Darkest Hour Poem

PAD Challenge day 2: For today’s prompt, write a darkest hour poem.

Before the breath that breaks the bud

That births the beaming bloom

Before the wisp that wakes the word

That imprints page with poem

Before the art that stirs the heart

To worship’s humble laud

Before the Light rends doubt’s dark night

And leads Blind Faith to God

© Janet Martin

Glorious Thought

Writer's Digest's Poem-a-day Challenge 1; For today’s prompt, write a glorious poem.

The tide that trouble rides upon seems never to deplete

And life, though it runs rife with joy, is never Easy Street

But oh, the woe we know is never greater; glorious thought

Than God’s kind grace to human race for all His ways allot

The bread we break and often take for-granted as we chew

While mouths are filled with food, our minds are filled with Much Ado

Until a nudge reminds us to remember; glorious thought

His grace will be sufficient when our ways and means are not

 Our Hope is Fixed upon the Rock; not gods of wood and stone

The prayers we pray are heard even when words evade our groan

And though fear tries to veer faith’s eyes from trust, oh, glorious thought

We have His confidence in us; the loving grace of God

© Janet Martin

 Psalm 62:2
He alone is my rock and my salvation; 

He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

2 Samuel 22:47

The LORD lives, and blessed be my Rock!

And may God, the rock of my salvation, be exalted--

(another sweet fav:)

How Then..An October-Farewell Madrigal

How bittersweet the madrigal

Of rain and leaf-notes as they fall

Where petal-puddles pin Farewell

Like medals on earth's frayed lapel

How loyal is autumn's postcard
 Of hill and vale and boulevard
For Nature has no good-old-days
Unruffled by man's changing ways

How swift the scenes of summer spent

As green is bronze and umber rent

The headstones these fond hours wove

Are wreathed in smiles and tears of love

How soundless is the gong that tolls

This birth-to-death breath-hymn that rolls

In four-season-stanzas until

The hands and sands of Time lie still

How sacred is this Soul-full sweep

Where seasons grant what none can keep

As Someone silences the song

That strummed the air all summer long

How temporal the rise and fall

Of bud-to-bloom to deck-earth’s-hall

Where soon High Noon of Want achieves

The resting place of autumn leaves

How then we should not overlook

The Bigger Picture in a book

Where turn of page and age and leaf

Restores each flower to its Chief

© Janet Martin

A Few Of My Fav'rite Fall Things

Leaf-papered walkways and pumpkins on porches

Gusts snuffing gold poplar-tapers and torches

Tea after twilight and long evenings

These are a few of my fav’rite fall things

Frost-dazzled daybreak and warm socks and ‘knickers’

Orchard a-bustle with rosy-cheeked pickers

Harvesters humming hope’s thanksgiving hymns

These are a few of my fav’rite fall things

When the blooms sleep

When the woods weep

When summer has been ‘had’

I think of a few of my fav’rite fall things

Then I don’t feel so sad

Raindrops on windows paint quaint water-colors

Woodpiles replenished as well as fruit cellars

Gardens unraveled and slum’bring ‘til spring

These are a few of my fav’rite fall things

Book-baskets filled with more than wishful glances

Wind-brooms in ballrooms with rake-partnered dances

Wide-eyed tots tickled by autumn’s heaped wings

These are a few of my fav’rite fall things

When the temps drop

When the nuts plop

When I feel time’s sting

I think of a few of my fav’rite fall things

Then I feel like a king

Fresh bread and veggie-soup suppers, not salad

Kiss on my face by a cheeky breeze-ballad

Startled by music from leaf-winnowed strings

These are a few of my fav’rite fall things

Ling’ring to worship on sweeps of corn-stubble

Drinking the thrill of a hill steeped in purple

Spellbound by belfries where Death’s red gong rings

These are a few of my fav’rite fall things

When the jay calls

When the day crawls

Out of bed, gray-clad

I think of a few of my fav’rite fall things

Then oh, I feel so glad

Lure of a longer way home cuz steps crackle

Better-than-ever big bite of fresh apple

Cider, pies, fritters, crisps, muffins, dumplings

Apples are ten of my fav’rite fall things   

The wind is a busker, each grass field, a fiddle

Plump milkweed-pods primed to pop down the middle

Hail the Creator, whatever life brings

Earth is a-blur with fall-favourite things

When the gale moans

When our stiff bones

Seem to creak with cold

I simply start counting my fav’rite fall things

Then I don’t feel so old

Fireside chats and a snooze for no reason

Sweaters and hats that we choose for the season

Chasing leaf-cartwheels like cats chasing strings

These are a few of my fav’rite fall things

Mountain ash garnets set on sky-blue satin

Stark silhouettes sketched on dusk’s coral curtain

Crisp country mornings where fog fragment clings

These are a few of my favourite fall things

When the gale roars  

When the sun snores

When flow’rs turn to seed

I simply start counting my fav’rite fall things

Then I feel blessed indeed

© Janet Martin

© Janet Martin