For All the Ways of Wonderful...

Yesterday's poem-a-day prompt from Robert Lee Brewer @ Writer's Digest

For today's prompt, write a homonym poem.

I began this post yesterday morning before Duty Beauty hailed...

The brook gurgles and bursts with lays

That sparkle to the sea...

The robin, quite industrious

Flits to and fro, intent...

From backroads to main thoroughfares

And all points in between

The landscape tosses fresh manes, fair

In dashing hues of green

The woodland wears an air of wealth

The wares of nature, free

For all to drink to our health

From founts of leaf-primed tree

Spring gushes from a trillion springs

Earth’s wakened deluge streams

Where bare branch bears from supple strings

A rush of bud-requiems

The robin, quite industrious

Flits to and fro, intent

In spite of housewife’s threat and fuss

To build nest in the vent

The brook gurgles and bursts with lays

That sparkle to the sea

To see the birds and hear their praise

Births praise in you and me

…for yellow frill of daffodil

For silver raindrop waltz

For purple pansy-violet thrill

For deep, blue, welkin vaults

For pastel-pink of blossom tulle

For sunbeam’s golden kiss

For all the Ways of Wonderful

Spring weighs our gaze with bliss

In beauty of both earth and sky 

In heaven-hints unfurled

Without reserve, from God on high 

To all the wooing world 

© Janet Martin

Isa.40:22

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth;

its dwellers are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

click HERE to read in full Isa. 40, entitled Here is Your God

…for yellow frill of daffodil

For deep, blue, welkin vaults

For all the Ways of Wonderful

Spring weighs our gaze with bliss

Tell-tale Signs of Joy to Come (on the laughing tide of life)

 Today's prompt from Robert Lee Brewer for poem-a-day challenge

For today's prompt, take the phrase "Tell (blank),"

replace the blank with a new word or phrase,

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

In Ontario we are in the see-saw season of

'ah, spring, oh, winter, ah, spring, oh-h...'

Beneath the garden bench crocuses beam with plucky grace...

Futile to try to pry the bud to haste the bloom, or seize

A broom to sweep dustings of snow from hills and streets and lanes

To everything a season; soon the nakedness of trees

Will don fresh fronds of emerald lace and lofty leaf-refrains

Nature is never anxious, never ruffled by protest

It does not miss a beat, no matter how we rue its pace

Ah look, in the crook of the apple tree, a robin's nest

Beneath the garden bench crocuses beam with plucky grace

Foolish to chase the wind or shake an ineffectual fist

At Old Man Winter clinging to what not-a-one can keep

Ah, let him roar and war against the tug of shores, sun-kissed

Soon soft zephyrs will dance across meadows dappled with sheep

Futile to fret. Let hope whet appetites for joys at hand

As the first tell-tale signs of spring intensify until

Nothing can stem the laughing tide of life that sweeps the land

With green grandeur, pink blossom-blush and yellow daffodil

Janet Martin

Spring Waltz (Mariage d'Amour) Chopin

The first line in the 3rd stanza drew me to Ecclesiastes!

The endeavor...

Eccles.1:14

Ecclesiastes 1:17
So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly;

 I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind...

Ecclesiastes 2:11

Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished

 and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile,

 a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2:17

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. 

For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Ecclesiastes 2:26

To the man who is pleasing in His sight, 

He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy,

 but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating

 that which he will hand over to one who pleases God.

 This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:4

I saw that all labor and success spring from a man's envy of his neighbor. 

This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:16

There is no limit to all the people who were before them. 

Yet the successor will not be celebrated by those who come even later. 

This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Ecclesiastes 6:9

Better what the eye can see than the wandering of desire. 

This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

The conclusion...

Ecclesiastes 12:13
When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this:

 Fear God and keep His commandments,

 because this is the whole duty of man.

The Wonderful Season of Spring

 Happy First Day of Spring!☔🌞⛅🌷

You wouldn't know it from looking outside today,

in southern Ontario, but...

...(For) lo, the winter is past,

The rain(or snow?) is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth;

The time of singing has come,

And the voice of the turtledove

Is heard in our land.

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

This 'turtledove' is thinking...'shoulda brought my skates!'

This is the season of birth; earth awaking

Of somber landscapes donning garb of green

Of seed-sized hope renewed; of undertaking

Sowing’s rush hour, stoking dusty sheen

Of barren bowers clothed by nature’s seamstress

Of bud-looms bursting with God-woven lace

Of yellow flares of forsythia bushes

Of sunbeams kissing a smile to each face

This is the season so fondly awaited

Welcomed with wide open windows and doors

When Old Man Winter’s ego is deflated

Slowly but surely he softens his roars

Robins return, with lusty chirrup-hellos

Fresh bounce buoys the gait of Farmer Brown

The stream lures fishing-rods with whistling fellows

Daffodils wander through country and town

Blossoms, like blush fireworks flare and fizzle

Gardens grant glimpses of Eden-like winks

Dream and dirt merge with zeal’s refurbished sizzle

Faith is the substance of planting, methinks

This is the season of green-gladdened laughter

Of showers and flowers and mornings that sing

This is the season summer follows after

This is the wonderful season of spring

© Janet Martin

Last week we enjoyed some pre-spring celebrations...

This is the non-stop action outdoors today!

First Signs of Spring

Blue and gray canopy 

laden with showers

Bashful green filigree 

kindled with flowers...

Landscapes the color of weathered burlap...

Bird-warble wakening earth from its nap...

Robins return with their antics and lays...

Treetops still barren are ringing with praise...

Bleak garden canvases start beckoning

Exciting artists with first signs of spring...

Blue and gray canopy laden with showers

Bashful green filigree kindled with flowers

Lengthening daylight and dusk lingering

These are a few of the first signs of spring

Landscapes the color of weathered burlap

Bird-warble wakening earth from its nap

Stiff breeze and soft zephyr tug-of-warring

Thrilling our thoughts with the first signs of spring

Robins return with their antics and lays

Treetops still barren are ringing with praise

Bleak garden canvases start beckoning

Exciting artists with first signs of spring

Raindrops plip plop in a wild hip-hop dance

Sun-kisses tease eager hearts with romance

Sugar-shacks teem with maple-tree’s sweet fling

Drizzling warm pancakes with first signs of spring

Windows edge upward to let in fresh air

South-facing porches are graced with a chair

Pretty pussy-willow bouquets are purring

From front hall tables with first signs of spring

Refurbished rivulets ripple and glim

God, its great Maestro and joy, its glad hymn

Unfurled, like silver ribbon-song shimmering

Winding through meadows in first signs of spring

© Janet Martin

Pretty pussy-willow bouquets are purring

From front hall tables with first signs of spring...

Wind-song of Hope

It rings in nature’s thoroughfare

It sings in dawn’s hurrah...

It steals into each dewdrop kiss...

It flickers on the woodland wick

Aura of imminence

Ignites the budded candlestick

In mossy ambience...

It rings in nature’s thoroughfare

It sings in dawn’s hurrah

And rouses in the heart a prayer

Of never-ending awe

It flickers on the woodland wick

Aura of imminence

Ignites the budded candlestick

In moss-green ambience

It steals into each dewdrop kiss

It heals the broken dream

And to a world with much amiss

Florets unfettered stream

It lilts in warbling rondelay

It bursts with fresh belief

It waves winter’s chill wind away

With silky handkerchief

It refuels the poet’s pen

Benison of blue sky

Crowns worship’s refurbished amen

With wonder’s my-oh-my

Nothing compares to its cajole

This rival of defeat

Revives, restores, renews the soul

With anthems, warm and sweet

It tickles even stiffest lips

With hint of giddy grin

And kindles kind companionship

To all who let it in

It brings a bounce to farmer’s gait

Eye on yon graying slope

And satisfies war-sighs of ‘wait’

With Spring’s Wind-song of Hope

© Janet Martin

After a frigid, rainy week we are welcoming 

a warmer, sunny start to a new week!

Job 37:21-24

Now no one can look at the sun,

bright as it is in the skies

after the wind has swept them clean.

22 Out of the north he comes in golden splendor;

God comes in awesome majesty.

23 The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power;

in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.

24 Therefore, people revere him,

for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart?[b]”

Like Spring Chamber Music With A Twist

PAD Challenge day 14: 

For today's prompt, we're going to try something a little different

 in that I want you to write an "And Now for Something Completely Different" poem. 

This prompt is inspired by the Monty Python skits that would suddenly shift gears, 

but your poem doesn't have to be humorous. 

It should aspire to be somehow different than what you've written so far this month.

We laugh at robin antics...

Like an invitation to spring’s festival, the sun

Unfolds the earth at daybreak, beckoning to everyone...

Like an invitation to spring’s festival, the sun

Unfolds the earth at daybreak, beckoning to everyone

To rise and shine like little lights of love into a world

To slow swift pace and pause where nature’s vendors are unfurled

Like gentle chamber music, and admission is free

A festival of bars and phrases primed for poetry

Where no one is elbowing neighbors for a better view

(Although we wouldn’t mind, on this fine day, a nudge or two)

Because we are honored to be part of this happiness

While wandering through April’s festival of friendliness

We laugh at robin antics as they sing, a merry troop

And praise this perfect…what the heck?!!!

Aw! I just stepped in dog poop!!!

© Janet Martin

April Quadrille

 PAD Challenge-day 13-For today's prompt, write a forgive poem. 

Green murmur on the meadow...

First timid tufts of flora...

Green murmur on the meadow

 New nest tucked in the brush

And on the verge of birth, a surge

Of calm before the rush

A bud pulsing with promise

A garden, primed with dreams

A zephyr. soft, blue sky aloft

Earth, bursting at its seams

Marmalade-misted morning

Sweet, sun-kissed afternoon

Silhouette-show of dusk’s tableau

‘neath tusk of opaque moon

First timid tufts of flora

Nature’s most modest plumes

Presents its charms to open arms

And eyes, thirsty for blooms

The ground, like Berber carpet

Where tender bare feet dance

Earth’s spartan sweep cannot long keep

Its pristine countenance

April arouses laughter

Wakes joy akin to Heav’n

A robin’s trill, a daffodil

And winter is forgiv’n

© Janet Martin