We Can Do It

I can do it

I repeat

As I push-pull, fall-crawl,

Struggle to my feet

I can do it

I insist

As I tug-slug-plug away

At life’s to-do list

I can do it

I assert

As I slip-trip, stumble-tumble

Through life’s dirt and hurt

I can’t do it

I admit

Not by myself. It’s just too hard

To make the pieces fit

 

So I pray...

Hope is no fraud

Come what may

We can do it, whispers God

© Janet Martin

God may not always look like we think He should, 

but He comes to us in daily reminders of who He is 

if we look and listen...

Ask, and it will be given you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives, 

and he who seeks finds, 

and to him who knocks it will be opened.… Matt. 7:7-8

Look around. Who can we help to help ourselves? 

Who can we touch to feel the love of God? 

Who can we pray for to hear Him? 

Who can we laugh or weep with to see Him?

Ballad Of Autumn Dusk

 OctPoWriMo day 20; topic Overwhelmed. Form; Ballad

Oft upon dusk’s daily dying

Thought is like a troubadour

Strumming the harp-strings of summer

Where sweet summer is no more

Like a vagabond he pauses

Face turned west on wind-tossed heath

Where Time dons dusk’s deep blue shadow

Thought attends its daily death

Refrain;

Tell me; tell me, cries the drifter

Where the ash of summer lies

But Thought cannot hear the answer

In the wind-waif’s weeping sighs

Stark against autumnal darkling

Still-life skylines slip from view

Earth is like an empty cradle

That a little lad outgrew

Soft, the balladeer of twilight

Runs his fingers, star-to-star

Somewhere between dusk and midnight

Life and death like warriors spar

Refrain;

Tell me, tell me, cries the wand’rer

Where the dust of summer sleeps

But thought cannot touch the answer

Where the wind-waif sighs and weeps

Thought is overcome with sorrow

Sorrow overrun with joy

Somewhere in some far tomorrow

Summer is a little boy

Somewhere the Artist of Autumn

Smooths Thought's tear with frost-sparked glaze

Overwhelming earth with splendor

Overwhelming Thought with praise

Refrain:

Tell me, tell me, cries the poet

Where the silk of summer fell

From a well of fond-felled flowers

Thought finds words wind-waifs can't spell   

© Janet Martin

Fall Falling Down...and All Around

Fall trails the hem of Time’s Unknown on pastures; its attire

Scuttles down boulevards, huddles at fence-line thoroughfares

In scattered tatters; the chatter of leaves and sheaves expire

Fall’s hall is like a ballroom strewed with laughter’s empty chairs

The noise that spawned the joys of June is snuffed; summer estranged

In this strangely familiar Unfamiliarity

Like the return to childhood’s home where the walls have not changed

And everything yet nothing is the way it used to be

The door to More-of-what-has-been yet never has before

Swings wide; dawn is a bride with dreamy eyes and beaming blush

Earth teems with guests; the barrenness of autumn’s corridor

A metaphor; nature’s preacher hails from bald bloom and bush

Ecclesiastic proclamation fills earth’s promenade

Above, beneath and all around surges truth’s testament

Illustrious, new ‘good-old-days’ are waiting to be made

We, the laypeople of fall’s challenge glimpse Astonishment

The wind is restless, dashing to and fro with hasted breath

Like the flurried hurry of folk with too much on their minds

Above, beneath and all around the acrid taste of death

Spirals in leaf swirls and smoke curls; a burlesque tie that binds

© Janet Martin

In God We Trust (or Lift Love's Banner High)

For Yours is the kingdom 
and the power 
and the glory forever. 
Amen.' 

Matthew 6:13 
 KJV  & NASB

All people pass; like grass they fill earth-thrones a little while

And then they join the scads of predecessors in the dust

So, lift faith’s banner not to flesh and blood or guilt and guile

But to the One who never leaves His Throne; In God We Trust

The charge to human race is this, to love; love one another

Crucial, above all else is mankind’s meek and Sacred Must

For in time’s Greater Scheme we are all neighbor-sister-brother

Commanded to lift faith’s First Banner high; in God we trust

The creed-less gods of greed cannot exceed Compassion’s Grail

There is no end to love; its law is merciful and just

And though the gods that sit upon the thrones of earth may fail

Never the One whose banner we lift high; in God we trust

© Janet Martin

Whether it is exultation's celebration or anger-disappointment-fear, 

emotions run high on The Day After Election. 

 We all know we live in days like never before.

...days where people fear God so much…

not in holy, reverent awe

but with an Inborn Awareness of Accountability 

for reckless disregard.

so they attempt to abolish Him from homes, schools, government

But

Our God reigns Supreme on His throne

Forever and ever.

Hallelujah!

Amen!

Happy to be A Bystander:)

Today's YDP poem sparked a vivid recollection...

 In the far, far, right outfield

School-girl stands shivering with dread

while the late May-sun beats hot upon

her honey-colored head

Ball-glove droops at her side

Fear stifles creative thought

While batter-up pounds the plate

Scanning the outfield for a 'weak-spot'

Crack, goes the bat and sure enough

with devilish cheer that leather-sphere fell

in front of Girl With Outstretched Prayers

to be rescued by the bell

Janet:)

We are cheering on our Toronto Blue Jays 

I for one am a far happier ball-fan than player:)

This picture was taken on the day I officially resigned from anything baseball 

besides watching and cheering 

after a family-game miscommunication, 

when I said 'NO' and he thought I said 'THROW"!!