Last Exhale

 PAD Challenge day 13: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Last (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the poem.

Eastward...

Twilight draws over croft, soft pink

It tiptoes across wooded hush

And etches tree-lines on yon brink

Beneath the rose of eve-tide’s brush

That place where we keened waking thought

Upon the whetstone of new day

Has turned from future into naught

But that which comes to pass away

And suddenly I think of how

A day to week to month to year

With constant, waning undertow

Can make a lifetime disappear

A little lilt of newborn morn

Then far-off chimes, what, twelve o’ clock?

Ere dusk climbs the blue-ladder dorm

Midnight exhales; time turns the lock

© Janet Martin

Westward...

Sitting Among Sages

To book and keep a date with trees

Is quite imperative, my dear

For they say more with bend of breeze

Than peopled mouths preach in a year

Hush; hush thy rush of ordained mist

Come, pause beneath Jehovah’s laud

Of patriarchal pacifists

Ever reaching upward to God

Put down thy weight of daily dues

Those Mores will wait; wander the wood

For soft the gate of twilight hues

Swings shut upon our 'But' and 'Should'

So, when you plan your day or week

Amidst enlisted loyalties

If you wish to hear sages speak

Then spend an afternoon with trees

© Janet Martin

Once Upon a Childhood

Then came the days of purpled haze

When trees shattered in scattered leaf

Over the marquee of play-days

Felled by the sickle in Fall’s sheaf

…and gardens, like a poem writ

And read until we dearly knew

Each bob and lilt, spilled bit by bit

Where once green shoots of half-dreams grew

…while spring, like a bloom-baron crowned

Be-gowned earth in pink froth, soft gold

Before the quickened kiss that found

The chink in its amorous hold

…as one by one days were undone

And afternoons ran red, leaf-shed

Beneath the wreath of saffron sun

Where once-upon-a-childhood fled

© Janet Martin

Today I do believe spring has turned a corner...

the sun bloomed like a dandelion

in a field of corn-flowers

Today I dreamed in color, 

the flavors of garden-dirt

cleansing winter from my hands 

Today I wore flipflops

And poured an outdoor tea

 the cup of nature overflowed with birdsong

Today we are all poets, 

believers,

minstrels 

beneath

a benevolent sky...

(an excerpt from the book pictured above)

Last Resort? No!

 PAD Challenge day 13: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Last (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the poem.

It is mankind’s best defense

Against worry’s vices

Divine-dealt deliv’rance when

Temptation entices

Bulwark bearing us to God

Transport from our sorrow

Warrior in whispers shod

Lifeline all may borrow

Faith and hope-sweet fellowship

Fading fear’s foreshadow

Quiet haven in the grip

Of heart-bleeding battle

Communion with He who knows

The Unknown stilling waiting

Light where darkness bares its woes

…hunger, hurt abating

Soul-aches searing Cup resigned

Rod of trust and courage

Surrender and strength entwined

Worship’s humble homage

Peace in life’s complexities

And as death releases

Confession and Favor’s pleas

When we pray to Jesus

© Janet Martin

Last But Not Least

PAD Challenge day 13: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Last (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the poem.

After the last minute bustle and rush

Of packing that last-minute fare

Of ‘Did you remember to take a tooth-brush

And enough clean underwear?’

After the hug-kiss and ‘I love you, honey’

The ‘look at the time, oh dear’

And, ‘are you sure you have enough money?’

The ‘call me when you get there’

After a mental check and recheck list

Of all that I still want to say

I remember, ‘oh, last but not least,

Don’t forget to pray’

© Janet Martin

Light Matters!

Because someone told us 'store markers felt-tips down' little guy can art away to his heart's content with markers we thought didn't work anymore!!

It takes someone to tell us

And teach us what we know

Ignorance cannot save us

But multiplies man's woe

Deception's understanding 

Grapples with the noise

Of unenlightened teachers

That darkness deploys

Light, clad in truth's glory

Beams, a steadfast rod

Waiting to pierce darkness

With the love of God 

Janet Martin

We learn what we've been taught.

It can be as simple as someone coming in to the classroom to remind students and teachers,

'Don't be too hasty in throwing out what seems like dry whiteboard markers, highlighters, markers etc. Store them with felt tips down and they will work like new!'

We did this at our house and its true! 

I'm sure I've thrown out many perfectly useful markers;( 

...but I didn't know about this handy tip.
The parable? 
Throwing out something good because we did not know its value!

Sometimes we discard what we've been taught. 

Pray we discern between Truth and lies!

We are all entitled to our opinions...yes! 

Why is it that as soon as someone names the name of Jesus there is an outcry?

There is NO other Name that stirs this response...h-m-m-m.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, 

but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1 Cor.1:18