Snow-mercy

Soft as a feather-down duvet

Spread over earth’s stricken slope

Snow-mercy ushers forgiveness

Whispered in diamond-frothed hope

Tender, where timberland huddled

Stripped of its autumnal robe

God throws a blanket of pardon

Over a sorrowing globe

Perfect, each scarred imperfection

Wrapped in a kindly embrace

Snow-mercy covers creation

In free-fall pictures of grace

© Janet Martin

The color of redemption was everywhere this morning!

"Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. Isa. 1:18

Supreme Satisfaction

Writer's Digest PAD challenge, day 8
For today’s prompt, write an inanimate object poem. Obviously, you could write an objective poem about an inanimate object, or you can write from the perspective of the inanimate object. If you can think of a third option, have at it.

But for the pounding hoof of
race horse in her chest
But for the salty silver
trickling silent down her face
she is as inanimate
as the mat that bore the action
Where now she pauses
for thirty seconds
of supreme satisfaction 

Janet~

White Night

White is an ether belvedere

Soft, swirling poetry

Of snowflake sparkle on the air

And earth a starry sea

White wraps the night in opulence

A quilted quietude

Of downy soft deliverance

And sacred solitude

White is the color of a sigh

When every prayer is spent

A spiraling soliloquy

Of laughter and lament

White falls not quite unlike the leaf

That drifted soundlessly

To rest within the frozen sheaf

Of sun-spun history

© Janet Martin

It is white tonight...

  

Keep Me, Gentle Shepherd

 

Lead me, gentle Shepherd, lead me

This old world is stark and harsh

If I trust in my vain senses

I will perish in its marsh

Help me, Gentle Shepherd, help me

Such a fumbling fool am I

When my feet would follow sinners

Point me to Heaven’s sweet sky

Feed me, gentle Shepherd, feed me

Fill the hunger in my soul

Be my Living Bread and Water

For none else can make me whole

Hold me, gentle Shepherd, hold me

Lest by pride I am deceived

And persuaded thus to wander

From the Promise I believed

Keep me, gentle Shepherd keep me

Place Your peace within my fear

Then, when demons try and test me

I will feel Your presence near

© Janet Martin

I searched out this verse today...

He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young. Isa. 40:11

Of Hardships and Hope

Writer's Digest PAD challenge; Day 7
For today’s prompt, write a hardship poem. The hardship could be moving forward after a tragic loss, having to work through a difficult problem, or even just showing up to work. It can be serious, funny, or complicated.

Hardships harbored in the heart
are heavy, borne alone
The window to the soul downcast
and all its shutters drawn
But there is One who knows and cares
He holds us close within our prayers

Hardships hone and prove our faith
by how we learn to cope
And they are never greater
Than Love's anchoring of Hope
The One who suffered every grief
Helps us in our unbelief

Hope holds the cup that hardship drains
Faith fills it with our tears
We cannot see but yet we trust
One greater than our fears
This is the day the Lord has made
God, help us trust; not be afraid

Janet~

Autumn Aria (an autumn alliteration)

Harvester humming an autumn aria

Maple tree muting midnight’s melody

Laying the lilt of last lyrics beneath it

Before blizzard blankets each branch on the tree

Fall flings its farewell song into the sky

Free-fall of laughter and leaf-lullaby

Silver-soft silk of milkweed sigh meanders

Over fall’s fallow it floats fancy-free

Gone is the gold-gilded garment of glory

Scattered with scarlet across sod and sea

Apples are gathered; baked, broiled, battered; dipped

Gardens are gleaned; vineyards, orchards stripped

Wild wind is bullying, begging and brawling

Shaking the shivering poplar and pine

Tossing the tresses where farewell is falling

Fast, furious frenzy of fruit from the vine

Heavy hearts hunger for happier hope

But summer is slumbering over the slope

© Janet Martin

WOW! It gets dark early on a rainy afternoon!

When I Dreamed You...

When I dreamed you

You laughed

And played

Into my fantasy

But now you’re here

Those phantoms years

Morphed to Reality

Today
There isn’t much about you

That I can quite recall

But simply this;

You’re nothing like

I pictured you at all

© Janet Martin

Yesterday something suddenly sparked words of a wise friend.

Janet, she murmured, ‘the future is never like we pictured it, is it?

A Word on a Page...

A word on a page spawns an infinite stage

Beckoning to the believer of ink

Curved curious creatures, a semblance of letters

Dares to reveal what we dream; what we think

Each author hears a different diction

Fiction or memoir; fantasy, fact

Groaning within us until we deliver

Heartache and hope in a word’s glorious pact

Its invitation evokes inspiration

Juxtaposed union of sorrow and joy

Keening our senses with fire and frustration

Love, loss and longing their legions deploy

Muting the minute hand; muzzling mere moments

Nothing can null the intent of their will

Oceans of thought swirl in ink-drop deliverance

Passion and poetry savagely spill

Quickening pulses or quieting worry

Raging like rivers or melting like mist

Skimming a surface of plain parchment paper

Torment and tiralee; loneliness kissed

Unearthing thought with the twist of a letter

Vexing, perplexing, then wildly set free

Word; are there any more beautiful; better?

X-ray of heart revealed in your melee

You seem inconspicuous; wee word on a page

Zenith of thought fills your infinite stage

© Janet Martin

Our home-work assignment in our Writer’s Group is to write an ‘alphabetical order piece’ starting with the phrase ‘a word on a page’. Our next meeting isn’t until January so I decided to play with the prompt this morning.