A Few More Of My Favorite Things (part 2)

Part one here...A Few of my Favorite Things

…glimpses of heaven

in gardens and children

soft socks or slippers

when winter gale howls

Old England classics

Vlasic pickles

Icicles dripping

From Sun-tickled jowls

Prize-winning posies

(there are no losers)

Work to keep busy

When worry would rue

Rag-taggle rooster

Strutting, cock-a-doodle-doo

Rise and shine, farmer

We love and need you

Bowls full of peas to pod

Holes full of puddle

Puddle full of colorful

Little boots going ‘splosh’!

Jar full of flea-bane

On sunny south window-sill

Mouth full of maybes

On a rare morning off!

Breeze bearing fragrance

Of blossom tree’s beauty

Cutie pie snuggled

In the crook of my arm

Traveling with princes

And pages and sages

Wood-fire crackling

With old-fashioned charm

Snacking on popcorn

Or packing up early

To ride a bicycle

Over the lea

Where a new day brims

On east horizon-lines

Heavy with helpings of

Of what waits to be

Clean tidy kitchen

(No sink full of dishes)

After the baking

And cooking is done

Heart full of wonder

A boy’s pocket-plunder

Cherishing joy

Of each daughter or son

One rainy afternoon

Without Duty’s diction

Clinking of teacups

Just the two of us

Weathering love’s

Bittersweet afflictions

Through fiction’s fancy

… Pride and Prejudice

Nursery Rhyme newcomers

Oh, don’t you just love ‘em?

Miss Muffet, pat-a-cake,

Twinkle, little star

Sometimes I wish

For the sake of your sweetness

That you could stay

Just the way that you are!

Red-cheeked geraniums

Faces pressed to windows

Waiting for weather

To go out to play

Cicada-drone wafting

Through hot August high-noon

Crickets crick-cricking

Sweet summer away

Frost-brittle corn fields

Tea-kettle canticle

Mossy-nook temples

And book full of poem

Backyard vacation

Simple celebration

For zinnia, rose

Portulaca and home

Bulrush Ragamuffins

And saucy, fat robins

Visions of vegetable rows

Thriving, weed-free

Wide-open windows

To let in the music

Of bird-song, leaf-guitars

And wind-symphony

Time out for talking to

Forgotten flowers

Snow-storm while supper-soup

Makes us feel whole

Moaning with gladness

At the sheer finesse

Where Beth Powning’s memoirs

Bare a woman’s soul

© Janet Martin

A Few of my Favorite Things...

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...

Below, my favorite 'favorite things' song!

So, because of the late-night laundry date I reveled in a few favorite things!

Fresh cup 'o coffee

A rose glazed with dewdrops

Green haze of May days 

after spring has sprung

laughter of little ones

cheese before supper

 toffee bits melting

sweet, slow on my tongue

babies to rock-a-bye

books to belong to

backwood meander

just talking to trees

scrabble and apples

and company-set tables

 a long line of laundry

flapping in the breeze 

poems and poetry

with words or pictures

moody blue back-drop

thunder far away

bird-song and brook-song

and sea-song and love song

wanderlust dusting

 an open highway 

summer-sand beaches 

and winter-land wonder

spring-flavored sunbeams

a to-do list

Getting up early to

hear the sun stirring

kicking back covers 

of starlight and mist

making a memory

fragrant with flowers

planning a picnic

for today at two

fishing and fireworks

wish on a first star

fulfilled by the longing

of being with you

dancing at daybreak

with destiny's mystery

meeting at midnight with

future and past

pausing on pasture-lands

stippled with steeples

where shadow-builders

Lower twilight's mast

taming a tempest

of whispers with inkdrops

framing heart-pieces

in rhythm and rhyme

where there is always

too much to be written

and there is always

never enough time

love that is painful

because it is pleasure

love that is pleasure

because it is pain

Finding the treasure

in a moment's measure

laughing like I was

carefree once again

Listening to reason

while lying at leisure

beneath the lattice

of leaf overhead

  hearing the tiptoe

 of a poem's hello

long after it is time 

to go to bed

Janet~

...on that note, Goodnight

or Good Morning 😏

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

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?!