Remembrance Day edited re-post...Thoughts of a Dying Soldier

The sky is such a lovely shade of blue in early May
The clouds seem extra-fluffy; I’ll be touching them today
I'm glad the grass I’m lying on is soft and emerald green
The color of the lawn in spring back home in Aberdeen

God, there was much in life that I had hoped that I could do
But it looks as if today I will be meeting you
And all the things I thought worth-while seem suddenly so small
And I can’t help but smile to think we fuss ‘bout life at all

The only thing that matters now is this moment impending
The seeds that I have sown will grow though it seems life is ending
God, it is so little that man-kind will ever know
I'm glad that I am not afraid because You love me so

There’s a letter in my pocket, I suppose someone will find
And give to my beloved, ‘something that he left behind’
Sure would have loved to see her, touch her soft lips just once more
God, what a useless, bloody hell on earth is war

Above me now an eagle flies on its majestic flight
'guess I will pass it in the skies as I fly Home tonight

For it will fly to crag or tree and to its little nest
I’ll fly to eternity and my home of sweet rest

The sky is such a lovely shade of blue in early May
I wonder what they’re doing in my home-town today

I wish that I could see them all and hold their hands again
Oh God, in death there are no allies, enemies; just men

Janet Martin

Inspired by the book: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Freedom-song

Lay down your weapons

And still the war-cry

Bring home our daddies, sons, daughters

Bombs cannot bring it

Though more millions die

Look to our fallen fore-fathers

Ah, where is freedom

And what is its key?

Is there a balm for our sorrow?

Goodness and mercy

And true liberty

Cannot wait until tomorrow

Lift up the tears

Of the innocent child

Look at the face of the fallen

Where is the freedom

For which heroes died?

What of those crosses in Belgium?

Sing a new song

Let the whole world join in

Fill every hollow and hunger

Freedom is Love

Ah, and love is the key

To peace in a world without borders

Lay down the bag-pipes

Sing a new song

Let TAPS ring for joy and not sorrow

Look long into

The face of a child

Let’s give them a better tomorrow

So,

Lay down your weapons

And still the war-cry

Bring home our daddies, sons, daughters

Bombs cannot bring it

Though more millions die

Look to our fallen fore-fathers

© Janet Martin

Remember to remember...and never forget
Freedom is never free!
Remember to pray for those hoping yet
For its blessed liberty

 

...and so we pray

   

Image source

…and so we pray

For who can say

What the unknown

Will soon make known

Or who can bear

Better than prayer

The weight of living’s

Grief and groan

…and so we pray

For, come what may

Of love and loss

And letting go

Before the throne

Of God alone

We place our worry,

Want and woe

…and so we pray

God knows the way

The what and why

Are in His care

Mortal pleads

He intercedes

As we entrust

To Him our prayer

© Janet Martin

We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on our difficulties.
Oswald Chambers~

The Other Me

2013 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 9

For today’s prompt, take the phrase “The Other (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Some possible titles may include: “The Other Side of the Story,” “The Other Brother,” “The Other Hand,” or whatever else you concoct. And remember: I really don’t care if you bend or break the prompt in your favor. My prompts are just a starting place.

 

Darling,

The me you see

Is quite ordinary

Not shy, not bold

Somewhere in between

What I once was

And the dream I hold

Where the curves of my skin

Are all you can see

And I wish I could show you

The other me

We all conceal

‘The other me’

Within ourselves

Its poetry

Withheld, it seems

But ever the pulse

Within our dreams

As we strive toward

Who we hope to be

Living in the curves our skin

With

‘The other me’

Darling, it is no good

I will never be

Anything

But

Me

And we

For all the air-brushing of poetry

Are mumbling, stumbling

Fumbling mortality

And if we could see

‘the other me’

And touch her face

I fear

There would be

‘another other me’

To take her place

© Janet Martin

 

Of Life and Leaves and Mysteries

2013 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 11

For today’s prompt, we’re going to write ekphrastic poetry–or poetry based off another piece of art or a photo

The melodies that filled the trees

Are scattered, splattered on earth-seas

Caught one last time upon a breeze

On farewell’s final ride

For in the free-fall of an hour

The whimsy of both youth and flow’r

Succumb to the immortal pow’r

Of mercy’s moment-tide

And one by one, like fallen leaf

We pass this way to rest beneath

The calling, sprawling, falling sheaf

Where death’s great mysteries hide

And none can surely know or tell

When is the hour of farewell

Or when will toll the mourning bell

As flesh and soul divide

The still-life pageantry of Time

Unfurls its little lilt and rhyme

A testing, wresting, hasting climb

In faith or fear’s control   

For, whether with earnest intent

Or bound by blinded ignorance

We, unlike falling leaves advance

To the home of the soul   

© Janet Martin

November Sweet-song

Writer's Digest PAD Challenge; day 10

For today’s prompt, write a poem incorporating something sweet. Maybe a cake or pie. Possibly a candy bar or pixie stick (you know, that paper straw with delicious sugar inside–mmm). Or move it sweetly in another direction.

Sometimes in November

I keenly crave

The salt-sweet kiss

Of sun-sparkle bliss

Rushing

In aquamarine wave

Sometimes in November

I lonesome-ly long

For the slow

Syrupy cadence

Of willow-sigh

And locust song

Sometimes in November

I patiently pine

For a mulled merlot

Of long ago

Sweet

Summer-tinted wine

Sometimes in November

I quietly yearn

For what will be

What is

And what will

Never again return

© Janet Martin

 Sometimes in November I'm restless with reluctant realization that the sweetness of another year is nearly spent...

 

November Beauti-tone

 Yes, even brown and bronze beneath blue-gray is beautiful...November's brooding beauti-tone.

Where once the painted hill had been

Of sumac red and evergreen

Of golden birch-leaf butterfly

A-glitter beneath sapphire sky

…and emerald-dew and clover-hue

Rushed out to where green brushes blue

November bleeds its beauty-tone

Of brown and bronze and cold, gray stone

The crimson crown of maple-crest

The gleaming gown of willow-wisp

The auburn and the amethyst

Of autumn noon and morning mist

Are gathered in a mixed bouquet

Of moments that are tossed away

The colors on the Painters tray

Are brown and bronze and granite-gray

Fair flowered frock falls from earth’s form

Beneath its sheaf the seed is warm

As sturdy smocks are buttoned tight

Across a girth prepared for white

Our gaze is drawn toward the plain

Where green of grass and gold of grain

Must wait beneath a somber gown

Of gray and bronze and brooding brown

© Janet Martin

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