Before The Music Fades

PAD Challenge day 18: For today’s prompt, write a music poem. 

 I had the pleasure of hearing the K-W symphony perform this past weekend...

Here's bit of a blurry glimpse as the musicians took their places...

(obviously no cameras allowed after it begins)

Music reminds me we are all part of a great orchestra!

Arise, the day is dawning

Time does not skip a beat

The Maestro of the morning

Unfolds a music sheet

Where notes of joy and sorrow

Compose a veiled array

As the drum roll of morrow

Becomes the break of day

Come; take your place of honor

The Leader of the band

Is a Flawless Conductor

So focus on His Hand

For we hear but a section

But He who whets the dawn

Will blend into perfection

Our noise with His baton

Hark, on the dark horizon

A prelude starts to play

Pink flush frays the plush ribbon

That held earth’s stage at bay

Then, as the curtain rises

Into the firmament

Hope, in all shapes and sizes

Picks up its instrument

Ah, soul-sacred concerto

Of both ballad and dirge

While tick-tock metes the tempo

As anthems ebb and surge

Pray  that far more than Duty

Tunes blues and serenades

So we can hear the beauty

Before the music fades

© Janet Martin

 1 Chronicles 16:23
Sing to the LORD, all the earth. Proclaim His salvation day after day.

Romans 15:11
And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people.

Free Access

 PAD Challenge day 17: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Free (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.

 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, 

because he will save his people from their sins."

Matt 1:21

Zach Williams...
It was an honor performing #ThereWasJesus at the 2019 #CMAAwards with Dolly Parton! 

Listen to the rest of the album here: https://ZachWilliams.lnk.to/RescueSto...

Because the price was paid

By Christ at Calvary

We may approach with confidence

The one who set us free

Despair is like a noose

Of unbelief in He

Who cut the chains to Hades loose

And set the captive set free

Free to pass through The Door

To the Most Holy Place

Never by what or who we are;

It is a gift of grace

Because the price was paid

By Christ at Calvary

Where restitution has been made

Therefore access is free

© Janet Martin

 Romans 5:1-5

 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, 

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand; 

and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, 

because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

perseverance, character; and character, hope.

And hope does not disappoint us, 

because God has poured out His love into our hearts 

through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

Free Reign/Rein

 PAD Challenge day 17: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Free (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.

When thought breaks bounds of order and is given full, free rein/reign

It finds our greatest weakness glaring like a crack of light

The lure of feeling’s fancy trolls a dark and dangerous vein

Craving's belly growls with an insatiable appetite

When want, the author of Excuse’s Fine Soliloquy

Stamps longing with approval, driving discernment amuck

The mastermind of mayhem, dressed in fool’s-gold finery

Seduces us with images of opulence and luck

When thought, ungoverned roams footloose and feckless as the dust

It leads us into places even angels fear to tread

The idle mind, a playground for the lawlessness of lust

The hunger in its hollow raving mad, though fed and fed

When thought, not taken captive wanders where it should not go

It falls prey to the enemy bent on ruin and loss

Where we all would be finished, but for He who loves us so

And guards thought through subjection to the power of the cross

© Janet Martin

 The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world.

 Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

 We tear down arguments, and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God;

and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

2 Cor.10:4-5

Free Fortune

 PAD Challenge day 17: For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Free (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.

A fissure in yon vault

Expands, ruby and gold

Like music, flows into a waltz

That heaven cannot hold

A whisper shatters deeps

Renewal gathers sway

And draws from dust and ashen heaps

Hope’s phoenix of new day

The friendships we released

As darkness set its seal

Arranges a fantastic feast 

Of mercies to reveal

© Janet Martin

Jeremiah's (and our) hope...

 Because of the LORD’s loving devotion we are not consumed, 

for His compassions never fail.

 They are new every morning; 

great is your faithfulness.

Lam.3:22-23

An Uncommon Sense...

 WE on the northeast-west side of the veil are 'enjoying' an early winter wonderland...

Time’s veil that hangs twixt God and man and keeps faith fraught with prayer

Keens an uncommon sense of more-than-duty to perform

How sacred are these steppingstone that hold our weight of care

Set with divine precision through hope’s battlefield and storm

Time’s veil, as sheer as air and yet no stare can penetrate

To see what lies beyond its wanting scope of sight and sound

Where what precedes the passing through exceeds this mortal crate

And puts us all together on need’s very common ground

Time's veil, so frail where blood-sweat-tears are shed repeatedly

Where centuries are laid to naught on this side of the grave

Yet all are but a dot compared to the eternity

That none can comprehend and all will be called on to brave

Time’s veil, lowered so we can only sense the face of God

So near, so very near, one mere half-breath will rend its string

Then face to face, immortal will replace this mortal clod

As sense becomes the substance of the faith to which we cling

© Janet Martin

 
Psalm 39:5
You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, 

and my lifetime as nothing before You. 

Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. 

Selah