My Heart-art Collection

Poetics Aside Prompt: Write a poem about something you collect (or would collect if you could).

I collect original pieces of art

Displayed in galleries of my heart

I’ve seen the color of love’s soft sigh

Blend with tears of hello and good-bye

I’ve kept the bittersweet, beautiful ache

That only the pigment of love can make

I seal the echo of summer’s faint call

Where oceans of memory rise and fall

The spectrum of love’s vast and vivid display

Steals both my breath and my years away

Oh can't you hear that plaintive chant?

Of moments as they lilt and dance

...tuning the corridors of the heart

As we marvel at love's treasured works of art

© Janet Martin

 

First Snow-fall...a wordle challenge

It fell on earth’s lethargy

A crystalline sash

Held on the garnet

Of mountain ash

The earth is still

Where autumnal heap

Of russet fleck

And farewells sleep

The scent of Christmas

Begins to fill

Our thoughts with hope

Peace and goodwill

Somewhere above

Earth’s snow-skimmed bend

Our load of trouble

Will come to end

But for now

Heaven pleases our sight

As autumn is bedded

In snow tonight

Where laden spruce

And hemlocks sway

And autumn’s girth

Is tucked away

© Janet Martin

Words from the Sunday Whirl: fell, held, still, fill, heap, fleck, skimmed, sway, end, load, scent, sight

Opposite Poem...from Why Is It? to It Is This Way

Poetics Aside Prompt: Write an opposite poem. That is, write a poem with the opposite perspective, conclusion, or form of a prior poem in the month.

 

Why is it

When we shake our fists at God

We forget

To unclench our fingers

And stare at our palms…

…are there nail scars there?

Why is it

That we hunger and thirst

For crumbs on the floor

When the Banquet Feast

Is prepared and ready to serve

On the table

Why is it

That even as we cry ‘all is grace’

Doubt is an evil serpent

With fangs gaping

And all we can do is cry

‘I believe’

And ‘help my unbelief’?

Why is it

When our mouths hemorrhage with curses

We forget;

The one thing we can never utter

Is redemption

His final words

Before He died

Why is it

That we choose to

Die of thirst

in the wilderness

Beside a well

Of Living Water?

 Opposite...

It is this way…

When we quiet our thoughts

We remember

As we fold our hands

To see His palms

And the nail-scars there…

It is this way…

Though we deserve to starve

Even His crumbs are a miracle

And the feast on the Table

Never depletes

It is enough

It is this way

Even as we cry ‘why’?

Faith is the wonder

Of things heavenly

Succoring our disbelief

With power that

Can never be explained

It is this way…

As our hearts shape His praises

We remember

The fullness of Him

From our pitiful state

He saves us

It is this way…

His love for our hate

His Bread for our hunger

His Water for our thirst

Eternal life, through Him

In place of death

© Janet Martin

Prelude to the Pinnacle

They were in that envious tangle

Of 'young

And in love

For the very first time'

We are in that middle-age mind-jolt

Of 'the older

We get

The shorter the climb'

© Janet Martin

Camoflouged Cascade

A moment is not always what it seems

Sometimes the bad leads to the good

And the unfolding of our dreams

To taste success, if it comes and when

After disappointment and dedication

Will be much sweeter then

A moment is not what it may appear

Trial is the prelude to wisdom's crown

And joy forms the mien of the tear

Moments never sever from their flow

In their trial and error discourse

We learn what now we know

Moments; obscure morsels of God's grace

In them we fall and flounder

And in them we win the race

© Janet Martin

For What?

For what I ask,

For what?

Is this life

A race

To naught?

Nay, nay, I say

Oh nay!

It is to laugh

And love

And pray

© Janet Martin

The Truth about Me

 

Poetics Aside Prompt: Take the phrase “The Truth About (blank),” replace the blank with a new word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the poem.

I’m not very complicated

Ordinary; yes, that’s me

But darling, fame is over-rated

I prefer simplicity

One would think simplicity

Is quite easy to maintain

But it takes purposed resolution

In this era bent on gain

God forbid that I will squander

In the driven lust for things

The purest offerings of His wonder

Set before us; fit for kings

© Janet Martin

Cut to the Quick

 

Cut to the quick

By your half-grin

And all that

Words can

Never say…

Cut to the quick

Oh darling,

Who knew

Love could hurt

This way?

Cut to the quick

By whispered nothings

Held in

Prelude

To your kiss

Cut to the quick

Oh my darling

Love is a

Double-edged

Bliss

© Janet Martin