Quest of the Poet

Last week as I walked through a parking lot this leaf landed at my feet.

so, I picked it up...

It inspired the first stanza of this poem.

To pick up fallen leaves and press them into summertime

To woo from echo-sheaves, a few mementos, into rhyme

To enrich Ordinary with the wealthiness of less

Where lyrics of God’s glory author hope and happiness

To siphon from life’s ups and downs, keepsakes of common ground

To mend and dazzle heart shaped cups with treasures that confound

To showcase living’s simple joys with meek and thankful awe

To marvel at the patient poise of nature’s steadfast law

To thwart the sting and blight of biting words with beauty’s kiss

Life is too short to slight the sweep of so much we might miss

To cheer the wage of weariness with wonder to behold

Tendered to page through tears and tests of longing etched with gold

To leave unpenned the vile and vulgar, the boorish and base

But rather, weave a sense of smiles and friendship in its place

To hoist with holy feeling, love’s banners unfurled in font

And be a voice of healing in a broken world of want

To meet each other, heart to heart, through art of ink-finesse

Though ever face to face apart, together nonetheless

To find a diamond in the ruffled feathers of a thought

To bind the weathered wounds of love with blue forget-me-not

To will the jot and tittle of Becoming into bloom

And spill a little sunshine to a shadow-darkened room

To cast a glim of gladness into sadness that must be

And melt away brute madness with the torch of poetry

To lavish parchment pallor with the splendor of mid-June

And whisper to full color gray November’s afternoon

To coax a spark from embers of a dying place in time

And turn what one remembers into legacies of rhyme

© Janet Martin

Yesterday we woke to winter's wonderland!

Today the sun is doing its best to make it disappear

...before the next forecasted flurry!

For The Joy Set Before Us...

PAD Challenge Day 12: For today's prompt, write a future poem. 

Heb.12:2

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; 

who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, 

despising the shame, and is set down 

at the right hand of the throne of God.

Luke 2:10

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: 

for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, 

which shall be to all people.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

A hymn of great joy!

What lies behind we cannot change

What looms ahead we cannot see

Today, the day the Lord has made

Brims with redemption's majesty

Good tidings of great joy still ring

As we press on to life's reward

Anchored in mercy's offering

A Saviour, who is Christ the Lord

The message that the angels bore

Still peals with hope's favor and grace

Concealed in joy still set before

When we behold Him face to face

 

The evidence of things unseen

Is worth the fight that faith employs

As we endure what lies between

Each step we take to Heaven's joys 

Fear not, for unto us this day

Glad tidings of great joy resound

Nothing can take our hope away

As we traverse time's holy ground

A Saviour, who is Christ the Lord

Has borne our sorrow and our grief

He suffered what none could afford

The punishment that brought us peace

For the joy set before Him He

Endured the cross, despised its shame

Seeing beyond the agony

To all who would call on His Name

Made perfect through His suffering

Where we esteemed Him stricken, He

Salvation's captain, crushed the sting

Of death, robbed graves of victory

The message that the angels told

In days of old, none can destroy

The anchor of the cross will hold

Till hope is crowned with Heaven's joy

Janet Martin

1 Cor.1:18

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness;

 but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

Lord, What an Awesome God You Are

We have had a whole week of AWESOME moon and sunrises and sunsets!!

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada!

As we reflect on freedom, it's cost, 

as we pray for those suffering ravages of war,

we reflect and praise God for a greater, everlasting freedom

found in Christ who died to set all of human race free from the curse of sin and death!

So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

John 8:36

You fling the gates of dawn ajar...

As this morning's sun broke over the far horizon I murmured

Oh Lord, what an awesome God You are!! inspiring today's praise-poem!

Lord, what an awesome God you are, Creator, Saviour, Friend

Your majesty and divine pow’r none other can transcend

In paths of righteousness You lead, Your Word’s authority

Directs, where evil doers breed naysaying heresy

Your Deity debated, until wise in their own eyes

They worship the created, exchanging The Truth for lies

Lord, what an awesome God You are; compassionate and true

Where nothing in the world can bar prayers committed to You

Your eyes are on the righteous and your ears attend their cries

The comfort of Your justice calms the storm of mortal ‘whys’

As in secret Gethsemanes we look upon your Son

And humble selfish pleas with ‘not my will but thine be done’

Lord, what an awesome God you are; though oft misunderstood

You fling the gates of dawn ajar with kind Mercy renewed

Your love restrains Your wrath of which mankind has been forewarned

Your Word, remains a light unto the path by mockers scorned

Who have boldly rejected You and thus, choose hell to pay

When Souls are resurrected on that final Judgement Day

Lord, what an awesome God you are; evil will not prevail

You make us strong, the power of the cross will never fail

Though Satan is a charmer, masquerading as the light

All who wear Your full armor will be fitted for the fight

As we press on toward the joy still set before us when

Forever we behold You, Lord God, *Agnus Dei, amen

© Janet Martin

Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

John 1:29

Agnus Dei

This poem was also inspired in part by this message

Why We Need The Gospel-Alistair Begg

Tug of Ink

PAD Challenge day 10: For today's prompt, write a struggle poem.

To board dawn's gleaming barge

While seasons ebb and flow...

To know when to say ‘yes’

To know when to say ‘no’

To hold to hope and happiness

Amidst love’s letting go

So much to touch and kiss

So much that used to be

So much to balance with the bliss

Of unpenned poetry

Today is always new

Immune it seems, to age

Let’s never grow too old to woo

Its poetry to page

Let’s slow dance, cheek to cheek

What is to be will be

Enough, my love to learn to speak

In tongues of poetry

Let the masses deploy

Long ladders to success

Enough, my love, to feast on joy

Of poem happiness

To press past the façade

Of front-line highs and lows

And to feel the *pleasure of God

In poems to compose

To board dawn’s gleaming barge

While seasons ebb and flow

To stay true to the humble charge

Of life’s ink undertow

© Janet Martin

"When I run, I feel God's pleasure" Eric Liddell

Acts 17:28

‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ 

As some of your own poets have said,

 ‘We are his offspring.’

Candor of the Clock

PAD Challenge day 9. For today's prompt, take the phrase "(blank) of the (blank),"

replace the blanks with a word or phrase,

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

Consummate toll of tick and tock

Determined undertow

Winnowing shorelines made of rock

With season ebb and flow

A minute and momentous merge

Of is, was, and will be

The gilded surface of a surge

Veiling eternity

…while dreamers dream and poets troll

The teeming deeps that mock

The pioneer of heart and soul

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock

The lilt that tuned the nudge that broke

The shell that held the bow’r

That grew into a mighty oak

Reclaims glory’s fleet flow’r /hour

Giver and taker synchronized

The candor of the clock

Grants and gathers eons comprised

Of teeny tick and tock

…unfurling a tempest of pearls

Some pray, some shake a fist

Tick tock, the clock replies, and twirls

Time’s carousel of mist

© Janet Martin

James 4:14

What is your life? 

You are a mist that appears 

for a little while 

and then vanishes.

Life's Finest Work of Art

PAD Challenge day 8-For today’s Two-for-Tuesday prompt:

Write a form poem, and/or...

Write an anti-form poem.

Form: Shakespearean sonnet

This poem was inspired by the driver of this truck

that pulled over and offered a regular biker to his job, a ride

on this clear, cold, crisp morning!

The biker accepted😊💓

(nothing sets a sweeter tone for the day than acts of kindness)

a smile is a gift anyone can give

a helping hand, life's finest work of art

beauty is found, no matter where we live

if kindness is the first-fruit of the heart 

although no hall of fame or gallery

will showcase, what some may call commonplace

no one can leave a finer legacy

than that of love, humility and grace

no name in lights, no wild applauding cheers

for this is not love's mission or its quest

but to mingle laughter and prayers and tears

and thus become the blessing and the blessed

today, oh, what a perfect place to start

to make another Finest Work of Art

Janet Martin

Colossians 3:17
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, 

do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, 

giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

    

Adapting to November (both literally and metaphorically;)

 

Nov. .PAD Challenge Day 7. For today's prompt, write an adaptation poem.

I've been drinking in the beauty of leaf song lately!

A weekend of wild winds has winnowed its remnant woo💝

Once more the dirge from leafless limbs through barren belfies peals

Summer and autumn’s harvest hymns of fruit and flower shucked

The gardener admires nature’s ardor as it seals

Its promise with a kiss of seeds ‘neath umber furrows tucked

The blush that once bore roses wears the hasting death of day

Desire turns the other cheek and bears dusk’s dogged woo

For nothing in the world can keep time's westward tug at bay

Darling, to keep believing is the best that we can do

Denial is a futile antidote to steadfast truth

Once more the dirge of leafless hymns ignites a ballad, blue

As cornflowers pressed into sky, or eyes of wizened youth

For all that yet remains to try the sighs of me and you

Once more we brave the welkin trace of fingers without form

And will smiles to our faces while the dirge of autumn plays

A breath stealing ensemble that soon takes the world by storm

As stars and diamonds tremble on the prow of winter days

...that cannot faze the hand of He from whom all mercies flow

That cannot thwart the Deity from whence each season brims

That cannot vex the Giver or His grace whereby we go

Aha, Time's timbers quiver with hope's joy in leafless hymns

© Janet Martin

Compilation of Adaptation

Nov. .PAD Challenge Day 7. For today's prompt, write an adaptation poem.

(This challenge completely slipped my mind this year, until this weekend!)

Happy Monday!

Here's to another page in life's compilation of adaptation,

(a work in constant progress)

We live in a world of whether-change!

Some whethers are like warm and friendly hosts,

others like unwelcome guests!

Forge on, my friend, by the grace of God

He crowns the broken with His beauty!

(like last night's sunset!)

To days gone by none can return

Nor ask for a preview

Of adaptations yet to learn

Where days to years run through

...a flue of love and life run rife

With hellos and goodbyes

No fitting rooms to choose its strife

Or try it on for size

...where it has always been like this

As days to years run through

We learn to adapt to what is

What more, pray, can we do?

...but make the best of what we hold

Lest, in lament we miss

The treasure made of moment-gold

The pleasure in the kiss

The melody twixt Yet and Was

Of holding and release

As Adaptations of Because

Create a masterpiece

While a medley of revisions

With days to years comprise

Adaptation's compilations

Of growing old and wise

The vanity of This and That

Soon slip-slip-slips away

Yet always a fresh welcome mat

Meets us at break of day

..and bids us up and onward through

Adaptation's bequest

While softly days to years undo

The buttons on Soul's vest

With fingers deft and dogged, oh

And whispers that beguile

Beseeching farewells with hello

And teaching tears to smile

Janet Martin

 

Bless the LORD, O my soul!

O LORD my God, You are very great;

You are clothed with splendor and majesty.

2He wraps Himself in light as with a garment;

He stretches out the heavens like a tent,

3laying the beams of His chambers

in the waters above,

making the clouds His chariot,

walking on the wings of the wind...

Psalm 104:1-3

(read the whole spectacular chapter here)