Monday, April 22, 2019

Sacred Sketch-pad

PAD Challenge say 21: For today’s prompt, write a sketch poem. 

Yesterday's 'sketch-pad' groaned with laden tables 
lovingly furnished by a fantastic cook; my sister-in-law! 
Easter celebrations included much precious family time
celebrating Something/Someone nothing/no one can erase;

 "Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. 
Let nothing move you. 
Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord,
 because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
1 Cor.15:58 
Today's sketch-pad wears more modest Musts but with Sacred Purpose.
Praying His wonder to thunder through our blunders today!




Soft, as darkness dims to gray
Spreads the canvas of new day
Lend-ed to this earthy race
From a splendid hand of grace
Where dawn’s orchestra of Light
Fills these frames of faith with sight

Creator and creature meet
On Time’s featured music-sheet
Thought and deed’s intrinsic font
Wakes the war of will and want
Where the page soon wears love’s voice
God within unveiled through choice

Soft, on crofts of borrowed Here
Mingles dust of trust and tear
Where the artist and the art
Wrangle, torn twixt head and heart
Aware of the dye that flows
Through Time’s Certain Curtain Close

© Janet Martin



Sunday, April 21, 2019

An Easter Exaltation Hymn


 The song below is an Easter Tradition on this blog.
Join in this hymn and worship Him for 
He is not here but is risen!
 Matt.28:9


Trade your tears for exultation
Join the charge angels employ
Worship the God of salvation
Turn your grief to songs of joy

Hail the Lord of earth and heaven
Join creation with each breath
Gone the curse that ended Eden
Jesus triumphs over Death

Let the Love of He who loved us
Enough to offer His Son
To be sin’s sacrifice for us
Stir our love for everyone

Jesus lives; man’s sin forgiven
Broke the bondage of the grave
Saviour of the World is risen
Praise the One who came to save

“It is finished” ends His mission
Resurrection proves His Might
Turns the Hour of contrition
Into victory and Light

Trade your tears for exaltation
Join the charge angels employ
Worship the God of salvation
Turn your life to songs of joy

© Janet Martin

Saturday, April 20, 2019

Dark Days...



The empty cross stuns His beloved
Sadly they turn away
Grief-stricken, shocked, homeward they trod
With nothing left to say

Their Lord and Master crucified
Before their very eyes
Then taken to the tomb where guards
Protect their ‘lifeless prize’

And did his followers replay
Yesterday’s hate-mad hours
And wonder why He held at bay
His miracle-rife powers

So much they do not understand
So much they can’t explain
Did they mistake the words He said?
Did they believe in vain?

Duty and love bid them begin
The tender tasks of death
The spices for the body and
Tears mingled with each breath…

© Janet Martin

Piercing The Fiercest Dark...


 PAD Challenge day 20; For today’s prompt, write a dark poem. 

How brief the leaf of lilt and rhyme
If it feeds nothing more than Time...
How dull the tug and pull of heart
If it feels nothing more than art


What good the blood of poet’s pen
What merit its cajole
If not to rouse the thoughts of men
To Jot’s Ultimate Goal

How futile Fancy’s flares of ink
-lit worlds beneath our skin
If not to stir Him-Her to think
About the soul within

How vain the pain of poem-birth
A vixen and a fraud
If not to fill heaven and earth
With love and awe of God

How trite the blighted swirl and arc
Of alphabetic flight
If not to pierce the fiercest dark
With Love’s poetic Light
 

© Janet Martin

The Darkest Darkness of All

PAD Challenge day 20; For today’s prompt, write a dark poem. 

This was not a fun poem to write!
Oh, the darkest darkness of all is surely Spiritual Darkness
where Satan who has vowed vengeance through seduction of souls, rules.

Below, an excerpt from John Milton's Epic; Paradise Lost As Satan sees his fate...



Ah, cup of sorrow’s bitter draught
Ah, darkness of hope lost
Ah, longing for those days we laughed
Before the Door was locked

Ah, dread that weighs the heart with fear
Ah, fear, dark screams its cries
Ah, cold and comfortless the tear
That none can cheer with lies

Ah, darkness of eternity
Where demon-hordes applaud
As Soul meets death’s calamity
Unprepared to meet God

© Janet Martin


 
John 3:19
And this is the verdict:
The Light has come into the world,
but men loved the darkness rather than the Light,
because their deeds were evil.

John 8:12
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said,
 "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness,
 but will have the light of life."


John 12:35
Then Jesus told them, "For a little while longer, the Light will be among you. 
Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you.
 The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.