Poetic Peregrination...

PAD Challenge day 25: For today’s prompt, pick an intriguing and/or seldom-used word, make it the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. 

Be Careful what you pray for. 

It might just lead you on a poetic peregrination
 

( Re-sharing to new readers what I shared almost four years ago on Nov. 12, 2014)

 ...in case you wonder  'does she suffer from a case of poetic insanity?!'

here is my permission slip😉

I really felt a need to know if writing poetry was Time well spent 

and was it really what God  wanted of me or simply something I chose.

On my knees I begged God to please, please

 somehow, reveal His will/blessing regarding this!

 (full story here)

After praying and deciding to wait to write again until I sensed His 'yes'

 I picked up a book on my night-table, purchased the week before at a Thrift Store;

a compilation of poetry and prose by many authors.

I flipped through wondering where to start so I chose The Preface (not something I normally did)

This was the first line I read; it felt like God stood in the room holding the book open to this page!!!

 Here is the full page...(click on image to enlarge)

 ...so then and there I vowed to be faithful to The Call for as long as He provides 'ink for the quill'

There are evenings when I am CERTAIN the well is parched

but then He flings out a fresh misty-marmalade morning full of 

...poetry waiting to be written! 

By the grace of God for His Glory, (some days better than others)

 hopefully we all go with this in mind...

...As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use  

whatever gift he has received to serve one another. 

 If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God.

 If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God supplies, 

so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, 

to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever. 

Amen.…

1 Pet.4:10-11 

Permission thus, to all of us

To give the Best We Can

Not to glorify Self

But to serve God

and fellowman

Permission to enjoy the view

Be it in sun or shade

One thing we have in common

is this day

The Lord has made

Each high and low of 'yes' and 'no'

in Erst-while's entourage

Is but the grace whereby

you-I 

commit to His 'Because'

The Giver of our live-laugh-love

In due season will ask

If, with the gifts He granted,

Were we

Faithful to the task?  

Janet Martin~

Calignosity

PAD Challenge 25: For today’s prompt, pick an intriguing and/or seldom-used word, make it the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. If you have a limited vocabulary, try out brabble, dandle, feracious, impavid, lippitude, or vulgus. Or pick up a dictionary or thesaurus.

Judy shared this quote in her post the other day;

 “Be kind; everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle” (Ian MacLaren)

 We have to climb the mountain...

 Before we can enjoy the view!

 Some people wear their crown of thorns, not on their heads but on their hearts... 

 One thing we ALL have access to is The Grace that leads us Home!

 We can be so wrong about people and what we think their life is like;

the things they do not wear on their sleeves might deceive us into thinking 

where we have Uphill Second Miles they have Easy Street! 

...until they perhaps confide a hidden hurt and we realize;

We are all fighting a hard battle! Be kind.

The Calignosity of Sight does not unveil The Fight~

What They do not wear on their sleeves may deceive

Our eyes with a sly sleight of guesses

And we might be prone to think we’re all alone

In our short-change of happinesses

We start to believe by the puff of their sleeve

That the ‘stuff’ love is born to suffer

Has heaped to our care more than mercy’s fair share

Of second-mile ‘love one another’

We might think the ink that shapes their legacy

Smiles wide as it spills finest fortune

While our own amount of blessings we count

Is doled out in more meager portion

What we do not know by what They choose to show

Might kindle a woe-is-me fire

When, in reality Their battle might be

Anything but what we would desire

© Janet Martin

On Second Thought (taught by disaster after First Thought)

I first heard this song last week although it is a few years old...I like it!

It fits in well with a message I listened to this morning...

(listening to this might be the most life-changing 25 min. you ever spend!)

  

Sometimes we just have to brush the dirt of hurt off our hearts a little and

focus on how much God loves us and He helps us forgive others
and ourselves for mistakes made!
(one of the most comforting lines for me in the above message;
"'How do we learn? We learn by making mistakes!" )

When second thought comes after the disasters that ensue

Because we disregard the One who authored me and you

…who wove the treasure-trove cupped in a bitty bud, and kenned

Each star in galaxies so vast no mind can comprehend

…who ushered breath to life and suffered Death to conquer hell

Who took upon himself the debt we owed but could not quell

Who knew salvation’s plan before He drew man’s dust-to-dust

And hewed No Easy Exodus but bore Love’s Awful Must

Who never shuts his eyes, though, oh, we grieve Him, grieve Him so

When we believe the lies of one who wanders to and fro

And seek souls to devour; Death and Hell cloaked in fine fare

The prince of darkness dressed like an angel of light; beware

…and then when second thought (after first thought suffers defeat)

Repents in humble sorrow before Heaven’s mercy-seat

Then God who loves, forgives and remembers our guilt no more

Will grant us grace to carry on, much wiser than before

© Janet Martin

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Heb.4:12

May Hip-hooray Hip-Hip For-May

PAD Challenge day 24:
Closing in on the finish line of another April Poem-A-Day Challenge, so today I’m upping the stakes for anyone who wants an extra challenge!

For today’s Two-for-Tuesday prompt:

1. Write a roundelay. Guidelines here. Or…
2. Write an anti-form poem.

 Some snippets of spent May-day Hip-hoorays! (and my first attempt at writing a roundelay)

 Ontario-ans are pinning their hopes on May for a big "hip-hip-hooray" when it comes to weather!

Earth dons a robe fit for a king

The orchard dons pink-petal gilt

The bud dons bloom where robins sing

The meadow-brook dons silver lilt

The heart dons hope once more as spring

Tucks winter ‘neath a flower-quilt

The bud dons bloom where robins sing

The meadow-brook dons silver lilt

The woodland’s lofty belfries ring

With hymns that broken bud-harps spilt

The heart dons hope once more as spring

Tucks winter ‘neath a flower-quilt

The woodland’s lofty belfries ring

With hymns that broken bud-harps spilt

Across the dross of death grace flings

A breath of life to dreams rebuilt

The heart dons hope once more as spring

Tucks winter ‘neath a flower-quilt

Across the dross of death grace flings

A breath of life to dreams rebuilt

Earth dons a robe fit for a king

The orchard dons pink-petal gilt

The heart dons hope once more as spring

Tucks winter ‘neath a flower-quilt

© Janet Martin

Human G-r-r-r-Race

PAD Challenge 23: For today’s prompt, write an action poem. So many actions are available to the poet: singing, running, clapping, working, and–umm–poeming. 

Yes, there’s a world of possibility today–all ready to act.

Some call it a rat-race, some call it a drag

Where God unfurls morning like a heaven-flag

To we, privileged partakers of give and take

Soul heir, but not sole heir to choices we make

How soft through our touch slips the silk ilk of Day

It authors our Oh-no and hip-hip-hooray

That some call a rat-race and some call a drag

Some stumble, more humble; some coast, gloat and brag

Some take all they can and not once tip their hat

To the Higher Hand that grants life’s This and That

Some live love-astonished by His unrestraint

While some run nerves ragged with constant complaint

Some call it pure luck and some call it pure grace

This dust-to-dust Must of hope-trust human race

But what-who-where-when and however we be

Time is but the throughway to Eternity

© Janet Martin

  Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, 

as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 

1 Pet.4:10