License To Live or How Will We Escape?

PAD challenge day 19: For today’s prompt, write a license poem.

 

How Lucifer loathed Eden’s pair

The origin of man

Shameless, guiltless, they wandered where

Record of Time began

In Eden’s bliss and there it is

He fixed his jealous hate

Bent to destroy the selfless joy

And spoil man’s perfect state

And ruin God, for he could not

Best Heaven’s uttermost

But was cast to the depths of hell

To dwell there with his host

Lowliest and unholiest

Darkness instead of Light

The cunning Schemer could not rest

But set his bestial sight

Upon a way to rue the day

Of I AM’s ‘Let There Be’

He knew the garden of the mind

Was prone to vanity

(Though sin had not yet entered it)

And all was good and fair

The sight of uncontested Love

Was more than hate could bear

And so this Crafter of Deceit

Took shade beneath The Tree

Laden with fruit sumptuous and sweet

But Forbidden, you see

For God put Law into effect

To guard earth’s paradise

“Eat freely of all trees”, He said

To First Man’s honest eyes

“Save one, and if you eat of it

Then you will surely die”

Aha, here satan chose to sit

To tempt them with a lie

…and so he did and they believed

And Eve first took the fruit

Then gave to Adam, both deceived

The Seed of Sin Took Root

And in that fateful bite Death’s curse

Divided and defiled

Cast from The Garden, man must work

And woman bear the child

And for man’s sin a sacrifice

Of shed blood must be met

For death alone for sin atones

For sin alone brings death

How Holy God loved Eden’s pair

The offspring of His Hand

Has fallen; now sin’s vile despair

Wreaks havoc on the land

The blood of lambs, rams, goats and bulls

Can never satisfy

The wrath of God; where animals

Must die and die and die

And God knew they could never be

The life-blood to redeem

Sin and death-cursed humanity

The prey of satan’s scheme

Where the Highest and Holiest

As eras rose and fell

Knew who would put on Lowliest

To save man’s souls from hell

Knew Who would suffer once for all

To restore Adam’s race

Back to a place before the fall

Through Mercy’s saving grace

For God so loved the world He gave

His one and only Son

To save us from hell’s fiery grave

In Eden’s grief begun

And make a way back to The Tree

Of Life; back to The King

Ah, Death where is thy victory

Ah grave, where is thy sting?

So Jesus, fully God did not

Decline Salvation’s Need

But put on flesh and humanness

Redemption’s flood to bleed

For sin, dark, wretched sin must have

A pure and perfect Lamb

Then God, so rich in Mercy gave

Himself, the Great I AM

Love left His throne, the Lord of Heaven

Bore death’s altar, a cross

He died so man may live, forgiven

For mankind’s gain, His loss

Rejected, beaten, mocked and cursed,

He stayed the cruel course

Love, always putting others first

Could not bear sin’s divorce

Faithful to death, death on a cross

He conquered once for all

The curse that spawned death’s albatross

Begun at Adam’s fall…

For death and grave could not enslave

Where God so loved the world

He sent His only Son to brave

All hell’s fury unfurled

Until with three words ‘it is finished’

Death by death became

The fulfillment of Genesis

For Jesus is His name

The name whereby man can be saved

Not by some corpse’s fame

No! Jesus triumph is engraved

In Hands death could not claim

For seals of stone cannot secure

The Glory of The Lord

Where sacred groan did first endure

The gory pierce of sword

But then burst forth in Victory

And Resurrection’s hymn

Evil in its full misery

Could not Love’s Climax dim

Glad tidings of love’s greatest joy

In Bethlehem proclaimed

Drew from the form of baby boy

A Lamb for sinner’s slain

And from this bleeding sacrifice

Salvation for the soul

Where Dying fills flesh-edifice

 Until faith makes us whole

And whosoever now believes

Where death’s dark fear loomed grim

Because of Love’s shed blood receives

Eternal life through Him

And this a gift, salvation’s gift

From God, so all may bring

No boast, but with utmost joy lift

All homage to the King

So, though we suffer for His will

The trouble that must be

Tis but the rite of passage till

We share His victory

Who, though equal to God did not

Cling to His Deity

But, for the love of fallen man

Died to set sinner free

Then Bow beneath love’s Holy kiss

Where Mercy’s blood-drops fell

For if we neglect Love like this

How will we escape hell?

© Janet Martin

 ...how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? 

Heb.2:3

Little Do We Know

PAD Challenge day 18: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Little (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then write your poem.

The coral orb that stole The Show on westward brink not long ago

Returns to spread a red-gold feast upon the table of the east

Where we beneath Time’s wreath commence once more toward tomorrow’s Hence

And little do we know what waits to burst through morning’s starting gates

But this we do, the Mercy New that drew the depths of dark awry

Is broad enough and God enough to fill ten fathoms made of sky

Then in the leap of wake and sleep and come and go and high and low

It is enough to know His love exceeds the little that we know

© Janet Martin

 Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money 

and be content with what you have, 

for God has said: "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you."

Reason For My Headache

"Oh Lord, help me think of something that only takes one egg,"
I prayed knowing I didn't have a window of time to go and get some at the farm.
this after Victoria texted me from school to say the cookies are gone
that she took to the school bake sale. (we were gonna use the leftovers for her turn
to bring refreshments to her youth Bible Study tonight)
The oven was busy with food for a dinner I'm helping with tonight
but THEN this recipe popped into my mind and lo and behold we had on hand the ingredients!)!
Quick-baking and easy to prep! The filling that takes an egg is enough for a double-batch of batter!

Don't you just love-love those little BIG God-nods?!

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

I hate to admit it

…it’s lack of coffee

So much to do

I forgot second cup

I hate to admit it

Might be a habit

I would be wise

To just give up!

© Janet Martin

Plus, lunch looked a little like this today...
scraping out nearly-empty containers I discovered in my fridge.

...but it's been fun kitchen day!
Because of other plans for My Wednesday Tot she wasn't here today.
Coincidence? I think not. :)
Reminds us God really is in the details too!

...and now, clean-up!
(after I put the coffee on!)😋

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

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