We Laugh A Lot (among other things)

Sorrow will have its say

Time will have its way

Thank God for each serving from

Laughter's silver tray...

Something about mourning keens our senses 

to the immense wealth of simple things...

We open our hearts and arms to embrace

the moment, for Time guarantees nothing but its end!

This week had lots of messy moments,

but something about loss puts fresh perspective on

life's messes...especially if they're as easy to clean up as

chocolate-y faces or spilled tea, 

We laugh a lot

Though some prayers,

Still unanswered, stand in the room

Like an elephant

While we come to terms

Each in our own way, with

What we can control

And what we can’t

We work at Becoming

For He who has begun

His Promised Perfection is

Not finished yet

Sometimes we need

Undesired reminders

From Divine Authority

Lest we forget

Some laws, though

Initially inspired and

Intended to

Care and Respect

Are wrong, and sadly

In the end they

Damage (or kill) the very people

They sought to protect

Each step we take

Diminishes the

Distance between

What is seen and What Is Not

Taking God at His Word

Is the only chance

At lasting happiness

That anybody has got

We laugh between hurt-spurts 

That hone awareness of

Skin and bone heart-carts

Trundling, full of need 

We should not be slack

Concerning the promises

That we should give

Our uttermost heed

© Janet Martin

(puppy's repentance after being scolded

for giving Little Girl too many 'sloppy kisses'!)

Because neighbor's puppy is still a 'kid'

he happily disregards his owner's calls to 'come here!'

(with our assurance that it's okay)😊

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, 

and comes down from the Father of lights, 

with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

James 1:17

Get a Daily Dose of Gladness

PAD Challenge day 10:For today's prompt, take the phrase "Get (blank),"

replace the blank with a word or phrase,

make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.

Get your face close to a flower...

Get a book, bev’rage and blanket

Lie beneath blue-sky hurrah...

Get a daily dose of gladness

Let it thrill you thoroughly

It will help dispel the sadness

And the madness that must be

Get your face close to a flower

Inhale heaven’s spilled perfume

Let the wonder of God’s power

Thunder from earth’s petal-loom

Get yourself some sweet spring fever

Face the future with a smile

Winter didn't last forever

Keep the faith though fears beguile

Forget about worry’s maybes

Trust the grace whereby we go

Sing and pray and cuddle babies

Praise God from whom blessings flow

Get a book, bev’rage and blanket

Lie beneath blue-sky hurrah

Let life’s reasons to be thankful

Grant a daily dose of awe

© Janet Martin

Get In The Habit of Writing Your Own Headlines

PAD Challenge day 10:For today's prompt, take the phrase "Get (blank),"

replace the blank with a word or phrase,

make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.

It’s not the media that writes the headlines of our lives

We are the ink of love’s insights; of joy which hope derives

We choose between fear’s torment or the strength of a wise word

We make the most or least of moments pouring undeterred

It’s not the world that works its wonders in the human heart

But grace and courtesy unfurled in priceless works of art

We are the hands and feet that author change we want to see

Of helping one another, of love’s vows kept faithfully

It’s not the headlines that dictate our state of happiness

We are the writers that create ‘Front Page-worthy Kindness’

It’s not the media that writes the way that we reply

To high and lows of love and life; oh no, it’s you and I

It all comes down to this; whether we are thankful or not

Whether we let the tether of fear commandeer our thought

Whether we hold accountable the person in the mirror

To write the kind of article that others want to hear 

History in the making grants a very sacred gift

The honour of partaking in moments soon set adrift

Pray when Day's Dust of Duty strews its aftermath, we find

Headlines that tell of Beauty of True Love For Humankind 

© Janet Martin

A few of yesterday's headlines in my world include;

Grandchildren Help Gramma Clean Up Yard...

Gramma Teaches Tots How To Make Indoor Smores...

Anonymous Angels Who Nominated Unsuspecting Recipients,

 And Hardworking Local Florist (credit posted on FB only for privacy protection)

 Work Together To Create Happiness For Forty Surprised Flower-bouquet Receivers!!

(I was beautifully blessed to be at the receiving end!)

This post shared by a friend on Facebook inspired the above poem...

Persona Poemlets

PAD Challenge  day 9:

For today's prompt, write a persona poem for an inanimate object. 

A persona poem is when you write a poem in the voice of someone 

(or in this case something) else.

you touch me

but without much feeling

run your fingers left, 

then right

I, beneath

thought's stoked appealing

try to tame

the appetite

of a writer's 

wild obsession

as ink-pictures spill their art

I, only a humble keyboard

yet a window 

to the heart

***

I keep everyone's best secrets

'oh, the things that I have heard!'

I don't think you would believe it

If I told you, word for word

Dreamer's rave and plotter's vengeance

Lover's quarrels, hope's hard knock

All are guarded in my presence

Because, my dear, walls don't talk

***

All winter long you gaped and stared 

Half-smitten by my barren form,

Half, in pity as you watched me

Weather the toss of each storm

But now winter's war is over

Here I stand about to steal

The gaze and hearts of nature lovers

Waiting for spring's grand reveal

I spread my sun-warm arms, and suddenly

I pity those who only see A Tree

***

Break me, 

take me

between your fingers

Let your touch linger

as I run through

winter-weary

want and wonder

Plant me full

of green, gold, blue

pink and purple

orange, double-

zinnias, vegetable

buffet

press the tress

of rippling wheat field

into my, 

yet fallow clay...

break me, 

wake me with

seed whispers

Feel the thunder

in my loom

I am earth

The cradle of birth

I am earth

both womb

and tomb

Maybe I'll be back later to try a few more,

but maybe not!

Gramma and grand-sonny day today!

Longing For What Seems Lost (a Covid-Weary Canadian's Nostalgic Lament)

I had no idea just how precious the ordinary was

before everything changed!

How beautiful the cleated feet of players, baseball-proud

How wonderful are words like, ‘could I have a refill, please?’

How lovely to be buffeted by elbows in a crowd

Ah, what a neon masterpiece, flashing ‘no vacancies’

How perfect is the planter, pruner, picker’s glistening brow

How handsome are the calloused, blistered hands of honest toil

How holy is the ground we trample and the heads we bow

As mourners merge around a grave where death collects its spoil

How utterly breath-taking is a church-house with packed pews

How hearty the handshaking, back-slaps, hug-comradery

How sacred is the gathering where worship pours its dues

How gorgeous is a dinner table set for company

How priceless is the freedom to come and go as we please

How pretty are your eyes, nose, mouth, wrinkles and double-chin

How nice, the music some call noise, that comes with families

Because we’re running late and someone’s patience has grown thin

Oh, lucky you in the parade behind stop-go school bus

(It never crossed our minds, how precious was the commonplace)

To think that in those dear old days we used to fume and fuss

Before we grew accustomed to people with half-a-face

How precious are the plans for proms, performances, menus

A wedding guest list open for 'all welcome to attend'

A kitchen full of giggling girls, reasons to buy new shoes

A dinner-reservation for a birthday for a friend

No deafening applause now, for goals scored in overtime

How hesitant the glance across the six-foot ‘safety-zone’

How stiff the shoppers move to keep their steps between the line

How foreign feels the world where fear has made its presence known

How beautiful, the bustle of a busy workaday

How wonderful are words that come from smiles seen and not guessed

How lovely to be to planning a much-needed getaway

How good to be reminded to count the ways we are blessed

© Janet Martin

Of Stumbling Block or Stepping stone...

PAD Challenge day 8: 

For today's prompt, write a metaphor poem. 

A simile is when something is like a something else (example: I am like a tree);

 a metaphor is when something is something else (example: I am a tree). 

So take a moment to consider possible metaphors and then poem them out.

Not quite the metaphor poem I was going for, but this is who it 'fell'

Which one are we?

We take up such a teeny spot

But what a sacred role we’ve got

For by our acts, we will be known

As stumbling block or steppingstone

We may not notice at first glance

While caught up in the circumstance

How composite of skin and bone

Is stumbling block or stepping stone

For we all have a part to play

Life is far more than day-to-day

It is a footpath that we hone

With stumbling block or stepping stone

We feed the flame of fear or hope

Rock solid ground, or slippery slope

We, with the grit of pray or groan

Are stumbling block or stepping stone

Do we indulge an idle mind

Or strive to be useful and kind?

Where little feet wait to be shown

By stumbling block or stepping stone

Such a short time, we take our place

In a long line of human race

Where act-and-react sets the tone

Of stumbling block or stepping stone

© Janet Martin

Let us not therefore judge one another any more: 

but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock 

or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

Romans 14:13

Delight and Disappointment's Crown

...the sun rises,

doles out its daily dose of delight...

and disappointment...

then tucks another page of time to the archives..

Delight and disappointment

Compose life’s harmony

Where love’s perfect contentment

Mingles with misery

Where trying could mean flying

Or face-plant in the dirt

Where holding means untying

Those heartstrings where they hurt

Where life is always teaching

More than seen at first glance

Where hope is always reaching

Beyond the circumstance

Perpetual estrangement

Of moments, echo spun

A rose and thorn arrangement

Shadows cast by the sun

A bittersweet concoction

Of dazzling dreams and shards

A motley interaction

With brutes, beggars and bards

Where prayer is never nothing

So prayer, dear comrade, pray

For there is always something

To learn along the way

Delight and disappointment

Seem to go hand in hand

One thrills us with enjoyment

One tests creature demand

But somehow as we weather

Dismay and happiness

The two of them together

Crown us with thankfulness

© Janet Martin

Battle Cry For Faith Warriors...

"His divine power has given us everything we need 

for a godly life through our knowledge of him 

who called us by his own glory and goodness."

  2 Peter 1:3

For now we see through a glass, darkly;

 but then face to face:

1 Cor.13:12

The cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day,

and fire was in the cloud by night, 

in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.

Exodus 40:38

Though we do not have a visible pillar of cloud by day

or pillar of fire by night, believers have the Holy Spirit, indwelling them,

'his divine power giving us everything we need for a godly life'.

He is as present as a pillar of cloud and fire!

Though feelings may ebb and flow and understanding falters

it is not what we feel that counts, but what we know!

How Firm a Foundation...

Fernando Ortega

Get thee behind me satan,

Sire of doubt-fear-lies

Of scorn, prideful and blatant

Of wolf in sheep-disguise

Faith fixes its survival

On what it cannot see

It fights life’s brutal battles

With bowed head and bent knee

It does not ask for reason

Or evidence or proof

But trusts God through each season

His Way IS Life and Truth

Get thee behind me, satan

You evil, hateful foe

Faith is a firm foundation

In God, who loves us so

© Janet Martin

This poem also works into today's prompt at Poetics Aside

 PAD Challenge day 7: For today's prompt, write a villain poem.