Who Knows What Waits

 

2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 14

For the 2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge, 

poets write a poem a day in the month of November. 

Day 14 is to write a who blank poem.

I watched the sunrise then checked the prompt for today and the first lines flowed naturally...

Who knows what waits where welkin gates are flung ajar by He

Who fills the air with mercy's flare for all humanity...

I then paused to tend to a few chores and in that time

received news that a sick friend had pass from this life

into Heaven and all I could do was pray

as a tremendous wave of relief, joy and grief

washed over me...

As the sun rose glorious in the east she departed to

the land of endless day, endless health, endless joy and peace

Dear Penner family,

Rom.15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, 

so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Who knows what waits where welkin gates are drawn ajar by He

Who fills the air with mercy's flare for all humanity

Whose thoughts and ways none can appraise, beyond all mortal ken

Whose Name is Love; a Name above all other names. Amen

Who knows our cares and hears our prayers and saves us by His grace

Whose perfect will tries faith until we see Him face to face

Who does not leave our hearts to grieve without hope in the world

But comes to us and comforts us through promises unfurled

Who suffered too, and traveled through death's vale, but all alone

Who rose again; the curse of sin forever overthrown 

Who longs that all would heed His tender call 'come unto Me'

And trust His love to be enough for all eternity 

Whose glory spills in constant thrills and glimpses of Sublime 

These but the fringe; an earth-sky hinge on a hold we call Time  

Who gives and takes with no mistakes; each life a gift from He

Who knows our score of days before one of them comes to be 

God knows what waits where welkin gates are drawn ajar; rejoice

In gold and rose He overflows the heavens with His voice

Janet Martin

...and before I knew what was waiting in the wings of daybreak

this was the Scripture reading in my devotion from Our Daily Bread

Lam.3:22-33

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.

23 They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;

therefore I will wait for him.”

25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,

to the one who seeks him;

26 it is good to wait quietly

for the salvation of the Lord.

27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke

while he is young.

28 Let him sit alone in silence,

for the Lord has laid it on him.

29 Let him bury his face in the dust—

there may yet be hope.

30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,

and let him be filled with disgrace.

31 For no one is cast off

by the Lord forever.

32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,

so great is his unfailing love.

33 For he does not willingly bring affliction

or grief to anyone.

Where we'll never grow old by Jim Reeves with Lyrics

Divine Dialogue

2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 13

For the 2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge, 

poets write a poem a day in the month of November. 

Day 13 is to write a dialogue poem.

The Lord's Prayer (Our Father)

Dear Father up in Heaven

How can I give/live my best?

Just love and look and listen

And let Me do the rest

Dear Author of creation

How can I honour Thee?

Just learn to be more patient

And leave the rest to Me

Dear Lord of my salvation

How can my love reply?

Trust without explanation

And watch Me satisfy

Dear Father up in Heaven

I bow with heart undone

Because I am forgiven

Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son

Dear child, then do not worry

In every word and deed

My Kingdom, pow'r and glory

Grants everything you need

Janet Martin

...and He is before all things,

and by Him all things exist.

Col.1:17

An Apology Strictly Between Friends (for tea-dates still waiting to be)

For all my friends on the 

'we'll get together soon' list;

you know who you are!

Thank-you for your kind understanding

Friend, I have not forgotten you

Moments are in such high demand

And have a way of slipping through

The grasping/gasping flue of heart and hand

Like sparkling mists of diamond-sand

Friend, this is more than clanging gong

Or tinkling cymbal, when I say

We'll get together before long

And share an hour or a day 

As if Time had not slipped away

Friend, I am grateful for your love

And thankful that you understand

The tug and pull and push and shove

Of moments, in constant demand

And days that do not go as planned 

Friend, I have not forgotten you

And you have not forgotten me

Time has a way of slipping through

A week without apology

For tea-dates still waiting to be

Janet Martin

This week, fall cleaning is taking priority

because last fall and winter it just didn't happen...

My homemaking, housekeeping joy 

is in need of some dedicated organizing and polishing

and I know you all, also being homemakers and housekeepers,

 understand! And I am thankful!

To everything there is a time and season! 💖🙏

Like Silver Star-dust, Inked and Versed

2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 12

For the 2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge, 

poets write a poem a day in the month of November. 

Day 12 is to pick a color and write a poem.

Life is a train of moods like a string of beads,

and as we pass through them

they prove to be many-coloured lenses

which paint the world their own hue

and each shows only what lies in its focus...

~Ralph Waldo Emerson~ 

Through these many coloured lenses

poems are born...

Sometimes the poem glides and skims

The page with rainbow shards and hymns...

Sometimes the poem leaps and vaults

And turns cartwheels and somersaults 

And dazzles pages with a burst

Of silver star-dust, inked and versed 

Sometimes the poem sobs and groans

And seeps like a gray chill, through bones

And weeps upon the page that wears

The charcoal whispering of prayers 

Sometimes the poem glints and gleams

And rolls through laughter's joy like streams

Of gold, rushing the barren page

Through vistas of purple and sage

Sometimes the poem balks and scowls

Resisting consonants and vowels

The page, like a black thundercloud

The poet, broken, blind and bowed

Sometimes the poem glides and skims

The page with rainbow shards and hymns

And the blithe poet is immersed

In silver star-dust, inked and versed 

Janet Martin

To Form or Not To Form...That is the Question

2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 11

For the 2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge, 

poets write a poem a day in November. 

Day 11 is to write a poetic form and/or anti-form poem.

Some poetry adheres to form, like river-banks to curb a tide...

Some skim the surface for sun-pearls...

Some poetry adheres to form, like river-banks to curb a tide

That rushes like a gushing storm where folly and wisdom collide

Where we are at the mercy of the littleness of what we think 

Yet wild with wonderment and love for possibilities of ink

 

Sometimes hunger and thirst unfurls a torrential tug of war

That foams and frets, surges and swirls like floodwaters without a shore

Until meter and form command the chaos where thought's battles wage

And resistance melts in the hand that moves between the mind and page

Long live the age-old song and dance of sonnet, ballad, villanelle

Thy iambic lyric enchants the wanderer of parchment fell 

And kindles in fathoms of thought a fresh onslaught of noun and verb

To taunt Troubadour's jaunt and jot with font that only form can curb 

To thee of footloose fantasy and rebel to rhythm and rhyme 

Who prefer free verse odyssey to forms withstanding tests of time 

Blessings on thee, but do not scorn the poetry that lilts and brims 

And winds between the banks of form to storm thought's holy grail with hymns 

Form is not tyranny, my friend, nor superior to the spawn

Of fine and noble prose to bend the rules that form insists upon 

So, here's to every work of art wrought with humble regard for ink

And reverence for every heart touched by some littleness we think

Some poets love the challenge of surrendering to tempo-ties 

Like a tango where word-impassioned lover's clash and compromise 

Darling, the world of words unfurls ballrooms and oceanic sweeps

Some skim the surface for sun-pearls, some dredge its diamond-metered deeps 

 

Janet Martin

 

For This Is Life...

 

2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 10

For the 2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge, 

poets write a poem a day in the month of 

November. Day 10 is to write an advice poem.

Some of us love the snow.

Some do not!

Snow is much like anything else in life;

loved or loathed,

it comes to pass...

Saturday...

Sunday...

Monday...

Life's holy haste 

Of touch and taste

And twist and turn 

Of live and learn

And give and take 

Of sleep and wake

Is bound to test 

The worst and best 

Of us

With smiles and frowns

And ups and downs

With faith and fear's

Laughter and tears

With ebbs and flows

Of yes and noes 

Hellos, goodbyes

Low blows, high fives

And such

While daily dues

Of win and loose

Of rose and thorn

Nightfall and morn,

Of loss and gain,

Pleasure and pain

Of hit and miss

Of kick and kiss

Amass

Do not lose heart

Come sting and smart

Come rush or lull

Or push and pull

Or sun-rain-snow

Hold or let go

Hip-hip-hooray

Or gold or gray

Or wonder why

Or fall or fly...  

 For this is life;

Come joy, come strife

Be kind and true

Because this too

Shall pass

Janet Martin

Eccles.3:1-8

To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:

2A time [a]to be born,

And a time to die;

A time to plant,

And a time to pluck what is planted;

3A time to kill,

And a time to heal;

A time to break down,

And a time to build up;

4A time to weep,

And a time to laugh;

A time to mourn,

And a time to dance;

5A time to cast away stones,

And a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace,

And a time to refrain from embracing;

6A time to gain,

And a time to lose;

A time to keep,

And a time to throw away;

7A time to tear,

And a time to sew;

A time to keep silence,

And a time to speak;

8A time to love,

And a time to hate;

A time of war,

And a time of peace.

The Inexhaustible 'More' of God's Word

2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 8

For the 2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge, 

poets write a poem a day in the month of November. 

Day 8 is to write a more poem...

Ps.139:17-18

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!

How great is the sum of them!

If I should count them, 

they would be more in number than the sand;

When I awake, I am still with You.

As I puttered about the house, doing Saturday tasks

like muffin-making...

...I listened to the beautiful funeral message for Cecil Shoemaker,

(someone with close ties to many people we know)

who passed in the blink of an eye, from Time into Eternity.

In my own grief-journey I often marvel 

at the sweetness of joy to comfort sorrow,

as the death of a loved one who has received

the gift of salvation when they put their faith in Jesus,

transports them to the presence of God. 

What joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet.1:8

fills the aching void!

I am so thankful for the Word of God

filled with truths that will never fail!

Every Christian, regardless of denomination

turns to the same Word of God

to be taught and encouraged etc. 

Because...

What hope the Word of God secures

In a world plagued with sin

What peace the Word of God assures

To all who trust in Him

What grace the Word of God proclaims

To save the deathless soul

And spare us from eternal flames

As endless ages roll 

What joy the Word of God bestows

To all who love his law

What wealth of wisdom overflows

What height and depth of awe

What truth the Word of God makes known

To calm confusion's gale 

Truth's Everlasting Cornerstone

Will never shift or fail

What might the Word of God instills

With power from on high

All He has promised He fulfills

His decrees never lie

What help the Word of God supplies

What answer to our prayers

Enough to know He hears our cries

Enough to know He cares

What worth the Word of God unveils

We cannot comprehend

Love and mercy that never fails

Purpose no one can bend

What cheer the Word of God imparts

He comforts us. Amen

Bringing courage to fainting hearts

To strengthen faith again 

God's Word is a light to the world

A beacon undeterred 

The path of righteousness unfurled

Through the light of His Word 

God's word is faithful to correct

Exhort, safeguard and guide

 Oh, pray that we do not reject

 His Presence to preside 

What love the Word of God confirms

Proved through salvation's price

What merciful, relentless terms

Succeeds His sacrifice

What life the Word of God commands

What confidence in death

To rest assured within the Hands 

Who hold/made Heaven and earth

What praise the word of God inspires

He paid salvation's cost

Because He utterly desires

That not one soul be lost

What more and more the Word of God

Reveals to all who seek

His holy, just judgment, unflawed

To satisfy the meek

The more we seek the more we find

Humbler, purer delight

As God equips heart, soul and mind 

To walk by faith, not sight

Janet Martin

1 Pet.1:22-25

22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth 

[i]through the Spirit in [j]sincere love of the brethren,

 love one another fervently with a pure heart, 

23 having been born again, not of [k]corruptible seed but [l]incorruptible,

 through the word of God which lives and abides [m]forever, 

24 because

“All flesh is as grass,

And all [n]the glory of man as the flower of the grass.

The grass withers,

And its flower falls away,

25 But the [o]word of the Lord endures forever.”

Some Days Rain Gold...

One of my favourite fall things; Cortland apples!

I began this poem yesterday as I laughed out loud 

as I attempted to balance backdrops never exposed 

on the page where a poem serenely rests.

Yesterday morning's poem backdrop;

I put in a load of laundry first thing in the morning. 

Later, as I walked to the washing machine to change the load 

I stepped on a little toy car I didn't see and the next thing I knew

I was sitting in a puddle of  'Sie-shlop' aka pig-slop/compost scraps.

Why?!!

 because the night before after I got home kinda late, 

then, after calling Jim (truckdriver husband),

 I decided I can't leave the kitchen all in a mess 

so I did the dishes, piled in the sink

 because of some more pressing things that needed doing 

after kiddos left, before leaving for Small Group,

 (aka church Bible Study/encourage each other group)

but because it was almost midnight I decided to set the compost bowl 

on the laundry room floor till morning--

and that's where I landed, in a big puddle of  'YUCK!'

I cleaned up midst phone calls and texts like 'can you use carrots?'

so I paused to pop over to my sister's house to pick them up

  then, since I was on the road I stopped by Orchard Lane 

(local country store) to get some apples before their Cortland apple bin is empty,

and THEN, I returned home to finish the poem still in progress 😅

I snapped this photo at my sister's place

when I picked up the carrots.

It was raining gold!

 Stunning.

Behind the ink that spills love's verse

We weather life's for better-worse

Where thrills and spills erupt and merge

In medleys of delight and dirge

So then, let's be more patient, dears

Nothing is quite as it appears

Some days are smiles and some are frowns

Life's miles, a purge/surge of ups and downs 

Sometimes life is warm handshake

A cup of tea, a slice of cake

Sometimes it is a fist, clenched, mean

A ka-pow where wide smiles had been

Behind the part that meets our eyes 

A hidden world of learning lies

The ink that spills in poetry

Culled from so much we never see

In life's poetry, still unpenned

Let's treat people we meet, as friend

Because of backdrops hid from view

Some days rain gold, some cold gray-blue 

 

Janet Martin

Today is a mingling of cold gray and culled gold...