Found...Wanting

Poetics Aside Prompt; Scary

The banquet is ready

Earth is consumed with a cry

'Behold, He cometh'

The Bridegroom shatters the sky

Fire and wind

Is hurled, unfurled

Ah, yes! This is it…

…the end of the world

Those washed in His blood
Rise to meet Him in the air
Oh my God, oh my God
Why didn't I prepare?

Up on the hill

The ark of safety sits but

Its grace has ended

And the door is shut

All we can hear

Is the toll of a bell

And wailing and weeping

As the gates open to

Hell

© Janet Martin 

 For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

@ 2 Cor. 6:2

Man in the Moon

PAD Prompt: Full Moon

Somewhere the air

Holds in its mouth

The words that I would say

I want to be

Brave; vulnerable

But you’re too far way

Tonight the sky

Is full of you

...your iridescent glow

But you are the

Man in the moon

A fantasy, I know

Why is it that

When you are full

I seem so very small

In fact, I touch

My face to see

If I exist at all

J~

Yiruma-Moonlight

Blue-collar Braveheart

Blue-collar brave-heart

He’s got no medals

No badges on his

Coat-sleeve or lapel

Working class warrior

Seeking no glory

Fighting life’s battle

And doing it well

Obscure battalion

Work-force deployment

Picks up the armor

Of shovel or cart

Low-dollar hero

Invisible valor

Witnessed by He

Who sees into the heart

Courageous convoy

Gallant and glorious

Punching the clock

While nobody applauds

Silently sacrificing

Over and over

And over again because

This is love

Blue-collar brave-heart

He’s got no medals

No badges on his

Shirt-sleeve or lapel

Working class warrior

Seeking no glory

Fighting life’s battle

And doing it well

© Janet Martin

Thank-you to all you blue-collar brave-hearts, wherever in the world you are. 

Tomorrow's Sorrow

Tomorrow they are calling for rain

But tomorrow is so far away

Let’s not borrow tomorrow’s sorrow

Lest we waste the sunshine today

Tomorrow they are forecasting gloom

Poisoning laughter with fears

But let’s not borrow tomorrow’s sorrow

Before today disappears

Tomorrow they are predicting woe

And skies that are dismal and bleak

Oh, let’s not borrow tomorrow’s sorrow

While sunshine kisses our cheek

Today is a day of grace

Today is the only now

So let’s not borrow tomorrow’s sorrow

Lest we miss today somehow

© Janet Martin

Lunar Lover

Tonight I want to allow you to take me

I no longer care to resist

Desire out-weighing my common senses

Wrap me in your body of mist

Tonight I need more than blue-moon endearment

Whispered through my window-pane

I need to mangle the hem of your raiment

 Barter with pleasure and pain

Tonight believing requires touch, seeing

Translucent; you taunt, I beseech

For all I can feel is the sense of your being

Are kisses that I cannot reach

© Janet Martin

Of Failure and Friends

No one begins at failure

Failure is nobody’s goal

So we ought to encourage each other

And not be so critical

We all need a shoulder to lean on

Love does not boast or gloat

Iron sharpens iron

It is not a blade against the throat

Nobody is a failure

Who among us has not fallen?

We should reach out to each other

Helping the feeble and burdened

Failure is not a destination

But simply a stepping stone

And we all need each other

Nobody should struggle alone

No one begins at failure

And failure is not an end

We all ought to encourage each other

And simply be a friend

© Janet Martin

Last night at my mom's birthday celebration my dad encouraged us to, as parents, never to give up or dwell too long on our failures but to keep the faith and keep on keeping on.

Why is it so easy for us to believe in failure rather than success?

Failure is a rung on life's ladder. I'm contemplating the definition of failure this morning.

Of Moons and other Wonders

 image source:pinterest

PAD Prompt: Full Moon

It does not labor from the skyline like a sluggish beast

But slips above earth’s far elusive brim

A silver circle diadem ascending from the east

To garnish midnight’s muted, maudlin scrim

Since Eden’s birth the sun ignites the lunar lamp of dusk

Beneath its plaintive gaze of centuries

We live and die; earth-creature is but gasp of dust to dust

Sun, moon and stars, celestial deities

Beneath the gleam of astral rendering we plant and plow

The sun rules day, the moon and stars the night

While we of meeker stance must wipe the sweat-drop from the brow

And ponder things like God and death and life

What gracious kindness that Creator God did not declare

The night to be as deep and dark as hell

But breathed above the drop of earth resplendent radiance where

The mouths of men cannot its mystery tell

Thus, he who holds the glorious heavenly bodies in His grip

Knows the unknowns; and He is coming soon

We are not stranded here on some forgotten, drifting ship

To stare in hopeless wonder at the moon

© Janet Martin

Full Moon Haiku

PAD prompt: Full Moon

Beneath orb pallor

the earth is a silver sea

where we drift homeward

***

beneath harvest moon

autumn day has gifted hours

to gather in sheaves

***

beneath heaven’s broach

the spoil of worldly beggars

is putrid plunder

***

mellow misty moon

paints platinum poetry

on onyx ocean

***

silver stepping stone

lover's lone lunar lamplight 

polished perfection

***

gleaming, gentle gaze

probes passionate pondering

without word-wisdom

***

Janet~