More Than Ballyhoo

Discouragement would be a noose

Daybreak, a ball and chain

And fear would be a foe, footloose

Where hope could not sustain

And hope, ah, what then would it be?

But mockery of years

Through which anguish rolls like a sea

And hunger commandeers

This skeletal carriage of Want

Would not, nay, could not pray

While hours fling their tick-tock taunt

To lives, slipping away

…a desperado’s cheerless chase

Of days devoid of goals

If it were by works, not by grace

That we must save our souls

© Janet Martin

 For by grace you have been saved through faith;

 and that not of yourselves,

 it is the gift of God; 

 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.…

Eph.2:8-9 

... remember that you were at that time separate from Christ,
excluded from the commonwealth of Israel,
and strangers to the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world.  
But now in Christ Jesus 
you who formerly were far off 
have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
For He Himself is our peace,
who made both groups into one
and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,…
Eph.2:12-14

Thus, The Poet...

This writer put to words, my heart! 

Thank-you.

Lest life’s sadness, fear and failure

Should silence our song with tears

Heedful to Ink’s Humble Honor

Thus the poet perseveres

Lest the best of life and beauty

Is drowned by the din of men

Faithful to Ink’s Post of Duty

Thus the poet wields a pen

Lest the quest for fame and fortune

Finds a foothold in our thought

Thus the poet plies Ink’s Shofar

‘Hail to He who keens its jot’

Lest the rush and push of progress

Snuffs the poem that would be

Save for Ink-anointed Prowess

Thus the poet trolls time’s sea

Lest, for all the boast of being

We miss being most of all

Where a poem opens Seeing

…thus the Poet heeds Ink’s Call

© Janet Martin

But 'How'...

 If you don't watch golf then the name Jordan Spieth is simply another name,

but to those who do, yesterday's stunning finale will never be forgotten!

 

Trying to come to grips with what just happened...

It’s not so much the ‘if’ we lose

But ‘how’ that shapes the ‘who’

That we become after the humb-

-ling hurt of it is through

It’s not so much the ‘what’ of it

That dictates happiness

But how we use the Now of it

That steals or deals success

© Janet Martin

We congratulate Danny Willett
(nice article if you click the link)

God does not call us to success, but to faithfulness~

Dear Jordan Spieth...(and the rest of us too)

 Jordan, we are so proud of the way you handled, under the scrutiny of millions of eyes,
a huge life-disappointment!

What to do…

The day is new

And you and I

Are privy to

Its moments, oh,

They fall like snow

And melt into

Time’s come-and-go

While we employ

Heartbreak and joy

And all the noise

That goes with it

Of win and loss

The albatross

To those of us

Who dare not quit

© Janet Martin

A year ago, celebration...

...this year, heartbreak! 

Dream and Dreamer-defenders

 PAD Challenge day 11: For today’s prompt, write a defensive poem.

Like traffic on a freeway full of dreams

The stream of Monday-morn commuters pour

To keep the growling wolf outside our door

Is quite a full time chore, or so it seems

Like merchants of mind math-games, hands and feet

Adhere to expectation and demand

The taskmaster of moments takes command

On sand where choice and consequence compete

Like dream-mates in the sport of live-love-learn

Of off-to-work before dark dims the day

Where wins and losses strew the age-old way

Of almost-yesterday, we take our turn

Like They did before us, we too commit

To maintain time’s affair of hold-let-go

Like blue-collar prize-fighters, oh, we know

That if we want to win we cannot quit

© Janet Martin 

What are you going to do

to defend The Dream today?

where even now the what-why-how

of it dwindles away! 

Plan a picnic,

 Plant a garden

 Paint a picture,

 Pray for trust

 As we learn

What really matters...

...the soul is not dust-to-dust