A Better Place

Dear Lord, give me the eyes to see

Not only what’s in front of me

And help me reach with love’s embrace

To make this world a better place

Dear Lord, give me the faith to climb

Life’s ladder, one day at a time

And help me strive with tender grace

To make this world a better place

Help me to crave, not man’s applause

But ever more of You because

It is the beauty of Your ways

That makes this world a better place

Deed by deed and prayer by prayer

We can show the world we care

As we reach with love’s kind embrace

To make this world a better place

© Janet Martin 

As I began praying this morning these words seemed to pour from my heart...

Just Beneath the Now

PAD Challenge: Just Beneath the...you fill it in.

Just beneath the now

Awaits the ‘then’

We ought to handle it carefully

For it will not pass again

***

Just beneath this present action

Is a test, don’t you know?

Because it is in our reaction to action

That our truest colors show

***

 Just beneath frost-bitten flower

and dull November sod

rests the slumb'ring seed of springtime

waiting for the kiss of God

© Janet Martin

Philanderer's Fear

PAD Prompt Scary...

He had too many ‘darlings’

One by one they turned away

Now he lies

In the dark

Alone

It is time to pay

He had too many lovers

But never found ‘the one’

Philanderer

Of a woman’s heart

He cannot sleep

Alone

He had too many perfect words

But somewhere they lost their lure

Even in their arms

He knew

That his loneliness

Has no cure

He had too many ‘darlings’

One by one they turned away

Now he lies

In the dark

Alone

It is time to pay

Janet Martin~

Without Love

 Poetics Aside Prompt: Scary

I would not want to live

Without love’s embrace

There would be no compassion

No kindness, no grace

No smile, no encouragement

No hugs, help or hope

In an ‘every man for himself’ world

How would we cope?

© Janet Martin

Poet's Nightmare

Poetics Aside Prompt: Scary!

You will reach for me

But you

Will not find me

You will call for me

But

I will not hear

I am your Muse

And in my mouth

I seal every

Winsome thought

And every

Perfect

Word

Outside the birds are.... um, they're...oh, what is it that birds do !?

© Janet Martin

Scary Poem

 Poetics Aside Prompt; Write a Scary Poem

I feel your body next to mine

It is cold

I reach to turn on a lamp

But there is no light

I strike a match

It will not flare

The darkness closes in

A suffocating wall

I press my face to your cheek

But I cannot feel you

Or see you

We are cold

I hear my children crying

Somewhere

Out there

In the darkest dark

Alone

They tell us there will never be

Another morning

And the sun

Has died…

© Janet Martin

Don't you love

warmth

and light?

Last night I turned out all of the lights, and as I walked to my room with my arms stretched out in front of me the darkness felt like a wall closing in...

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