Incomprehensible Trade-off

Poetics Aside Prompt: Write a tradeoff poem. Could be an exchange, forfeit, or swap.

In place of our guilt- redemption

In place of our longing- hope

In place of our wretched sin-stains

You wash us white as snow

In place of darkness and depression

You fill us with marvelous Light

In place of death and damnation

Oh God, you give us Life

© Janet Martin

 

You Are but He IS...

You are no respecter of persons

In the tropics,

At the Arctic

And all points in-between

You indulge the pauper

The preacher, the child

The writer of songs

Or the queen

How subtly you bleed your presence

Through the laughter of a crowd

And when they’ve gone home

In the silence

You are there

Crooning, ruthless and proud

With never an invitation

And never a stuttered caress

You thrive in the hollow of wanting

You are

Loneliness

There is One who does not leave us hopeless

To grovel in longings despair

He covers the earth with a whisper

And draws us to Him in a prayer

He breathes through the power of darkness

And pierces our grief with His hope

He is the great Father of comfort

When in fear’s dark valley we grope

And He will not leave nor forsake us

Wherever on earth we may trod

He is a faithful companion

He IS God

© Janet Martin  

Stuck

Poetics Aside Prompt: Write a stuck poem. Write about the struggle or the inability to move. Maybe you’re stuck in traffic, in a bad job, or a relationship.

Oh what a vexing dilemma

Stuck madly in the middle of thought

For that wily old Muse

Has relinquished her dues

That long after midnight I sought

But now in the middle of morning

I’m hit with a mystic sort of thud

As from out of nowhere

She spangles the air

While I’m stuck elbow-deep in dish suds

Oh, what a glorious dilemma

Stuck twixt fantasy and mundane

Yet, I should sing the blues

For that wily old Muse

Drives this housewife completely insane

© Janet Martin

Of Echoes and Endings

The boast of the meadowland renders its mirth

Where June’s leaf-song lullaby covers the earth

Red mountain-ash garnet gleams bold on the air

A garnish to limbs; cold and scraggly and bare

The skyline is stripped of its verdant appeal

But keen winds are eager with refurbished zeal

Moaning through the woodland in ghostly lament

Victor of the tatters in autumn’s raiment

Yet still slips its haunting into Time’s great urn

Of triumph and trouble never to return

The echoes of summer and silence compete

Where innocence, progress and Providence meet

 

The belles of first autumn fall prey to the hour

Their beauty lies broken beneath wooded bower

Time; are you tyrant or mercy’s masquerade?

As fortune and folly beneath us are laid

And we, stumbling vessels of longing and lust

Tread on our future of dust unto dust

For we like the leaf, soon will render this clay

And only the soul will escape Time’s decay

But hope clings to Hope, as earth’s somnolent girth

A-waits the redemption of spring’s glad re-birth

And though for a moment the fallow is bleak

We trust in the promises buried beneath

The echo of summer may torment our tears

The dance of an hour soon shapes sudden years

The gasp of the flower falls into the dirt

Destiny consumes both life’s joy and its hurt

The reed, stiff, forlorn, braces for winter’s cold

The heart, tattered, torn must still bear to grow old

While kind wisdom kisses the grief in our sighs

And Beauty bestows her most coveted prize

For Time’s phantom power can never possess

The well-spring of love, hope and happiness

Spring, summer, autumn, winter; glaze the sod

On our waltz to the grave; on our journey to God

© Janet Martin

To my Son/Children...Don't Forget

They say that *‘life is what happens

While we’re busy making other plans’

If that is so, then son, I know
That soon you'll be a man

So before you discover

That you want to fly away

Will you listen for a moment

There are some things I want to say…

Don’t forget to live while you’re dreaming

But dream while you’re living too

Don’t forget to pray because above all others

My son, God loves you

And remember, for every choice we make

There is a consequence

And for every temptation come what may

There is a sure Defense

My dearest son, it’s a big, big world

Yet oh, so very small

Fix your hope above this scope

Of temperamental brawl

And don’t forget when the world is dark

And you feel all alone

I am as close as the front porch light

Or a telephone

And someday when you are so busy

Marveling at time’s swift flight

Don’t forget to call your mother

Even if its just to say 'good-night'
And don't forget, that in her prayers
She always holds you tight

© Janet Martin

Matthew was recalling some times we had when 'he was little'...

and that *quote hit me.

November's Little Day

While nature goes about its busyness

Of dying or silent hibernation

We sight the virgin snowflake’s dizziness

Of spiraling arabesque elation

Sallow-gray daylight dips to eventide

We cannot quell the darkness with protest

As surely as we greet the morning light

It drifts across the small sky to the west

The stealthy thief of hours never sleeps

And in like-manner, as July’s demise

November soon will join the phantom deeps

Of history and echoed lullabies

But now it spills its thousand shades of gray

Across the hour of its little day

© Janet Martin

Recipe Poems

Poetics Aside Prompt:
Today is a Two-for-Tuesday prompt, and they both come from Michael Grove.
Here are Mike’s prompts:

1. Write a letter poem.
2. Write a recipe poem 

Recipe Poems

To ignore the posted speed limit

Then drive faster and faster

Is most assuredly a recipe

For disaster

***

Mix kind words

With a gentle smile

The result;

Sunshine on a dreary mile

***

In time’s grand mixing-bowl

Pours much pleasure and strife

Many parts make a whole

And the whole makes a life

***

Darling, when we set aside our grievances

When we seal our lips

To creature complaints

Allowing finger-tips

To speak instead of words

When we add

Laughter in place of scolding

And indulge love’s having

And its holding

Oh darling,

If we make this our daily desire

Instead of loves ‘duty’

The result will surely be this…

…gently glowing home-fires

Every day beauty

And a lifetime of simple bliss

***

…and one yummy-for–the-tummy recipe

I have discovered in my inventing of eats
A new kind of yummy granola-bar treats
Take 3 cups of oatmeal
Then add what you please
As long as 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
Can bind it with ease
Make sure as you mix
You put lots of love in it
Bake at 350F and you will have treats
In about 15 minutes.


Here are some of my 'add what you please' suggestions;
I always add 1/3-1/2 cup of ground flax seed
1 cup shredded coco-nut
And 2/3 cup toasted wheat germ
(Some prefer adding a few table-spoons of melted butter. I don’t)
My optional yummies are ½ a cup of any of these;
Toasted slivered almonds,
Chopped pecans,
Chopped walnuts,
Chocolate chips or chunks,
Raisins or any other dried fruit such as pineapple,
Chopped apricot or dates, cranberries, currants,
Toasted sesame seeds,
M&m’s (red and green at Christmas)
Or anything else you enjoy

These are ideal for school lunches because they contain no peanut butter
And they are great for kids with wheat allergies if you skip the wheat germ.

Janet~

Thankful Worship Sonnet

With grateful hearts, oh Lord we worship you

May our mouths be filled with joyful praise

The morning dawns; Your mercy is made new

And though we do not understand Your ways

Oh, let us never cease to trust Your will

For from Your palm the course of seasons move

Within life’s ebb and flow, gently you fill

Our cups of joy or sorrow with Your love

The spectrum of Your might is fathomless

And infinite as Your abundant grace

Sustaining both the aged and the youth

Lord, in Your everlasting faithfulness

Our feeble fears and pondering we place

For You are goodness and Your way is truth

Dare we to doubt the God of earth and sky?

Your wisdom far exceeds our realm of thought

Knowledge, time, wealth can never nullify

The marvels that in You alone are taught

To grasp the fullness of Your wonder, Lord

Exceeds the wanton reach of mortal wit

Yet, to ignore You God, none can afford

Or seek to grasp the height and depth of it

The patterns of our folly You despise

And yet, for us You offered Your own blood

Upon Your guiltless form sin’s debt was laid

And in Love’s precious bleeding sacrifice

Redemption poured in agonizing flood

As once for all man’s awful debt was paid

With awe-filled hearts we worship You, oh King

For none can boast of love as great as this

You do not leave us hopeless, suffering

But love us as Your timeless promises

Imbue the fainting, panting, troubled heart

Girding us in the hour of unbelief

As through Your Spirit, kindly You impart

Compassion in the darkest hour of grief

Oh Lord our God, our Solace and our Shield

With thankful, humble wonder we applaud

The Keeper of the stars; infinity

The artist of the forest and the field

The author of salvation, You, oh God

Are worthy of our praise eternally

© Janet Martin