Come Over For Tea

PAD Challenge day 27: For today’s prompt, pick a direction, make that the title of your poem, 

and then, write your poem. There are so many directions: north, south, up, down, left, right, over, under, etc. But there are also more specific directions like “Across the Way,” “Through the Woods,” and “Beyond the Clearing.” 

Or give directions like “Clean Your Room,” “Tie Your Shoes,” or “Get Over Here.”

( today's outdoor tea unfortunately includes mittens and a wind warning!)

I’ll put the kettle on

With sweet treat on the side

And we will pull our chairs beneath

A wreath of blue sky-wide

Then as the hour flows

Through careworn taste and touch

We’ll chat about the way time goes

And love and life and such

For tea is less the tea

Or where we choose to sit

And more about the company

We keep while sipping it

And while we pour the brew

Of first, then second cup

We’ll pour a bit of heart out too

And cheer each other up

…where thrill and spill and ill

Will always have its way

Where hurt and hope fill and refill

Without a holiday

…where life, whatever bend

The up or down might be

Is all ways best shared with a friend

Over a cup of tea

© Janet Martin

 

Living the Dance

 Do you ever get the feeling this time of year when the earth is sheer and clean...

to twirl, light as feather across its floor like a graceful dancing queen?

 (but when I try to fit my feet to my fancy, rather than dancing
 it's more like a bumbling, stumbling, tumbling lurch;-)

Like a ballroom swept and polished

Gleams the earth, after the rain

Makes one want to twirl and sashay

‘cross the yard and back again

Makes one wish for wings to waft where

Birds and butterflies flit by

But I’ll settle for a soft chair

Of green grass beneath blue sky

Beauty is free for the making

Wonder is a world-wide art

Moments are like primed buds breaking

Into gardens of the heart

Always on the verge of morrow

Time soon sets today adrift

No one can afford to borrow

More than now’s momentous gift

Sailing, sloughing, slipping, sighing

Over seas of seasoned sod

Breath-by-breath living and dying

In a ballroom held by God

© Janet Martin

Because The Best Things In Life Are Free...

This was going to be a poem for the prompt the other day but due to very on/off internet 

and very busy schedule it didn't happen. the internet is still weak at best. 

(Hoping it will work out the kinks on its own...)

also to add to blogging discouragement is a camera that only half-works 

so I'm borrowing another photo taken by my niece Brittany Ruppert

On a brighter note...enough baby-cuddles to make everything else worth it!

Have you ever had to pay

For a smile

Or a stroll in a

Warm summer rain

Or an entrance fee

To the free-flung isle

Where new day spills

A pink and golden train

Did you ever buy

The blue sky overhead

Or tickets

To nature’s symphony

Of brook-bird-breeze

Or the buzzing, busy bees

Or the soft, lisping lyric

In the tree

Or the hymn in the dimming of the day

Or the wild-flower garden at our feet

Or the awesome color-wheel of mauve-crimson-teal

On yon fringe where earth and heaven meet

Or the giggle or the grin of a child

Or the hush of a white wonder-world

Or the croon of a dove or the moon hung above

But beneath the Milky Way unfurled

Or the sheen of the greenest green of all

As earth dons shawls and frocks and frills

Or the trill of the lark or the still after dark

Or the way day empties and refills

Have you ever had to pay

For a hug

Or the tug when

Your heart-cup overflows

Or an entrance fee

To the perfect company

Of a baby with a

Little button nose…

© Janet Martin

 

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 ! 

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.