The Art of Temptation...

PAD Challenge day 12: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “The Art of (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem

Thought presents a small suggestion

Just a whim, ever-so-slight

Then it softens shock with logic

That would justify one bite

Thoughts defends with good intention

To soothe Guilt with Reason’s ruse

Where This Master of Invention

Hones the old art of Excuse

Then, before Conscience can triumph

Over evil’s well-dressed vice

Thought entices with nice visions

That will blind us to the price

Preying on Want’s thirst for pleasure

Thought twists truth, ever-so-slight

As its tests the best-laid logic

With the promise of delight

© Janet Martin

To The One Who Works Wonders Without Number

 Today's sunrise was phenomenal, spanning the north and eastward horizon!

 Who does great things, unfathomable,

 And wondrous works without number.

Job 9:10

 PAD Challenge day 11: For today’s prompt, write a dedication poem.

To You, who spreads the wings of daybreak over land and sea

Magenta-coral glory gilds dawn’s yawning awning, oh

And thrums the thinning darkness with The Painter’s Majesty

And runs awry the quiver filled with starry heaven-snow

To You whose Mercy, new each morning grants another try

Where law greater than Duty authors wonder’s rev’rent praise

To you who draws the Barge of Time toward the by and by

While eyes behold but whispers of Your worship-worthy ways

To You who ever-faithful, never takes Your eyes off we

Who without fee are privy to the wonders of the world

To You who lavishes the girth of sod and sky and sea

With Beauty, Lord, let worship be love’s heart-banner unfurled

To You, who none can order or exceed in deed or grace

Oh Lord, let our awe outpour in kind humility

To You, the Author and the Finisher of human race

Who heaps time’s thoroughfare with glimpses of Your Majesty

We give You praise, honor and glory forever, amen
To You, the Way, The Truth and Life, Creator, Father, Son
To You whose Spirit dwells within the redeemed sons of men
We raise a song of worship, Lord for You are God alone

© Janet Martin

To Hubby For Putting Up With A Poet-Wife

 PAD Challenge day 11: For today’s prompt, write a dedication poem.

I guess that I deserve the smirks, side-jokes, eye-rolls and such

They tell the unflattering truth without adjective’s touch

Since those green years of youth and all the ups and downs we’ve had

Quite unaware, I groomed the quirks that sometimes drive you mad

But even if I could I wouldn’t like it very much

To never need to find a rhyming word that ends in ‘uch’

The way I am is due, in part to features God-designed

The rest, I guess is creature-strength and weakness intertwined

And all the idiosyncrasies that make this poet thus

Are not exactly matters with much merit to discuss

So all I ask is for us to be more patient and kind

A person fifty-plus is hard to re-invent, I find

I love the way you say you love the way I, ‘my-oh-my!’

You put up with my craned-neck-stares at what you call The Sky

And even when you mutter ‘oh, no not again’, I know

You wouldn’t really change me (at least I tell myself so)

So, thank-you Hubby, you deserve a medal a mile high

For putting up with….oh, wow, look! A cloud, a tree, a…sigh

You say a four-line poem is a perfect work of art

But you have never held a poem-ocean in your heart

Or borne the dash of ether breakers crashing deep within

Or felt the whisper of an almost-poem brush your skin

So I will dedicate this poem to you, every part

And ask your kind indulgence from the bottom of my heart

© Janet Martin

In Matters of Choice

PAD Challenge day 10; For today’s prompt, write a 'lone' poem.

In the heat of the fire, the lure of the loot

The draw of desire, the flaunt of the fruit

The want of a woman, the thrill of the chase

The taunt of the moment, the kiss, the embrace

The teeny temptation that seems innocent

But unleashes demons that hound and torment

Sometimes we forget in the heat of the dash

The ripple-effect that will follow the splash

Thus we should pay honor to that inner Voice

No one is a loner in matters of choice

© Janet Martin

When Robins Start To Sing...

 A Worship-walk...

that's what last evening felt like as earth was tucked beneath twilight's burnished wing

and it made me squawk sing and want to write a really nice April-hymn!

Something begins to stir

When robins start to sing

Earth’s winter canvas starts to blur

With whispered hints of spring

…as beam of sun ignites

The babble in the brook

And dream of picnic-joy delights

Like pictures in a book

Stark,threadbare hillside-cots

Are ready for a throw

Of violets and forget-me-nots

And apple-blossom snow

…where bulbs and buds are primed

With orchestras of bloom

Creation’s Magnum Opus timed

Within a perfect loom

…while we, with eager eyes

Peer ardently into

An afternoon of silver sighs

Soft-fringed with gold and blue

…knowing beneath its vim

Trembles a hymn of green

The theater of barren limb

Nigh-bursting at its seam

Where spartan solitude

On April’s modest wing

Is like Nature’s simple prelude

Before anthems of spring

...when the Maestro's baton

Signals to common strings

Then from woodland, field, stream, pond, lawn

A world of worship rings

© Janet Martin

Psalm 148

Psalm 148

¹ Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord from the heavens;
    praise him in the heights above.
² Praise him, all his angels;
    praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
³ Praise him, sun and moon;
    praise him, all you shining stars.
⁴ Praise him, you highest heavens
    and you waters above the skies.

⁵ Let them praise the name of the Lord,
    for at his command they were created,
⁶ and he established them for ever and ever—
    he issued a decree that will never pass away.

⁷ Praise the Lord from the earth,
    you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
⁸ lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
    stormy winds that do his bidding,
⁹ you mountains and all hills,
    fruit trees and all cedars,
¹⁰ wild animals and all cattle,
    small creatures and flying birds,
¹¹ kings of the earth and all nations,
    you princes and all rulers on earth,
¹² young men and women,
    old men and children.

¹³ Let them praise the name of the Lord,
    for his name alone is exalted;
    his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
¹⁴ And he has raised up for his people a horn,
    the praise of all his faithful servants,
    of Israel, the people close to his heart.