To Hosts of Homage

 PAD Challenge 25: For today's prompt, write a thought poem. 

'Everything we do/become begins with what we think,

and which thoughts we entertain! we do not fall prey to

a passing thought, but the one which we indulge'

our father would caution us, as teens.

'We all have terrible things that enter the mind but as the old

proverb goes;

Just because a bird flies over our heads

doesn't mean we need to allow it to build a nest'

***

So many thought-guests drop by!

We need to be careful to whom we offer a chair!

***

We become what we feed thought...

Such a huge buffet!

choose well

Something like this is nice for

thought's breakfast...

One life to live;

A gift to give

Our uttermost attention to

Where thought gives birth

To waste or worth

Of everything we say and do

Thought entertains

In boundless veins

Guests of both honor and deceit

Its rendezvous

(no matter who)

Soon bursts through gates of mouth-hands-feet

This control tow’r

Of holy pow’r

All other boasts of might exceeds

Therefore, we ought

To give much thought

To what we think and where it leads

© Janet Martin

Whatever is noble, 

whatever is right, 

whatever is pure, 

whatever is lovely, 

whatever is admirable — 

if anything is excellent or praiseworthy —

 think about such things.

-Philippians 4:8

Dear Child, Why Do We Spend Precious Time With You?

Train up a child in the way he should go,

And when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

PAD Challenge 24: 

For today's prompt, write a question poem. 

Bird-watching/learning

Grampa-trampa-line...

Aunty-secrets

Order up; Pine-cone Corndog

puppy-love

Next two photos; photo credit Brittany Ruppert

Uncle antics...

Aunty-acrobats

Why do we walk, talk, read, sing, pray

And spend precious time patiently

With you? Because, sweet child, someday

The sapling will become a tree

How swift the seed begins to sprout

To crucial pliability

Thus, it takes love’s diligent clout

To train the tendrils of a tree

…the kind and gentle touch, the knife

To prune weak offshoots faithfully

So, you can weather storms of life

When you become a full-grown tree

How brief the shaping season is

How swift the tender sapling grows

Why do we scold, hold, hug and kiss

To make you strong when life's wind blows

© Janet Martin

Why Do I Look The Way I Look?

 To Whomever it may concern😂

PAD Challenge 24: 

For today's prompt, write a question poem. 

So while a scale horizon-lines...

Why do I look the way I look?

Well, I get lost in thought your see

My mind is like a picture book

When thinking gets the best of me

So, if my gaze seems far away

Though we are sitting, eye to eye

And I miss most of what you say

And make no sense with my reply

Forgive me, if you can, my dears

I am still learning the fine art

Of fitting words inside my ears

When I am lost in worlds apart

So while I scale horizon-lines

And fail to listen, please be kind

And smile as I wrangle with vines

 Tangled in mazes of my mind

© Janet Martin

Why Do I Love You, Poem-hon?

 

Sometimes Poem does not want to be

only the lover, but the loved!

PAD Challenge 24: 

For today's prompt, write a question poem. 

Sway Michael Bublé

(for my poem-hon)😊 

Why do I love you, 

Poem, so?

Your sweep and surging

Ebb and flow

Fills nooks and crooks

And crannies of

Life’s lackluster layouts

With love

While the world seems

To fall apart

You stay the course

And cheer the heart

You are courageous

And uncouth

And not afraid to

Tell the truth

Yet when you do

You are not cruel

Or treat the student

Like a fool

But with the woo of

Lilt and rhyme

You tune the truant

To the crime

You test and tame

And teach and tease

And vex and calm

With melodies

Drawn from a fresco

Flushed with stars

Or siphoned from

Dusk-brumal bars

You train me how

To dance or fight

To fly, to fall

To read and write

You make me brave

When I am not

Dare me to dredge

The grave of thought

Or surf the turquoise

Wave of dreams

To take me where

Brigadoon gleams

Like ancient castles

In the sun

You are my prince

Dear Poem-hon

You are a leaf

A silhouette

Of Grief and Wonder's

Pirouette

You twist fear's fist

 To figure-eights

As ink and sigh

Amalgamates

You are a candle

On a sill

A flicker on

Wicks of 'Until' 

Why do I love you,

Poem-hon

Your empathy

Second to none

You lend an

Understanding tear

Your page

A patient, listening ear

You spill and thrill

And fill time’s toll

With treasures chiseled

From the soul

© Janet Martin

Appointment With Laughter

 PAD Challenge 23: For today's prompt, write an appointment poem.

No matter how hard 

life is

Here's hoping 

now and then

it grants 

the goodness

of laughter

***

No matter how hard 

life is,

Here's to puppies 

and children...

because both have 

the beautiful, innocent 

ability 

of bringing the blessing 

of laughter

***

We have the neighbour's permission to 'enjoy' their pup

so Victoria loves playing with him till he's tired out...

These stomping grounds of dreams and dread

Confounds the bounds of heart and head

Where tug and hug wage wonder’s war

Midst beauty’s boast and duty’s chore

…where good intent is not enough

To reinvent the bent of love

Or the cement of moment-gold

As it pours into Bygone’s mold

These haves-and-holds of here-and-now

Of flying high and pushing plow

Is either ink of drudgery

Or patina of poetry

These stomping grounds of sound and sight

Abound with downer and delight

Yet, this grab-bag of groan and smile

Makes nabbing life’s coattail worthwhile

For appointments with hurt and hope

And dirt dappled with ‘nope-nope-nope’

Surprise us with sweet happiness

Because of laughter's ‘yes-yes-yes’

© Janet Martin

Date With Destiny

PAD Challenge 23: For today's prompt, write an appointment poem.

This date with Destiny

That no one can deny

Or somehow go unnoticed in

That Ledger in the sky

This date with Destiny

Ought to make us think thrice

About filling each moment with

Love’s gentle sacrifice

For what we leave behind

Becomes our legacy

While each breath draws us closer to

This date with Destiny

Ah Death! None can escape

The Reaper’s Swinging Scythe

Or the Appointment that awaits

As we step from this life

Then, pray that we prepare!

For Exodus Profound

For death is life's one certainty

The grave, it's common ground

This dust we stir with feet

Soon claims its due return

As Deathless Soul transcends time's toll

Far from earth's umber urn

The shadow that still falls

Across stone-stippled lea

The sacred image of the Soul

Awaiting Destiny

© Janet Martin

Heb.9:27-28

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 

 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, 

will appear a second time, not to deal with sin 

but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Date With Daybreak...

PAD Challenge 23: For today's prompt, write an appointment poem.

Ah, let me look at you longer

You always hurry by

As if you had appointments too

Up in the big blue sky

Ah, let me linger in your blush

Of young and fresh appeal

…yet, as I plea I sense the tug

Of duty’s tireless zeal

Ah, let me lean over the brink

Of where no one has been

To touch the hemline of your robe

Shimmering, silver-green

Ah, from my perch upon my porch

Let me learn, sweet and slow

Beneath the sunshine of your smile

The art of letting go

© Janet Martin

For Thee, Dear Earth's Creator

 PAD Challenge day 22: Write a nature poem.

For Thee, Dear Tree

For Thee, Dear Bud

For Thee, Dear Seed

For Thee, Dear Bird 

and Brook...

For Thee, Dear Lord...

For The Beauty of the Earth

For thee, dear tree that spreads thy root-webbed skein

Beneath our feet, to drink from darksome spring

While overhead thy leafy mezzanine

Spills shadow-rooms fit for beggar and king

For thee, dear bud, that cups a wondrous loom

Where none can witness nature’s steadfast law

Until thy broken seal reveals the bloom

And steals our breath, ten-thousand times, with awe

For thee, dear seed, of grand potential

A miracle within a speck-sized brood

Yet, from these origins so miniscule

A feast unfolds; earth’s table groans with food

For thee, dear bird and brook and butterfly

And buzzing bee in petal-portico

For hills and plains that roll out to the sky

In tides of green and gold and indigo

For Thee, dear Lord, that didst entrust earth’s heart

To be cared for and tended by mankind

I humbly vow to try to do my part

To labour well, with future-kin in mind

© Janet Martin

Isa.6:3

And they were calling to one another:

 "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

Psalm 24:1

The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; 

the world, and they that dwell therein.