Thursday, April 4, 2024

Making the Most (from mistakes)

 Today's poem-a-day prompt from Robert Brewer @Writer's Digest

"For today's prompt, write a mistake poem.
Everyone makes mistakes.
Yes, even that person standing in the corner
shaking their head to the contrary.
And even those people who don't admit to making mistakes
have seen others make them.
So whether it's the mistakes you've made,
witnessed in others, etc., write a poem about it today."

A few wisdom-gems from Prov. 28...


Many are the mistakes authored by impatience. 
But many mistakes are also simply part
of the human experience of learning;
An education in kindness and humility!

***
Mistakes are indeed terrible if we refuse to learn from them.

***
Yesterday I made the mistake of thinking I could dash from the paint pail to the 
door I was painting without dripping on the uncovered part of the carpet.
I was wrong! thankfully I noticed the drip before it was totally dried
and much scrubbing later it was resolved!
Not all mistakes are quite that easily rectified, are they?!


Sometimes we mistake the mistakes we make as stumbling blocks
And dread the education learned in the school of hard knocks
But fumbles, stumbles and such can be blessings in disguise
Teaching us kinder sympathy and making us more wise
As, looking back we realize the stumbling blocks we rued
Were, in fact stepping stones toward a greater gratitude

Life’s ladders to success are riddled and scarred with mistakes
But they are not for naught if we have the courage it takes
To look them in the eye, admit the fault of it and then
Pick up where we left off, humble enough to try again
Becoming, through the blunder a more patient fellow friend
Because of the mistake that made us wiser in the end

Sometimes it isn’t easy to let mistakes have their say
Human nature wishes there would be an easier way
But, be that as it may, we can learn much from our mistakes
To sweeten the success that follows in its weathered wakes
(But, one kind word of caution as we enter Today’s School
The same mistake repeated often, may expose the fool)

Better to try and make mistakes than be fear’s captive, chained
Better a venture failed than nothing ventured nothing gained
Better to be a student of bungles than stand aloof
Because we are not brave enough to acknowledge reproof
Better to find, along the way, through detours Learning takes
Beauty, discovered in the silver lining of mistakes

© Janet Martin

Oh, bitter regret of The Mistake
But oh, the wisdom in its wake
And oh, the gentler spirit won
From what I wish I had not done

Wednesday, April 3, 2024

The Original Riverdance

 Prompt #3 from Robert Brewer @ Writer's Digest poem-a-day challenge

For today's prompt, pick a musical act or artist
and either make that the title of your poem
or incorporate into the title of your poem; then, write your poem.






Its splendor captures hearts and souls
In arrangements that spill
Through gullies, between hills and knolls
It runs its foaming drill

It thunders through the wilderness
And eddies into bays
Above its cascade, mists caress
Its roiling interplays

It performs without preference
As masterpieces grand
Roll without mortal audience
Through untamed timberland

A lyrist that commands respect
The lure of its appeal
As ageless as its dialect
Of silver, sage and teal

It serenades the fisherman
That navigates its stream
And sparkles like a sequin-fan
Where sunbeams waltz and gleam

It glides, as tame as nameless reeds
Idling along its shores
It clashes where two courses feed
Into one vein, it roars

…and frets and moans and froths and fumes
Until its ire is spent
To slide beneath the willow plumes
That strum its moody bent

Mingling of danger and delight
Of unbridled romance
Heeding a Maestro veiled from sight
Save in the river’s dance

It dips and dives, leaps, jives and falls
Liquid arpeggio
Of promenades and madrigals
That always steal the show  

© Janet Martin




Isa.43:1-3

Now this is what the LORD says—

He who created you, O Jacob,

and He who formed you, O Israel:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by your name; you are Mine!

2When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;

and when you go through the rivers,

they will not overwhelm you.

When you walk through the fire,

you will not be scorched;

the flames will not set you ablaze.

3For I am the LORD your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;...


Tuesday, April 2, 2024

A Medley of Happiness Guarantees or Love's Happy-Sad Reality



For today's prompt, we have our first two-for-Tuesday prompt, 
which means you get two prompts. 
You can write to one of the prompts, both the prompts separately,
 or try to write a poem that works with both prompts at the same time. 
The prompts are:
Write a happy poem, and/or...
Write a sad poem.

Some sunny happiness-anticipation mementos today...
While the wind howls, wild as an untrained child!








Happiness Guaranteed

As long as there are boys with joys like fishing, baseball, pups
And girls with pretty curls, and brook-banks strewn with buttercups
And warm handshakes and birthday cakes and laughter, old and young
And spring following winter, and arbors wisteria-hung/strung/flung

And fortunes found in friendships crowned with loyalty and prayer
And skies of blue and work to do and poems still to snare/share
And birds to sing as the morning dissolves the heavens, dark
And simple things like trees with swings, like picnics in the park

Like beauty to behold and shelter from the cold, bold gale
Like hope secure for the soul moored in Love that will not fail
Or, like fresh bread or coffee or berries, sun-warm and sweet
Or gardens, where gladness runs wild as a child in bare feet

As long as two agree and ‘will you marry me’ hears ‘yes’
And babies coo and wonders woo, there will be happiness
As long as you and I try to be kinder every day
And live to bless, then happiness will never lose its way

© Janet Martin

Irreparable Alloy 
In greatest happiness and sadness, love is always chief
The flipside of love's gladness is, inevitably, grief 

The higher love's apex of joy the deeper sorrow's trove
Irreparable alloy; the bitter-sweetest price of love

True love is like a treasure no imposter can attain
A finely mingled measure of profound pleasure and pain

Not for the faint of heart is love's vexatious certainty 
The twain can never part; love's happy-sad reality 

© Janet Martin

Inexorable Irony 
The only way we know for sure that happiness exists
Is because of the sadness that this broken world untwists 
How dumb would be delight's caress, how numb, the rousing cheer
Without sadness to sweeten happiness with bitter tear 

© Janet Martin

Without determined dedication
Without valiant effort
Victory is flavorless

***

Wilt thou be happy, oh,
  so happy thou couldst burst?  
Well, then,
Forget about thyself; 
and love God first
then fellowmen

© Janet Martin

It's nice to be appreciated and loved
And we all know
That its important, once in a while
To tell each other so!

***

Wishing one and all a happy day!


Yea, happy is that people, 
whose God is the LORD.
Psalm 144:15 KJV







Monday, April 1, 2024

Like Music Notes (In a Brand, New Love Song)

Happy April!

My, how a month doth fly!!
April is the month of the poem-a-day challenge!

 From Robert Brewer at Writer's Digest...here is today's prompt.

"It's time for the first day of the 2024 April Poem-A-Day Challenge! Each day, I'll provide a poetry prompt and a poem to get things started. You can secretly poem along at home, or you can share your poem in the comments below.

For today's prompt, write an optimistic poem. I find the beginnings of things to be a time of great optimism. Whether it's the beginning of a sporting season or a month (or even a week), there's so much opportunity available. But optimism can exist anywhere and at any time; so don't limit your optimism to the beginnings of things."


Today we embark on
a new day, a new week and a new month!
All great new reasons to embrace optimism!



Behind us lies the dust and ash of seasons spilled and spent
Unfurling in its aftermath a bittersweet tableau
Of what may sometimes seem like a cosmic experiment
Of love, learning how to hold on while learning to let go

Like an unblemished phoenix today gleams, a priceless stone
In hands where we, fumbling proprietors of precious time
Proceed, through daybreak's gaping door, vessels of skin and bone
And Soul, shouldering grin and groan as on and up we climb 

I love the loveliness of a new day, like a clean sweep
Like a fresh page, rather than yesterday's returned 'so-long'  
I love the way the ending as we drifted off to sleep
Evolves into the Intro of a whole new worship song

Behind us lies the old; the dust and ash of ages set 
Before us gleams the new; like treasure from an unplumbed trove 
Beneath us streams a fresh measure of moments never met 
Like music notes composing brand-new hymns of hope and love 
 
Janet Martin


Psalm 100 is a glorious way to refresh optimism with
unfaltering truth from the Word of God
A perfect wat to start a new
day-week-month!

Make a joyful noise to the LORD,

all the earth.

2Serve the LORD with gladness;

come into His presence with joyful songs.

3Know that the LORD is God.

It is He who made us, and we are His;a

we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

4Enter His gates with thanksgiving

and His courts with praise;

give thanks to Him and bless His name.

5For the LORD is good,

and His loving devotion endures forever;

His faithfulness continues to all generations.


Forever God Is Faithful




Sunday, March 31, 2024

Unfailing Love (Worship Hymn)

Happy Easter!








The joy of God and man has been fulfilled; praise He
Who satisfied salvation's plan and won the victory
Death and hell overthrown; no power could prevail
To thwart the will of He whose love and mercy cannot fail
Come, join the worship hymn that nevermore will cease
Hail He who clothes all who believe in righteousness and peace

The hope of man abides; Christ's sorrow, not in vain
He who bore our suffering; He who took up our pain
He who was pierced and crushed for our iniquity
Through his wounds we are healed; Praise He who sets death's captives free
Though hatred sought to scorn His glory with a cross
His glory increased all the more beneath love's albatross 

The love of God transcends the schemes of Satan's vice
He gave His Son to be sin's everlasting sacrifice 
Ah, what more do we need than love, mighty to save
Than He who broke the curse of Adam's seed and robbed the grave
Come, join the worship hymn lest the stones start to sing
Exalt the Name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, Lord and King 

Janet Martin


Rom.8:31-39

God’s Everlasting Love

31 What then shall we say to these things? 
If God is for us, who can be against us? 
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, 
how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, 
who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 
Shall tribulation, 
or distress, 
or persecution, 
or famine, 
or nakedness, 
or peril, 
or sword? 
36 As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life,
 nor angels nor principalities nor powers, 
nor things present nor things to come, 
39 nor height nor depth, 
nor any other created thing, 
shall be able to separate us from the love of God 
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Saturday, March 30, 2024

Remembrance Hymn

 




Oh, let me not forget
To let hope intercede
For He who died to pay sin’s debt
Has met my greatest need

And let me keep in mind
With every breath I take
The mercies of a God so kind
Who suffered for my sake

Then, when troubles befall
Forbid, I should despair
But with unshaken faith recall
God’s love beyond compare

The love that did not shirk
The cross, nor fled its dread
But endured till the finished work
Had crushed the serpent’s head

Nothing I wrought could win
The grace that I received
That saved me from the wage of sin 
The hour I believed

Oh, let me not forget
The cross that Jesus bore
On my behalf, to seal the ‘Yet’
Of life forevermore

Then, let no dearer laud
My fleeting frame entice
Than to be, for the love of God
A living sacrifice

© Janet Martin

Romans 12:1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,
 in view of God’s mercy,
 to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, 
holy and pleasing to God—
this is your true and proper worship.

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Veiled Glory

Judge not, by outer countenance the merit of the goal...


The above picture from
The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes was my first introduction
as a child, to the sorrowful images of the Greatest Love Story!

John 12:27-28
Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say?
 ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? 
No, it is for this purpose that I have come to this hour.
  Father, glorify Your name!”

Then a voice came from heaven:
 “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”




Judge not, by outer countenance the merit of the goal
One facet of a circumstance does not reveal the whole
The Saviour of the soul could see beyond salvation’s price
Beyond the awful cost as He became sin’s sacrifice

While gaping throngs reviled and railed and jeered what appeared loss
The darkness of the hour veiled the glory of the cross
Love’s agony of grief and pain in mingled passion poured
Redemption’s unrelenting gain and glory of the Lord

Fret not the trouble that this world can never overcome
But look to where God’s love unfurled the hope of Christendom
Beyond the gory cross, the empty grave, beyond death’s toll
The glory of the resurrected Saviour of the soul

© Janet Martin

John 12:44-50
Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only,
 but in the one who sent me. 
45 The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me.
 46 I have come into the world as a light,
 so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

47 “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, 
I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 
48 There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; 
the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.
 49 For I did not speak on my own, 
but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.
 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life.
 So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”








Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Gift of Today...

It is futile to wish for 'lost' time.
But each Today is a fresh opportunity
to make the most of moments in reach!

It was such a delight to join my mom and sister
on a lunch date at the Sterre Café  where my sister works
to surprise her on her birthday!

Happy Birthday Lucy💓


The gift that tumbles from God’s grace to man’s embrace each morn
Settles so briefly within reach, before its lease is borne
Beyond our fingertips; the only remnant of its shroud
Is what we did with it while opportunity allowed

‘Each day passes but once’ but, each day grants mercy renewed
The best we can accomplish starts with hearts of gratitude
To He who is the Giver; then with holy, humble vim
To turn the gift He gives us into gifts of praise for Him

Today is the substance whereby a lifetime is composed
And no one knows how near we are to today’s last door closed
So, while we can let’s make the most of opportunities
To turn today into a gift of precious memories

Let's love each other well today before it is too late
A lifetime is too fleeting to desecrate it with hate
So let's live as if today was the final chance we had
To take this day the Lord has made to rejoice and be glad

© Janet Martin

Ps.118:24
This is the day the Lord has made;
 We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Ps.90:12
So teach us to number our days, 
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Other interesting tidbits of today...
We are having roast beef dinner tonight.

My sister-in-law came home from the hospital today!

Mourning dove siesta...