Kettle-bell Guilt

PAD Challenge day 12; write a guilt poem

They stare
And taunt me
Where I sit
The guilt of it
I can’t atone
Until to their will
I commit
Heave-ho,
High-low
Grunt, oh
And groan

© Janet Martin

But Lo, I Looked And Saw A Cross...

PAD Challenge day 12: For today’s prompt, write a guilty poem.

But lo, I looked and saw a cross...hallelujah! thank-you Jesus

(image source: pinterest)

I should and would be damned and doomed

Without reason to smile or sing

Hope would be like a corpse exhumed

Deadness that wears a shroud of skin

Where mortal best attempts at love

Could never touch or soothe that place

And more would never be enough

Until it is filled with God’s grace

When humble Belief softens Hearts

Then Heart beholds soul’s utter guilt

…how Christ, and Christ alone imparts

Redemption through His life-blood spilt

And forgiveness is full and free

Through Sacrifice that washes clean

Where death and hell would ever be

Jesus and Heaven intervene

I should and would by Guilt be cursed

A wretch, bound for what I deserve

But lo, I looked and saw a cross

Immersed in love without reserve

Where Perfection His life out-poured

To atone once for all, guilt’s ban

So that The Way would be restored

From man to God and God to man

© Janet Martin

Account of Jesus' death and burial; John 19
Account of Jesus' resurrection; John 20

Psalm 103:1-6

 Praise the Lord, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The Lord works righteousness
    and justice for all the oppressed.

Day-trip

PAD Challenge day 10: For today’s prompt, write a travel poem.

 

Let’s make a day of it

And travel where the hours

Unravel lanes where swallows flit

Through hollows frilled with flow’rs

…and brooklets lilt and laugh

Like autographs from God

And all along the wooded path

The dogtooth violets nod

…and breezes ebb and flow

Like sea-song, ethereal

And buttercups like golden snow

Bedazzles hill and dell

…and wander-lands of green

Herald nature’s rebirth

Where everything seems seventeen

Giddy with dreams and mirth

...and earth, once more akin

To Eden’s perfect world

Invites us to glimpse heaven in

A day of spring unfurled

Let's make a day of it

Let's climb each grassy height

Until the sky is diamond-lit

And earth slips out of sight

© Janet Martin

What a Finish!

 It's always been this way...

One person's triumph is another person's defeat...

One person's win, another's loss...

While one celebrates victory, the other suffers bitter disappointment!

 Another highly entertaining Masters makes history, What a finish, what a finish!

 Someday hopefully we can all say What a finish as we get to the end of the challenge...

Praise Jesus, because of His awesome It Is Finished we may all have the victory, not because of anything we have done (save believe) but because of everything(life eternal) Christ has won on our behalf...thus while Christians mourn our dead we know somewhere legions cheer, 

and welcome home the Victors!

It’s not our call

We’re all so small

In the grand scheme of years

That we must trust

Our dust-to-dust

To He who orders spheres

The hierarchy

Of you and me

Is always only this;

A little leap

Of wake and sleep

Before death’s genesis

So, young or old

We should behold

Each gift of day with love

In all we do

Be kind and true

Our thankfulness to prove

Then, when the Door

To Evermore

Makes Awesome Unknown known

Truth will amaze

…This world of days

Was just a stepping stone

© Janet Martin

 

Yesterday's match was pure sport. 

Imagine getting to the end of life's final challenge to hear

so near...yet so far!

 

Acts 16:30-33King James Version (KJV)

³⁰ And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

³¹ And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

³² And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

So Then...

 PAD challenge Day 9:For today’s prompt, take the phrase “So (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.

 So then,

My dear,

I choose things

The way they are

…to have you

So far,

Yet so near

Rather than

So near,

Yet so far

© Janet Martin

So Blessed

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

Time roars through us

Our skin like shores

Cupping strange, phantom seas

Where glorious

And gloomy pours

From yon to yore with ease

So much to see,

So much to do

So little life, it seems

That sometimes we

Feel torn in two

By duty and daydreams

The more we live

The less we know

Of what we thought we knew

The more we give

The less we owe

When this 'hello' is through 

Eternity's

Tsunami, dear

Is closing in with haste

Where memories

Weave Now and Here

Into no time to waste

How happy is

The heart that learns

Within Time's quickened quest

A humble bliss

Where no returns

Can keep us oh, so blessed

Janet Martin