Fishin' in the Dark...

The night is a black ocean full of sleep

Save for the poet who plunders its deep

And trolls the dark quiet with naught but thought

In hopes of a poem no one has caught

© Janet Martin

Where Does The Time Go?

Try as we might

We cannot fight

The fast-forward of tick and tock

This breathing space

Of grace-to-grace

Can siphon hours from a clock

Where suddenly

We turn to see

Another year quite nearly done

The pockets of

Its live-laugh-love

Emptied into …where Time has gone

Where is the sphere

Of yesteryear?

From where to where do seasons flow?

Is there a land

Of silver sand

Hinged to a sea of long ago?

And is its sky

The 'my-oh-my'

That time has gathered through the years

From those of us

Who gaze and fuss

At 'oh, how fast time disappears'

© Janet Martin

We were at another 50th birthday celebration today,

and for lack of anything better to say to friends

we don't see nearly often enough,

We say 'it's been a long time,

but my, how that time flew'

Ageless...

  

Edward Hopper

PAD Challenge day 14:

 For today’s prompt, write an ekphrastic poem. An ekphrastic poem is a poem inspired by art, usually, though not always, images.

The same wind runs its ageless sigh

across the night where you and I

once felt immune to years and such

before we fell prey to the touch

of tick and tock and the demise

of all but the winds ageless sighs...

...and we, for all our grand intent

look back and wonder where time went

and say the things our parents did

when they were old; we try to kid

but know the truth can never lie

...as ageless as the night-wind's sigh

Janet Martin

Of Daily Dispensation...

PAD Challenge day 15:For today’s prompt, write a ritual poem. 

Over and over Dawn descends

and we lift up our prayers

To He who comforts and defends

The We who bear its cares... 

The air runneth over with morning

Where Time runneth over with days

My cup runneth over with coffee

And my mouth with undone praise

My hand runneth over with blessing

My list runneth over with chores

My heart runneth over with worship

To He from Whence it pours

Though eye runneth over with sorrow

Still grace runneth over our Ask

Where Hope is a holy subscription

In He who holds its flask

Janet Martin~

 ...the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. Ps. 147:11

Moon-tide

The moon followed us home

A smile hung from dusk-deep blue

And I wondered as I studied its grin

If you are seeing it too

Late-day blurred and disappeared

Into an onyx sea

Sometimes I wonder as I watch it go

How far you are from me

Now where the clock dictates

Propriety and such

I wonder if ever you wonder

If I miss you very much

© Janet Martin

Postlude

November waits; hours untwist

And kiss time’s gates with amethyst

November waits; its grid soft-shook

As leaf-song stills and fills the brook

November waits; nature’s postcard

Of earth’s harvest-gleaned boulevard

November waits; passion subdued

A picture framed; named Interlude

November waits; soon it will gleam

Where snow has swept gray landscape clean

© Janet Martin

But We Have This Treasure in Earthen Vessels...

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;…2 Cor 4:8

Horror and heartache hinge on Hope

Hope, a Rock of Ages

Anchored within the Word of God

Firm while tempest rages

Not by power of the sword

Doth Hope gain its merit

But by the pure and living Word

Such as God declared it

Treasure poured into jars of clay

Holy inundation

Nothing can wash the hope away 

Of blood-bought salvation

Suffering long on sin-cursed sod

Transcending time’s troubles

For those who place their hope in God

Shall rise up like eagles

© Janet Martin