Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Let's Live Poetry (the reason to write it)

PAD Challenge day 17: For today’s prompt, write a reason poem.



Reasons I write and read poetry
 ...because summer slips through the stars far too soon
because morning drip-drips into afternoon ...
Warning (this is one of those poems I had to rein in with 'whoa Nellie'!)😉





Because the brook murmurs and the milk cow moos
And little tot flutters his big, baby blues
…and mothers are always with their child in heart
And new day is always a fresh work of art
Because spring, ah spring fills and spills dappled drink
Where the poet grapples with purple and pink
Where blossom-confetti wafts softly and decks
The emerald of earth with pastel-perfumed flecks
…because after the hour of flower is through
A poem can gather its petals anew

…because trouble and sorrow must have its say
But a Poem can brush tender tears away
Or usher salt-stars from soul-deeps to the shore
To help hurt and hunger find laughter once more
Because wonder, wishes and worry oft spar
Because of who, what, where and how people are
Because we love Beauty; how its steals our breath
And Poem can suture the wounds of its death
To remind, as its stitches brave the eyes of men
That Richness remains to make us glad again

Because we all need the Greatest of These; love
Not one of us, by ourselves is complete or enough
For love must be given in order to find
And how can we give without someone in mind
And then when we feel the heel of heartache press
Love, wrapped in Poem can stir happiness
And Happiness hinged to the Giver of life
Makes worthy this earthy fling of joy and strife
Because of the cross that precedes Victor's Crown
Where Love gave Himself and laid His life down

I write poetry to keep pieces of Past
The music of moments slips through us so fast
It’s hard to remember September, my dears
After the culled ember of leaf disappears
After laughter’s lilt in farewells that must be
The grave keeps the body but we, poetry (aka memories)
Forgive me for rambling; the rhythm of rhyme
Teases font to dance to the rubric of time
Because when its bully kicks me in the shin
I retaliate with a poem, and grin

I write when the rush of ink runs deep-sea blue
The page is a chasm for Poem to run through
I write in parched places when I must beseech
The pen to touch the faces that fingers can’t reach
Because Poem whispers across years and miles
The world drawn together by syllabic smiles
Because I believe we would all better be
If we took more time to read more poetry
Because my dear love, we are all fellowmen
And Poem can mother our common-ground yen

...and Poem can help us on throughways of sod
To grace gifted breath by the glimpses of God 
Ah, look there His touch, where without poetry 
Trouble and such might be all we would see
So I write Poetry, lest noise-mongers dim
The eye and the ear to the Whisper of Him
Because we all need Someone worth living for
While work-work-work keeps the wolf from the door
While live-laugh-love wears the glove of life thin
While we stuff echoes into pockets of skin

…because the wall crumbles that stood tall and strong
Because nothing stays The Way It Is for long
Because better days are not always ahead
And Poem is life’s bit o’ butter on bread
Because we all grow old sooner than we thought
Stunned by Surrender whether willing or not
And none of us knows how long Future will be
Then by all means, darling, let’s live poetry
For what could be better than living life smitten
With poetry still waiting to be written

© Janet Martin




Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Of Joy's Fundamental Must


 

Do not despair; ah yes, the care that births the prayer remains
But spring replenishes the fount of fields and daisy-chains

And joy, clothed in time’s finest green ignites beneath our skin
Hope’s flame rekindled by sweet expectation’s sunny grin

For Hope will never make ashamed the one who trusts in He
Who fashions petal-bells and hangs them in the barren tree

Who lets us glimpse at break of day a Gateway left ajar
Who, to deep folds of blue and blush soft-pins the evening star

And for the sake of love might smite our easy words with pain
If but to prove the truth; or else we could turn proud and vain

And we, oh, so against our will should bow and kiss the rod
That teaches us joy’s fundamental must; to trust in God

Then don’t despair; ah yes, the care that births the prayer remains
But love anoints the Fount that spills green fields and daisy-chains

…so without fear or hesitation we may join the hymn
Of exaltation bursting from the thrumming frond and limb

© Janet Martin

 Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Neh.8:10


We Cannot Catch Love Like a Ball in a Glove...


 Time for our third Two for Tuesday of the month!
 Pick one prompt or use both…your choice!

  1. Write a catch poem.
  2. Write a release poem.



Two things we cannot catch or force; Love and Belief!

We cannot catch Love like a ball in glove
Or Belief, like a cold or a chill
The wraith we call faith has no tangible shape
Like a bubble we chase for the thrill

We cannot suppose while we wiggle our toes
In slippers or sand on a beach
That grace can be caught without intent or thought
If we never take Time to reach

…and if like a fool who plays hooky from school
We dodge Mercy’s uttermost Gift
We will not catch a break from our Greatest Mistake
While ageless eternities drift

Release from the debt that we owe
Through shed blood of His Son death’s curse was undone
Because One True God loves us so


© Janet Martin

 It is rare indeed for anyone to die for a righteous man, 
though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
 Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood,
 how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him!…
Romans 5:7-9


Monday, April 15, 2019

Then You Will Fly


PAD Challenge day 15; For today’s prompt, write a prediction poem.

 For the sake of what might be...try!
(that's what I tell myself when fear-demons jeer, sneer and leer) 



Fear will paralyze the Poem
Close your eyes and feel the Light
Let the Author of ink-oceans
Fit the Fledgling for the flight

Trust a leap of faith to paper
Bear the dare to share the art
Sometimes the pen is a saber
Carving courage from the heart

Steal the breath of death’s bystander
Seal this tender touch of time
With the tempo of tamed banter
Into mementos of rhyme

Beauty begs for recognition  
Brush the bruises from your sigh
Brave the height of inhibition
To know what it is to fly

© Janet Martin



There Will Be Better Days...

Half-way point! PAD Challenge day 15; For today’s prompt, write a prediction poem.

Sometimes, as I witness someone suffering far more than I ever have it almost feels like
I'm trespassing on sacred ground to offer inexperienced words of comfort and cheer
but we are here to "encourage one another and build each other up"
 ... we never know when it will be our turn to receive those words instead of give!
Today I am thinking of my cousin Wayne (and family) 
as Wayne suffers terribly from the ravages of MS.
from the confines of his wheelchair in a van.
Many stopped to say it's nice to see him there, one mentioning this trial must take much surrender.
 His reply, the most powerful two words: "every day" and though his voice and body are weak from the disease in that moment I knew I was looking at one of the strongest people I will ever meet!
 A testament to the verse
" ...for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."  

So this poem (unfit as I am to pen it) comes from the bottom of my heart
 for him and his family today! Will you join in praying for them as God's will is done?



There will be better days
For some, not here below
But if we put our faith in God
We know it will be so

After time's hard-knock blows
After Surrender's Test
Those who endure will hear these words
Well done, enter thy rest

Take heart, though laughter fails
And words seem far too small
The One to whom our prayers are raised
Sees even sparrows fall

...are we not more than these?
Take heart, trust in the Lord
The testing of our faith; hard joy
Will yield a rich reward

So while we suffer long
Toward Hope's unmet Yet
There will be better days, dear one
Though sometimes we forget

© Janet Martin

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? 
Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care.
 
Matthew 6:26
Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns--
and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. 
Are you not much more valuable than they?