Thursday, April 25, 2019

But Then Always May...


A few days ago hubby remarked to me that in two months the days will start to get shorter 
and we are still waiting for weather to turn spring-like! 
At this point I think we would settle for anything in double-digits Celsius for a few days in a row!



Earth is an egg waiting to be cracked
Nature agog with the life it had lacked
April is always a bit of a tease
Driving hope wild with her billowing breeze

Hunger feeds on flower-gardens of thought
Dreamlands run rife with forget-me-not
Hollow the wind through the wooing world wings
Looking for lyrics barred in budded strings

I spy the whisper of green, virgin green
Seeping through deeps where threadbare sweeps had been
April is always a slow work of art
Playing with colors of weather and heart

Soon we will slip from the grip of the gale
Watch as a fleet of sweet blossoms sets sail
Soon we will wade in jade silver-starred streams
April is always a river of dreams

Soon Spring will fling violets to field and dell
Soon on yon hill will chime the jonquil bell
Soon trees will burst with a hip-hip-hooray
April is always first, but then always May

© Janet Martin 

After seeing the forecast I/we decided to spend the day outside ! 







Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Complete Confidence

PAD Challenge 24: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Complete (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then write your poem.




My dear, we are not on our own
(Although some days it may seem so)
The One who frames soul’s skin and bone
Is with us wherever we go

Then, when we feel a little small
Beside life’s tall mountain or task
He waits to help us through it all
And all we need to do is ask

© Janet Martin



 Philippians 4:13
 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

To My Family and Friends (with my blessing)

PAD Challenge 23: Time for our fourth (but not final) Two for Tuesday of the month! 
Pick one prompt or use both…your choice! 

  1. Write a free poem.
  2. Write a not free poem.

 Seems everything I dream is part of you...



You have taken (with my blessing)
What I used to call ‘me free time’
You make me feel undeserving
Of love's (often uphill) climb

Strange how we change what we wish for
From footloose and fancy-free
To the best life has to offer
When love turns ‘me’ into ‘we’

Once upon a long-gone freedom
I would dread The To-do List
That was before you and me and
All the love we would have missed

Love fills up life’s cup of laughter
And because not much is free
Love drains all but echoes after
Life turns time to memory

Keep on taking (with my blessing)
The 'me free time' I hear tell of
Because after Us there's nothing
I would rather have than love


© Janet Martin

As long as we love
there will always be
So much to do
and so little time!

Monday, April 22, 2019

Dear Father Time

PAD Challenge day 22: For today’s prompt, write a correspondence poem.

A new baby(for us a grand-daughter)
 always re-impacts me with the penmanship of Father Time...

photo credit: Brittany Ruppert




Dear Father Time, my, but your ink runs wild
I am grandmother yet I'm still a child
Beneath your touch, always fluent and firm
So much to let go and so much to learn
Salt-seasoned reasons to live, love and laugh
Beneath the flourish of your autograph
While round and round your carousel twirls
Slipping strange costumes over little girls
Bound to the beauty of duty and rhyme
Found in the truth of you, dear Father Time


Teach me to cherish the stroke of your pen
Teach me to teach morrow’s women and men
Teach me to walk, not weighed down with Unknown
But plant my feet on the street you set down
Now, drinking deep from the well of your ink
While a life-story is spilling its wink
While glory-days are not some far-off Thing
But the soft flutter, like butterfly’s wing
So, teach me to reach for flowers blooming grand
Dear Father Time, in the hours at hand



© Janet Martin