Love Is A Shawl with Holes

PAD Challenge day 20;

For this Two-for-Tuesday prompt:

Write a love poem and/or...

Write an anti-love poem.

Love is far more 

than daisy-lore

of love me-love-me-not

It runs us through 

with bronze and blue

that weathered years allot 

Love is the stuff

of fist-a-cuff

and kiss me sweet and slow

The grit and grin

through thick and thin

of hold and letting go

A tango, dear

of smile and tear

A ballad, dissonant

It's tea-and-toast'

Making the most

of each precious moment

It is a hug

a push-and-tug

together, not apart

A sacred pact

twixt faith and fact

not for the faint of heart

It's what-a-mess

and happiness

mysteriously entwined

It is a vow

of curtsy-bow

with Other first in mind

A breath of spring,

The weathering

of winter's wildest storm

But best of all

Love is a shawl

with holes, yet keeps us warm

Janet Martin

What If Only Sunny Weather...

Whether its gray skylines or headlines

remember, the sun/Son is always near

Up and up the sun is climbing

Though the dawn is dark and gray

The Creator’s perfect Timing

Will drive brooding clouds away

What we see is but a little

We cannot behold the sum

While we are still in the middle

Of what is yet to become

So, when morning skies are bleary

And horizons bleak and gray

Keep the faith, when day is dreary

The sun is not far away

Imagine if on that morning

When we meet HIM face to face

We had never known the yearning

For a better time and place

Take a moment to consider

When we reach life’s solemn end

What if Jesus is a stranger

Not a Comforter and Friend

What if only sunny weather

Blinded faith's eyes to the Day

When time's ever-thinning tether

Breaks its ties and falls away

Up and up we all are climbing

Though for now clouds may prevail

Faith trusts in the perfect timing

Of a Son that does not fail

© Janet Martin

Give Me Jesus- Fernando Ortega

2 Peter 1:3

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 1:5

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith virtue;

and to virtue, knowledge;

2 Peter 1:6

and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control,

perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;

2 Peter 1:8

For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them,

they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive

in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:10

Therefore, brothers, strive to make your calling and election sure.

For if you practice these things you will never stumble,

We live in an age of greatest educated ignorance ever,

as Higher Education Institutions disregard God...

Here Paul is urging believers to increase

their Higher Education in

the only knowledge that can make us wise;

the knowledge of Lord Jesus Christ...

2 Peter 2:20

If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world

through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

only to be entangled and overcome by it again,

their final condition is worse than it was at first.

2 Peter 3:18

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

Amen.

Thou God, Of Earth and Heaven

 

Whether at the funeral of a Prince,

an innocent child,

a pastor

whether almost a century old

or a baby,

or somewhere between,

the same words of comfort are offered,

drawn from ageless, timeless, changeless Word of God,

Father of all

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. 

The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;

John 11:25

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, 

concerning those who have fallen [b]asleep, 

lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 

14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, 

even so God will bring with Him those who [c]sleep in Jesus.

1 Thess.4:13-14

Our Father Who Art In Heaven

Last Post

 

Thou God of earth and heaven

Thy Perfect Love, nail-scarred

Faith’s Dying-Breath confession

Thou dost not disregard

Thou Godhead Everlasting

Divine Supremacy

No Last-Post Bugle blasting

Thy final eulogy

Thou God, changeless and gracious

Author of life and light

Each one of us is precious

And equal in Thy sight

Where none can earn the merit

Of the gift of Your grace

Thou, Beholder of spirit

Rather than breed or face

Thou God of earth and heaven

Thou Saviour of the soul

Thou God, of sins forgiven

And faith that makes us whole

Thou, Father of the orphan

Thou, Comforter and Friend

Thou God of earth and Heaven

Thy Kingdom hath no end

© Janet Martin

Cloud-sheep Shepherdess

 PAD Challenge day 19; For today's prompt, write a poem with an animal in the title.

Through welkin mead spring's shepherdess

Wanders blue, flock-strewn hills

She plays Her flute with keen finesse

Where sun-sweet zephyr spills

To woodlands primed with pulsing bud

April's cantata falls

It teases flowers from the mud

To deck dull, barren halls

And from her perch beyond the scope

Of earth's four-season isle

We hear her happy hymns of hope

We sense Her friendly smile

Her sunny-honey-colored tress

Gleams like a diadem

The cloud-sheep love their Shepherdess

She loves each one of them

We kick off shoes to dance footloose

Beneath  flock-dappled glade

While tree-tops throb with soft chartreuse

'Neath April's serenade

Janet Martin

Song of Solomon 2:14

...let me see your face,

let me hear your voice;

for your voice is sweet,

and your countenance is lovely.

  

Time's Tapestry

 Just a few stitches of this weekend's tapestry...

Short Version

Woven with wisp of soft wind-song

Hope and heartache filigree

Echoes of hello and so long

Fragments of what used to be

Beauty’s blessing of beholding

Blooms, then petals as they fell

Wonder of a bud unfolding

Nature’s favorite miracle

Awed amazement and awareness

Of a season’s brevity

Wisdom’s painstaking preparedness

Folly’s careless apathy

Longing’s deep and utter yearning

Puppy dog chasing a ball

Wizened one and toddler learning

How to get up when they fall

Sunlight slanting through a window

Washed with rain that turned earth green

Tilling, planting fallow furrow

With faith’s evidence unseen

While summer slips into autumn

While fields fill with harvest-prime

Tapestry of life is woven

On a loom that we call time

© Janet Martin

Long Version...

Woven with wisp of soft wind-song

Hope and heartache filigree

Echoes of hello and so-long

Fragments of what used to be

Beauty’s blessing of beholding

Blooms, then petals soundless fall

Wonder of a bud unfolding

Nature’s favorite miracle

Rustle of leaf-vesper sighing

Where shadows and twilight meld 

Bustle of workaday dying

Into navy, velvet veldt 

Lilt of laughter, gilt of After-

Math in all its sundry forms

Rainbow lowered from yon rafter

Bent by He who cradles storms

 

Awed amazement and awareness

Of a season’s brevity

Wisdom’s painstaking preparedness

Folly’s careless apathy

Hush of diamond-dazzled daybreak

Rush of diamond-stippled stream 

Plush of diamond-studded snowflake

Rush of diamond-starry dream 

Longing’s deep and utter yearning

Puppy dog chasing a ball

Wizened one and toddler learning

How to get up when they fall

 

Hunger of both heart and belly

Thunder of both sky and soul

Gladness in a jar of jelly

Or a heaping popcorn bowl

Ever-changing panorama

Of cloud-vista overhead

Never-ending what-if-drama

Of  expectation and dread

Sunlight slanting through a window

Washed with rain that turned earth green

Tilling, planting fallow furrow

With faith’s evidence unseen

...while summer turns into autumn

While fields brim with harvest-prime

Tapestry of life is woven

On a loom that we call Time

© Janet Martin

Garden Stroll

PAD Challenge day 18:

For today's prompt, write an ekphrastic poem.

An ekphrastic poem is one in which the poet writes a poem based on another work of art, 

whether that's a painting, photograph, sculpture, mixed media, or other piece of art.

This painting, almost 30 years old was at the time, a splurge!

I purchased it Brand New! (likely from Zellers) 

In 'young mom/homeowner' days that was quite an

extravagance, but I'm so glad I did. I still love it.

 (it was not expensive, by any means but still, an extra)

I feel so much more than meets the eye when I look at it!

(I took the liberties of adding a few extras to the poem,

perhaps the pond and arbor are just beyond the scope of the lens??)😉

It is so much more than flowers

More than birdsong that beguiles

She and Child to garden-bowers

It is Time and Touch and Smiles

She looks down at her sweet daughter

Who does not yet see beyond,

Picket fence, wisteria arbour

Ducklings paddling in the pond

She is not attuned to hours

Or the mementos they spill

Happiness is picking flowers

In a place where time stands still

The world fits inside her pocket

She fits into mother’s smile

They fit into a heart-locket

Forever Mother and Child

© Janet Martin

Worth The Wait

I was about to post this poem of two stanzas when I received a text from my daughter!

Grandsonny FINALLY had 7 checkmarks;

one for each day he did not rebel tantrum-ishly when the answer to a want was 'no'.

 7 checkmarks earned him the reward of a bag of Lego 

Grandma gave him at the end of March, but his reaction to

'no, you may not open it tonight because it's bedtime' was not nice (to put it mildly)

so, we decided this might be a good motivation to weigh consequences when reacting!

How sweeter the Lego after the waiting, inspiring one more stanza to the poem😊

PAD Challenge day 17: For today's prompt, write a waiting poem.

Wait; a word with which we struggle

Wait; the gate to faith-hope-grace

Wait; for better days or trouble

Wait to take This Present Place

Wait without doubting or fretting

Wait with love’s humility

Wait without blindly forgetting

Who waits on us faithfully

Wait tests restless human mettle

But the beauty of the bloom

Must unfold, petal by petal

From dark, bud-shaped waiting room

So then wait with patient biding

Do not rush the soldered gate

For The Masterpiece still hiding

In a little word called Wait

Sweeter then will be the After

And the holding oh, so dear

When our tears are turned to laughter

In the wake of waiting's Here

We do not wait without reason

Test of time precedes the goal

Waiting is the growing season

For the faith that makes us whole

 

© Janet Martin

Oh, The Longer The Waiting...Josh Turner

Waiting For Covid-19 to Pass

 PAD Challenge day 17: For today's prompt, write a waiting poem.

Every so often I crank up this song by Johnny Cash

These Things Shall Pass

 

Because of soaring numbers in new Covid-19 cases

Ontario tightens restrictions even harder for 6 weeks!

This prompt Waiting, feels like the first thing we talk about 

even before the weather these days!

(and we're Canadian!) 

We feel like we have been waiting for things to

return to 'normal' for more than a year, and now this;

Seemingly worse, not better in spite of vaccines?!!

It's discouraging!

So, the word 'wait' can be a millstone around the neck

 or a steppingstone beneath our feet/knees.

It's up to us.

(My heart esp. goes out to small businesses!

Hang in there as you weather open to curbside-takeout-closed..)

Within the walls of circumstance, we wait; the gate is barred

To Freedom’s Ballroom; numbers soar while hope hits new lows hard

But, let’s not forget what we have though we feel far apart

We have each other and God’s Word to cheer the faint of heart

Wisdom chisels its masterpieces not on Easy Street

Our faith is not refined until its mettle feels the heat

Then, though fear grips us by the throat as we wait anxiously

We have each other and God’s Word; how thankful we should be

Technology for all its faults helps us to keep in touch

While we wait for Restriction to release its strangling clutch

Let’s take a deep breath, keep the faith though hope is battle-scarred

And be so grateful that we have each other and God’s Word

Selfishness is a monster; it wreaks havoc in the world

It desecrates the banner of morn’s fresh mercy unfurled

So, let’s love one another while we wait, though walls apart

We have God’s Word in which to trust so we do not lose heart

© Janet Martin

1 Peter 4:7-10

The end of all things is near. 

Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray.

  Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins

.Show hospitality to one another without complaining.

As good stewards of the manifold grace of God,
each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another.

These verses really hit home right now.

even now we can show hospitality by dropping

a meal to a needy family, by sending words of cheer via text, emails,

cards, phone calls, yes, even when it feels

like we are growing weary of doing good (Gal.6:9)

This week my I received a package from a friend in another country!

The surprise of its sweet love brought much needed joy

to a hard week! 

Thank-you Sasha for the gift from

The World of James Browne