Collections of Bit By Bit

PAD Challenge-day 7:

Two-for-Tuesday prompt. 

Write to one prompt, both prompts, 

and/or combine them: 

Write a big poem, or...

Write a small poem.

Life roads/loads can seem impossible/impassable when viewed in a lump sum...

Sometimes, as a loved one bears a cross, 

 oh, how we wish we could

bear or ease it for them but we cannot, and should not! 

(sometimes we wish we could rid ourselves of our own crosses!)

 Only beneath life's crosses

does faith become stronger and humbler/meeker💗🙏

But we can and should pray for God's sufficient grace 

to be the strength in our weakness!!

2 Cor.12:9

And He said to me,

 “My grace is sufficient for you, 

for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Life roads/loads can seem impossible/impassable when viewed in a lump sum

Its weight of cares can topple the most hopeful optimist

For none can see what waits to be, what is ‘what-ifs’ outcome

What favor or calamity the hour may untwist

What detour must be taken or what leap of learning tried

What perseverance shaken or what darling wish denied

But one breath, one step, one moment and one prayer at a time

The feeble can scale mountains and great burdens can be borne

Courage can face the giant where faith’s steppingstones align

To make us more reliant on the Author of each morn

As we press on toward the place where troubles cease their cry

As step by step and grace by grace He whispers ‘here am I’

A small word of kindness begins ripple effects of cheer

Tis step by step, the victor wins the title victors claim

Moment by moment unravels seasons, marked year by year

And draws each road we travel back to He, from whence we came

Do not despair, the Whole of It, when analyzed will show

Life's collections of bit by bit, as by God’s grace we go

© Janet Martin

In the Sweet By and By

John 1:16

And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.

How Is It (that as Time goes by I do not come apart?)

Catch a Falling Star...

PAD Challenge. day 4: For today’s prompt, write a catching poem.

This is one of those poems that threatened to go into full gallop

unless I reined it in...

They get caught on last, little leaves still clinging to tree-limbs

And on dusk’s fading fringes, as eventide’s tableau dims

And on the corner of the street each time you board the bus

As love’s tether learns to weather the Apartness of Us

They snag on echo-wisps and on November’s brooding gray

And on a phantom frame filled with pictures of Yesterday

A tender memory of suppertime for at least six

Before I was acquainted with Time’s age-old bag of tricks

They catch on freckled noses and on orchards, doffed of fruit

And on the wind that moans outside the door, like a bold brute

And on the close-cropped counterpane of harvest gathered in

On the moon as it pins the sky with lopsided half-grin

They tangle in the awkward angles of a child, half-grown

And catch on flakes of first snowfall, on milkweed silk, wind-blown

And on the notes of vintage melodies at Christmas time

And on the big clock tower at the hour’s solemn chime

On gardens as they slumber after pummeling of feet

After summer-sweet laughter begets ballads, bittersweet

After Autumn has yielded to the order of the earth

After the spoil of toil displays the fruit of labor’s worth

…on four-season masterpieces delighting ardent gaze

On wonder’s unpredictable and unexpected ways

On commonplace, second-to-none familiarity

On silhouettes etched on sunsets, on Baby on my knee

On petals as the prime of bloom is siphoned from the stem

On the slow-but-sure weaning of youth’s teen-green diadem

On so much more than page can hold, or poetry can tell

On gladness of hello and on the sadness of farewell

How is it that as time goes by, I do not come apart

As often as life’s catches at the strings around my heart

© Janet Martin

A tender memory of suppertime for at least six

Before I was acquainted with Time’s age-old bag of tricks...

Better Be Careful, Poet...

PAD Challenge day 6: For today’s prompt, take the phrase "Better (blank),"

replace the blank with a new word or phrase,

make the new phrase the title of your poem,

and then, write your poem...

Because of the rain and the end to Daylight Saving Time,

darkness began to fall at 5:00 p.m.!

Dusk’s darkness drops an ethereal veil over the countryside

The night rolls in, an ocean driv’n by an invisible tide

You better be careful, Poet; November can cast a spell

And set beneath its brooding deep, a bottomless inkwell

The day dissolves, a little like a snowflake on Time’s tongue

It covers every window where November’s landscape hung

You better be careful, Poet; for the heart is easy prey

When standing on dusk’s shoreline watching daylight ebb away

© Janet Martin

(Love's) Better Poetry

PAD Challenge day 6: For today’s prompt, take the phrase "Better (blank)," 

replace the blank with a new word or phrase, 

make the new phrase the title of your poem, 

and then, write your poem.

This take on today's poem-prompt 

was inspired by yesterday's photo-session;

the aim being to get a few good ones

(aka everyone looking forward with eyes open!!) 

for a page in a family calendar for my parents for Christmas

You are the laugh-lines that I earn

And collect thankfully

As by the grace of God I learn

Love's Better Poetry

You overflow my cup of joy

Filling love's crooks and curves

With happiness, dear girl and boy

More than one heart deserves 

You are my gentlest lullaby

My tenderest of care

And each, the apple of my eye

And each, my humblest prayer

You are heaven-to-earth's caress 

You are my home-sweet-home

You are more holy thankfulness

Than pen can ever poem

© Janet Martin

Getting to the Root of the Problem...

 PAD Challenge day 3: For today’s prompt, write a problem poem. 

Below an excerpt from Peter Marshall's sermon-

Keeper of the Springs

(and this was in the 1940's!!)

One cannot fix a problem until one pinpoints the source

But one ought to note symptoms that should trouble you and I

For epidemic-proportion-populace on a course

Of Ignorance to Truth, where empty churches testify

A somber lack of reverence and interest and care

For the Great Certainty for which we all ought to prepare

...and so tis no small wonder that things go from bad to worse

 In laws of twisted logic of confusion gone berserk

Where right is wrong and wrong is right and God, a name they curse

And well-intended master-plans of Fix-it just don't work

In a world doomed to madness as they seek but cannot find

Hope's everlasting gladness that yields joy and peace of mind 

When truth is seen as lies and lies are heralded as truth

It is because the Word of God is trodden underfoot

Then darkened understanding errs and bears pitiful proof;

Denial of the problem that yields problematic fruit

And gross incomprehension of the sad state we are in;

Because they/we do not recognize the root problem of sin 

The problem is not war or poverty, but hate and greed

A proud and unrepentant heart, thinking, utterly flawed

A negligent apathy to sin's subtle, deadly seed

In seeking first this world rather than the kingdom of God

Where empty churches gape and children/people traipse toward a Goal

Ignorant of Love's problem-solving Saviour of the Soul 

Sad problem this; too many homes where God's Word has no place

And homes where the Bible is but a book upon a shelf

Ignoring that apart from God, there is no saving grace

Apart from the Vine the branch is a Dead Thing by itself

Revealing that the culprit in this problem's quandary

Until we surrender to God, is always you and me 

© Janet Martin

Rom.1:16-17

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, 

because it is the power of God 

that brings salvation to everyone who believes: 

first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 

17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—

a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,[e] 

just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”[f]

So many do not know

or believe or care

about the day of redemption 

and reckoning drawing near...

Malachi 4:1-3

The Day of the LORD

(Zephaniah 1:7–18; 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11; 2 Peter 3:8–13)

1“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, 

when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble;

 the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,”

 says the LORD of Hosts.

 “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

2“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness 

will rise with healing in its wings,a 

and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.

  3Then you will trample the wicked, f

or they will be ashes under the soles of your feet 

on the day I am preparing,” 

says the LORD of Hosts.

Better Examples

PAD Challenge day 6: For today’s prompt, take the phrase "Better (blank),"

replace the blank with a new word or phrase,

make the new phrase the title of your poem,

and then, write your poem...

Children are imitators of Example...

As soon as Big Brother clapped, so did Little Brother...

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children,

Eph.5:1(NIV)

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.

Eph.1:5 (NKJV)

The only hope we have of improving what waits to be

Is a better Example set by likes of you and me

Therefore, the likes of you and me ought to pay earnest heed

To what and who influences power of word and deed

Because it is our words and deeds that set the sacred sway

For those who follow in the footsteps that we leave Today

For what we leave today is not as fleeting as it seems

But sets the stage where morrow's wage of today's onus teems

With the after-effects of who we strive to imitate

Subject either to laws of love or lawlessness of hate

Then, there is only one solution that passes the test;

To be better examples is to imitate The Best

Anything less is but our children's futures sacrificed

Our only hope, the perfect Example of Jesus Christ

© Janet Martin

Phil.2:5-11

(Isaiah 52:13–15)

5Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus:

6Who, existing in the form of God,

did not consider equality with God

something to be grasped,a

7but emptied Himself,

taking the form of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

8And being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled Himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross.

9Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place

and gave Him the name above all names,

10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Rom.13:8-10

Owe no one anything except to love one another, 

for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,”

 “You shall not murder,”

 “You shall not steal,” [a]

“You shall not bear false witness,”

 “You shall not covet,” 

and if there is any other commandment, 

are all summed up in this saying, namely,

 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

10 Love does no harm to a neighbor;

 therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Better Reason

PAD Challenge day 6: For today’s prompt, take the phrase

"Better (blank)," replace the blank with a new word or phrase,

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

Better critique better, Reason's Sleek Begetter

So eager to charm and entice

Desire's effulgence with instant indulgence

Better to first ponder the price

And weigh velvet voices that prey on quick choices

And trick us to trade truth for lies

Better, first to measure the worth of the treasure

And cost of the pleasure we prize

Because oft desire can be a soft liar

If we heed no Higher Decree

Than gratification of infatuation's

Accommodating fantasy

Better to look better where seduction's fetter

Is not always easy to spot

Better to fight battles before Fool's Proof tattles

On Reason's Begetter of Thought

To weigh the approach of a 'promise'-drawn coach

Where knights in shining armor plead

To study the path and the long aftermath

(of) Where Yielding to Impulse may lead...

...better to pray before we leap

Into the fray of Whim

Better to ask the Lord to keep

Thought's pleasure stayed on Him 

© Janet Martin

Today's devotion...

...from this book!

Or, So It Seemed to the Dreamer...

 PAD Challenge, day 2: For today’s prompt, write a childhood object poem. 

up and away

undefined 

by time and place

brushing perimeters of space

or so it seemed 

to the dreamer, 

then

with honey-colored braids

and an insatiable

 yen

that turned out to be

the cocoon that cradled

 Poetry...

On that rope swing

 she would try

to touch the sky

...the monotony of

an endless July 

afternoon

no match for the butterfly

inside the

 cocoon...

Janet~