Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Creed For Life's Highway Cred




Don’t count your chickens before they hatch
Plan but with this thought in mind
Often our plans and God’s plans don’t match
Still, always be gentle and kind

Don’t push the person ahead of you, dear
To get to the front of the line
Soon today’s trouble is yesterday’s tear
So always be gentle and kind

Testing and trial are life’s Certainty
Proving the measure behind
Smiles big and bright when the day is sunny
And we all seem gentle and kind

Don’t heap up more than you need; be content
Lest we become people-blind
Don’t let greed gobble up gifts God has lent
Always be gentle and kind

Always leave room at your table, my friend
For an ‘angel unaware
We never know what waits ‘round the next bend
Or what will shape our next prayer

Don’t borrow care from tomorrow, my love
Life’s strife is present-designed
Granting grand chance for example to prove
Who truly is gentle and kind

So, don’t count your chickens before they hatch
Plan but be humble of mind
Often our plans and God’s plans don’t match
Still, always be gentle and kind


© Janet Martin

 Continue in brotherly love. 2Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3Remember those in prison as if you were bound with them, and those who are mistreated as if you were suffering with them.…
Heb.13:1-3

Monday, April 16, 2018

Because You Are My Favorite Son

PAD Challenge prompt 16:For today’s prompt, write a favorite poem. Maybe that sounds a bit silly, but what I mean is to write a poem about something that’s your favorite. A favorite teacher. Favorite movie. Favorite ice cream flavor. I don’t know, because I have my own list of favorites. Only you can do you…and your favorites. Who knows? Maybe this will end up being your favorite prompt this month...




Because you are my favorite son
*I will stay up til midnight
to get your laundry done
 so tomorrow's work pants, shirts and coat
 won't be drenched with the pure
stench
of
manure
(or barn smell:)

Because you are my favorite son
I'll pour your morning coffee-to-go
 and pack your lunch
(Contrary to 'other mother' advice)
Because you say you like 'lunch-surprises'
and I agree;
surprises
are
nice

...and my best guess is
as long as the mess is
yours, I'll keep on scolding and folding
and tidying
(or it might not get done)
Love always,
from your 'favorite mother'
to you,
my favorite son

Aka-Janet

I esp. like him on the days he surprises me with a Tim Horton's coffee!

Matt is our only son.
I don't have a favourite daughter...I have three!

Tonight I was ready to go to bed when I remembered 
Matt told me when he came home from work
that there is a garbage bag of very dirty work clothes in the garage!
(Some of which he will need in the morning)
So, I decided to check out today's PAD prompt while it was washing...
easy-peasy to come up with a topic;-)
and p-s-s-st! when I'm poem-ing I almost forget what time it is!

Speaking Out For April!


Some more 'for-the-record-book shots' of a mid-April snow-day!







 But now, on April's behalf I beg!!!

Find her a fairy with wands made of cherry-bloom
Fix her a halo of silk sun-spun gold
Toss her a silver-mist mantle; a candle
Held to a hollow where violets unfold

Sing her a florist with daffodil havens
Fight for her right to umbrellas and such
Give her an apron; pockets full of rain-song
To waken bracken and furrow’s first dust

Shake a firm finger at old, Old Man Winter
Smoking his pipe in some sky belvedere
Tapping out ashes in big, white, wet splashes
Laughing as if he has nothing to fear    

Woo the warm zephyr too timid to venture
Over the sheen of pristine shiver-hue
Shout out a piece of your mind to the cold, bold
Philanderer of diamonds waiting to be dew

Daydream a picnic on green-meadow blankets
Fancy spring frocks of lilac and willow
Listen to catch the faint tolling of bluebells
Ringing in woodlots still covered with snow

Take a big heart and fill it with good wishes
Break it apart like a bud full of leaf
Whisper a picture of brooks filled with fishes
Forgive the maker of April’s mischief      

Croon a tune soft with pink inkling of summer
Kiss her a promise of tulip-pansy
Fluster the bluster of dusk’s dark-eyed busker
Standing on crocus shoots fiddling for free  

Tell Her a story of bare-footed children
Flower shaped founts for bumbling bumblebees
Hollyhock hollows and butterfly gardens
Beg Old Man Winter to take a nap, please

© Janet Martin


 This, version two of this poem, is a little bittersweet
 because version one, while I cooked supper 
was back-spaced to extinction by darling grandson(15 mos. old) and replaced with a row of zeros!
Version one had flowed from my fingers like a blind painter,
while version two, clawed from memory feels like shards of color not quite correctly arranged!
 But I feel like someone should speak out on April's behalf so I could not leave it 'unspoken':)

oh, and how's about cranking up a good picnic song?!



Prisoner of Winter






 After a few power-outages,  I think the worst is over, but who knows for sure, this year!!
Our 'pushed snow' pile from Sat. Sun. & Mon is bigger than any pile we had  all winter


There’s no escape from the glistening mass
Capturing earth in a prison of glass

Heave-ho, the cisterns of heaven have drained
…dances of branches ensconced and restrained

Creaking and aching beneath silver stress
Nature’s back breaking with every breath

Hope, like harpoon we aim at the sky
Begging the boreal beast to pass by

Ruffling the feathers of junco and finch
Tossed by a ruffian refusing to flinch

Mortal is helpless against elements
Casting and crushing landscapes in ice tents

Torn between beauty and brokenness, oh,
April surrenders to splendors of snow

Spring, held captive in a glass-castle dome
While Old Man Winter makes himself at home

© Janet Martin

Weather like this keeps the shutter-bug a-gasp/aghast with delight and dismay!





Mild afternoon temps have relieved the trees of a lot of their beauty/ burden!

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Sometimes I Feel Like a Foolish Virgin...or Humbly Happy


*“Sometimes I feel like a foolish virgin” I remarked as we scrambled about collecting extension cords, looking for flashlights, dashed to Drayton for gas for the generator etc.. …
but I’m so thankful, since the kids are older these storms are not quite as stressful as they used to be.
Jim usually misses out on the 'excitement'.
Due to his breakdown a few days ago he is trying to make it home in time for a
(Hopefully-will-happen) Easter dinner with his family that we are hosting tomorrow!)

 While gathering extension cords it reminded me of a power-outage, likely 20+ years ago, when our best-neighbor-in-the-world connected enough cords to reach from his generator to our house so the girls could have a night-light and listen to their 
Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round cassette to go to sleep! 
Some kindnesses we NEVER forget! 
(like coffee and hot chocolate and pop delivered to our back door, 
like come-use-our-shower-microwave-coffeemaker etc!)
Thank-you Bill and Patty!
 

That's the thing about trouble; it makes us remember…

Makes me humbly count my ‘happy’
Makes me take stock of the rest
Like the trucker on the highway
And the birdie in its nest

And the people not so ‘lucky’
As to have a ‘home-sweet-home
Makes me turn my little thank-you
Into a prayer and/or poem

Makes me contemplate ‘possibly’
How the wise keep lamps prepared
While the foolish rummage madly
…procrastination-despaired

Makes me think upon the kindness
Of good neighbors and good friends
And the second-mile stretched highways
That it seems trouble extends

Makes me humbly count my ‘happy’
Makes me try not to forget
To try harder to be ready
For the storm not unleashed... yet

© Janet Martin

'Possibly' is Procrastination's best ally!
There is one For Sure we cannot afford to procrastinate!!

*Matt 25:1-13
 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

I bought this flashlight the other day, hoping to keep mine from going missing on 'pirate ships, under-the-couch-cushion camp-outs, and other kiddo-adventures;-)