctant to unfold...


What parables are preached in a garden's waiting rooms...


The Creator's perfect timing will unfold the full flower!


(maybe the flower shows a bit of this world's wear and tear but it's blooming!!)


So take heart, keep praying and waiting
not in idle restlessness but in humble, loving labor for our Lord!
(what sweet promises we find in His Word as we 'wait')

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, 
and he shall strengthen thine heart: 
wait, I say, on the Lord.
Psalm 27:14

Man looks upon the outward but the Lord looks on the heart
What sacred consolation to know He sees, not in part
But witnesses the whole where faith's unfinished business groans
Where 'not my will but Thine' tests motives dressed in skin and bones

...where human nature is a creature not given to wait
How swift and suave the atheist of worry wars with faith
God, grant to we, still waiting, surrender's humble reply
Rather than vexed debating of its wherefore or its why

Lord, You alone maintain the law that unfolds full bloom's art
Lord, pray the gain of 'wait' is awe; not closed buds torn apart
Where half-petals are strewn because impatience seized control
Rather than trusting as You try the faith that makes us whole

Janet Martin🙏💔 

Matt.8:26
But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” 
Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, 
and there was a great calm.

I haven't shared this song in a while!
I love it.
The words with the melody
bring such sweet consolation, don't they?💗




Thursday, June 23, 2022

God's Fingerprints



Now I see His (God's) fingerprints all over this experience. '
wrote my friend as she looks back on 3 years 
filled with tumultuous tests of searching for God's will 
and waiting on His timing...

It made me think of all of us in the middle of
a finished frame...
Some waiting/hoping to find their one true love
Some who have found and married their one true love
and are weathering the challenges/disappointments
that marriage is bound to bring
and some whose marriages are broken
Couples who would love to be parents but that dream is withheld,
Parents whose wisdom, energy and patience are stretched to the max
by 'dreams' not withheld...

Many of us find ourselves in some kind of 'frame' of waiting.
What good cheer to visualize God's fingerprints
putting what looks to us like broken or forgotten pieces, in perfect place
if we trust, seek and wait on Him...




Sometimes in the middle
Of a broken heart
We can't grasp the goodness 
In God's works of art

In dark disappointment
Of dreams not come true
We can't see the glory
Waiting to shine through

Sometimes in the middle
Of 'Remember When?'
God is gently drawing
Wonder's awed 'amen'

Sometimes colors baffle
Sometimes pages crease
Living in the middle
Of the masterpiece

Sometimes God's kind whisper
Transfigures pied glints
Unveiling a picture
Of His fingerprints

Janet Martin








Saturday, April 9, 2022

Until Nature's Silence Breaks...

For today's prompt, write a breaking poem.

While we wait to go from this...







to this...





...and this!










Tulip, daisy, daffodil
Long before they bloom
Stoke anticipation’s thrill
As spring threads earth’s loom

Pansy, poppy, peony
Lupine, columbine
Lilac, orchard’s blossom tree
Wisteria vine

Woodlands wait; a silhouette
Somber purple-gray
Where the bud, not broken yet
Cradles spring’s hooray

Bronze, the bristled creekbank gleams
Like a vault that holds
Gush of blue flag-iris-streams
Plush marsh-marigolds

Expectation escalates
Hope ignites in sighs
Everybody crowds barred gates
Eager for earth’s prize

...until nature's silence breaks
And bud-belfies ring
Waiting tunes want's tender aches
With love songs for spring

While yon welkin coffers brim
With grim pelting pearls
While a wooing, wailing hymn
Dashes, drips and swirls

While a trusty glockenspiel
Winnows down the hours
Until Someone breaks the seal
And earth sings in flow’rs

© Janet Martin

Saturday, April 17, 2021

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






Waiting For Covid-19 to Pass

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

Every so often I crank up this song by Johnny Cash

These Things Shall Pass

 


Because of soaring numbers in new Covid-19 cases
Ontario tightens restrictions even harder for 6 weeks!
This prompt Waiting, feels like the first thing we talk about 
even before the weather these days!
(and we're Canadian!) 
We feel like we have been waiting for things to
return to 'normal' for more than a year, and now this;
Seemingly worse, not better in spite of vaccines?!!
It's discouraging!
So, the word 'wait' can be a millstone around the neck
 or a steppingstone beneath our feet/knees.
It's up to us.

(My heart esp. goes out to small businesses!
Hang in there as you weather open to curbside-takeout-closed..)

Within the walls of circumstance, we wait; the gate is barred
To Freedom’s Ballroom; numbers soar while hope hits new lows hard
But, let’s not forget what we have though we feel far apart
We have each other and God’s Word to cheer the faint of heart

Wisdom chisels its masterpieces not on Easy Street
Our faith is not refined until its mettle feels the heat
Then, though fear grips us by the throat as we wait anxiously
We have each other and God’s Word; how thankful we should be

Technology for all its faults helps us to keep in touch
While we wait for Restriction to release its strangling clutch
Let’s take a deep breath, keep the faith though hope is battle-scarred
And be so grateful that we have each other and God’s Word

Selfishness is a monster; it wreaks havoc in the world
It desecrates the banner of morn’s fresh mercy unfurled
So, let’s love one another while we wait, though walls apart
We have God’s Word in which to trust so we do not lose heart

© Janet Martin

1 Peter 4:7-10
The end of all things is near. 
Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray.
  Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins
.Show hospitality to one another without complaining.
As good stewards of the manifold grace of God,
each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another.

These verses really hit home right now.
even now we can show hospitality by dropping
a meal to a needy family, by sending words of cheer via text, emails,
cards, phone calls, yes, even when it feels

This week my I received a package from a friend in another country!
The surprise of its sweet love brought much needed joy
to a hard week! 
Thank-you Sasha for the gift from



Sunday, January 24, 2021

The Anticipation Proclamation

 


In anticipation of days to come...


No, not the Emancipation Proclamation 
which is the subject of this chuckle...



Summer will come again 
Its colours slip between 
Heaven and earth and turn its girth 
From white to glorious green 

First spring will stretch its legs 
Giggle and wiggle toes 
And tickle limbs with budded hymns 
That burst into full rose 

Where Old Man Winter’s chill 
Is still in snow-full swing 
His numbered numbing days of white-blue grays 
Will soon fall prey to spring 

Then we will stretch our legs 
And wiggle bare foot toes 
And splash into the green-gold-blue 
Of summer’s sweet hellos 

All children, young and old 
Beneath the beaming sky 
Where summer is a flower-kiss 
And time, a butterfly 

© Janet Martin 

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Rush Hour's Waiting Room

 

Time flies in spite of all we are waiting for!
Some prayers get answered quickly, 
others are a kind of whisper-woven waiting-room!

Only One knows what all will unfold in the sun's gold trek from east to west,
what prayers will have answers we recognize 
and which ones are veiled in what feels like waiting.


Psalm 130:5
I wait for the LORD; my soul does wait, and in His word I put my hope.

What waits to be no one can see save He who keep us in His care 
What waits to teach our wanting reach is something each must trust to prayer 
What waits to turn lessons we learn to wisdom earned as years increase 
Waits to compose with ebbs and flows of highs and lows, a Masterpiece 

What waits to blend daybreak and end where whispers wend and groan and grin 
What waits to stir perfect wonder to thunder beneath speechless skin 
What waits to seal the rush and reel of silk and steel behind closed doors 
Waits to create a brand-new gate through which the weight of waiting pours 

What waits to make, with give and take the awe and ache of letting go
What waits to tune the afternoon with what will soon festoon thought's show
What waits to spill, to thrill, to fill this uphill drill twixt sky and sod 
Waits to become the soldered sum of mercies from the hand of God 

© Janet Martin 



 

 

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Sovereign Silence

Is it the brooding before dawn?


Is it a missed-kissed bower?





Is this your Sovereign silence 
The brooding before dawn 
A test of faith’s endurance 

The place where you reveal 
The power of your Spirit 
To conquer Belial 

After earthquake and fire 
A Message you deliver 
To temper heart’s desire 

Is this glory’s hiatus 
Of three days in the tomb 
Before the Rock of Ages 

Is this a mist-kissed bower 
Hope’s silent suffering 
The bud before the flower 

© Janet Martin 


(this morning felt bathed in this hymn)








Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Of Lifelong Learning...


...this is one of those days where poetry would pour from each pore
but Cutie-duty...
 ...and not-so-cute-Duty prevails!

 ...pegged this poem between phone-calls, hair-dryer hunt,
fire-tending, breakfast, etc.

Hope you all have a happy day!
 
We cannot thwart God’s hand unseen
But oh, we sure can make a mess
As we, impatient, ‘intervene’
In frames of would-be happiness

We cannot void the grace of God
But oh, we sure can prove its need
As we misinterpret Wait’s rod
And impatiently ‘intercede’

We cannot change what God has willed
But oh, we sure can leave a path
Of chaos and hard knocks fulfilled
In lifelong learning’s aftermath

© Janet Martin

Isa.55: 7-9
 Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts;
 let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, 
and to our God, for He will freely pardon.
 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
 so My ways are higher than your ways 
and My thoughts than your thoughts.…