Morning prayer

 Lovestruck

 

As the sun creeps into my room

I will praise Your Holy name

I’m the bride and You’re the groom

I anticipate the Honeymoon!

PAD 20-3 target

 Ducks

 

A thousand ducks!

Get them in a row?

Have to narrow them down

So I can grow.

 

It’s hard to leave

All those ducks behind.

But if I keep them all

I’ll lose my mind.

 

I need wisdom

To pick just a few.

Lord, please show me

What I should do.

 

I’ll follow my bent

You put in me.

I’ll choose my ducks,

And set the others free.

PAD 20-2 target

 Holy Target

 

God is my goal

He is my aim

Jesus is the way

I praise His name!

 

Holy Ghost directs

My steps each day

I hear His voice

He helps me pray

 

Praise to the Father

The Spirit, the Son

May in my life

Your will be done.

PAD 20-1 target

 Instead of fiddling around

Thinking should I or shouldn’t I?

I’ll go for it!

PAD 19-3 confession

 It’s old she said

It lay broken in my hand

Oh well, she said

PAD 19-2 Confession

 Of All the Dumb Things

 

I’ve done a lot of stupid things

Though I’m not so dumb

I bring them up to myself

Until I’m feeling numb

 

But I hear a voice telling me

You’re human, don’t despair

You haven’ done anything

That’s way beyond repair

 

Nobody’s perfect including me

I will oft declare it

Whenever I do dumb things

I’ll just grin and bear it

PAD 19-1 confession

 

Confession

In prayer

Revealing, agreeing, receiving

Guilt, humility, cleansing, joy

Declaration

PAD 18-3 sea creatures

 

Dolphins

Happy and friendly

With their smile and their chatter

Graceful arc in air

PAD 18-2 sea creatures

 

Baby harp seal

Too cute to be real

White fur, dark eyes

Sleeps on the ice

PAD 18-1 sea creature, PB triolet

Narwhals

 

The magical unicorns of the sea

Live in the Arctic their entire lives  

They’re made for the weather so wintery

The magical unicorn of the sea

Long defensive horns are actually teeth

Shorter ones belong to the narwhal wives

The magical unicorns of the sea

Live in the Arctic their entire lives  

PAD 17-3 mean nice

 

There once was a cruel king

Who was awfully mean

The people rebelled

The mean king was jailed

And what he said was obscene

PAD 17-2 mean nice

 

Nice

 

N obody wants do deal with a mean person.  One

I nciting trouble at every turn. Why no respect or no

C ompassion? Why does one turn mean? Is it anger,

E nmity, fear, selfishness? Why can’t we all be nice?

PAD 17-1 mean/nice

 Judged

 

What did you mean by that?

When she asks, I feel like a mouse

about to be pounced on by a cat.

What did you mean by that?

I know she’s the judge and jury

who already decided what she infers

is rude, wrong, hurtful or stupid.

She’s about to condemn not just

what I said but my very being.

I have to choose my words carefully

or the gavel will come down, “Guilty!”

PAD 16-3 Response poem

 

When I am Gone

Shel Silverstein

 

When I am gone what will you do?

Who will write and draw for you?

Someone smarter-someone new?

Someone better-maybe YOU!

 

Dear Shel

 

I may not be smarter, better or new.

But, Shel, I like to write and draw, too!

So now that you are dead and gone,

I’ll take up my pen and carry on.

 

PAD 16-2 Response poem

 

Put Something In

Shel Silverstein

 

Draw a crazy picture.

Write a nutty poem.

Sing a mumble-gumble song.

Whistle through your comb.

Do a loony-goony dance.

‘Cross the kitchen floor.

Put something silly in the world

That ain’t been there before.

 

Advice

I do often strive to be wise

But I’ll take Shel’s poetic advice

And simply have fun

Till my life is done

That would be surprisingly nice

PAD 16-1 Response poem

 ²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Find Rest

His yoke is easy, His burden is light.

The weary and burdened find rest.

His ways are just, true and right.

His yoke is easy, His burden is light.

In Him fears and worries take flight.

His intentions for you are the best.

His yoke is easy, His burden is light.

The weary and burdened find rest.

PAD 15-3 The meaning of blank

 The Meaning of My Life

 

Jesus gives my life purpose and meaning.

The life I live is to love Him and others,

Even when I’m quarantining.

Jesus gives my life purpose and meaning.

I pray for His intervening

In the lives of my sisters and brothers.

Jesus gives my life purpose and meaning.

The life I live is to love Him and others.

PAD 15-2 The Meaning of Blank

 The Meaning of Things

 

The things on my shelf

are there for a reason.

I can look at them one by one

and remember the seasons of life.

 

A colorful oil lamp from my neighbor.

 A gravy boat from the church

I went to as a child.

An antique metal pitcher from an aunt.

 

Two pink and blue vases

from when the kids were born.

A ceramic mountain man I made my dad.

A glass clock from my mom.

 

A ruby red decanter from my sister.

A wooden cross from

I don’t know where,

but I know what it means.

 

The whole lot of them

aren’t worth much materially,

but they mean a lot to me.

Will they to someone hereafter?

PAD 15-1 The Meaning of Blank, PB Favorite Thanksgiving food

 The Meaning of Thanksgiving Turkey

 

I like turkey the best.

Dad always cut the turkey.

It was the only kitchen task

he was ever talked into doing

until he had Alzheimer’s.

 

He forgot that it wasn’t manly

to help mom in the kitchen,

pick flowers from the garden

or say I love you, so in latter years

Dad did all of those things.

 

I like turkey the best

and realizing that though

we kids only saw the manly dad,

we somehow knew that deep down

there was that tenderhearted dad, too.

PAD 14-3 memory

 In Shannon Creek

 

In Shannon Creek, we kids would play

Barefoot we’d wade about intent

On crawdads, watching where they went,

 Or minnows quick and silver-gray.

Yes, many summer days were spent

In Shannon Creek.

 

We’d build a dam and splash and spray.

For having fun, we had a bent.

With simple play we were content.

It was the country living way.

In Shannon Creek

PAD 14-2 Memory

 I Remember

 

I remember looking down on Mom in her coffin

and thinking how beautiful she was,

though they put the wrong color of lipstick on her.

It was orangish and she always wore bright red.

But I’d rather remember her as she lived.

I remember her drawing flowers on paper plates.

I remember her drawing paper dolls and clothes for us.

I remember one particular day when I was five

that there was an uproar between us four sisters

and she got upset. She explained she was pregnant

and having another baby.

My oldest sister didn’t like the idea

but I took it all in stride.

She always made me feel special when she said,

“You are the only one of my five girls

with brown eyes like me.”

She loved the Lord and to go to church.

One time she even confided in me that at one point

she thought about being a missionary.

But she had a mission and that was to love Jim Shannon

and their five daughters.

I remember her “redding” up all the time.

When she cleaned she substituted underwear for a hairnet.

Mornings she’d say to us, “Get up and work.”

She never understood that wasn’t motivating.

She burnt popcorn for herself because it tasted “exotic.”

She could be having a bad day,

but she had a lovely telephone voice that she could

switch on and off with a ring or a click.

I remember one time when Dad was upset

because he couldn’t find anything for tomato ties,

so she tore up some good sheets so he’d have some.

I remember her baking lemon meringue pies for him on his birthday

and chocolate pies for us. And it didn’t happen very often

but she’d bake lots of cinnamon rolls that were really good.

She’d put turmeric in rice and made it yellow.

I didn’t realize people ate white rice until I went to school.

I remember her saying that when she looked

 at the clotheslines it seemed like she had five boys

because we all wore jeans.

I remember her exclaiming, “You’re only fourteen!”

when I began dating. Actually I was thirteen

but she didn’t know about the first one.

She liked her Mary Kay make up and her picture taken

in dresses or sometimes even negligées.

She had a sexy side to her and posed in leaves

with her bare shoulders out, and thought about getting Dad

gifts that I would be embarrassed to purchase.

She took pictures of everyone who came to the house,

including insurance salesmen and ditch diggers.

She wrote to everyone she met.

At Christmas time our living room door

and other doorways were loaded with Christmas cards.

She liked to draw and paint little Santas for Christmas.

She painted a big Santa Dad hung on the house eve.

She always said, “This is the best Christmas tree ever.”

She always made our birthdays and holidays special.

In her latter years she had a lot of physical problems.

She said, “Don’t get old!” I said, “What do you want me

to do, die young?” She did die pretty young, at seventy.

Her hair was still black, with one little white streak in front.

PAD 14-1 memory

 Yards

 

I grew up in a Pennsylvania country neighborhood

where yards weren’t just little squares like in town,

but acres to play ball, croquet, badminton, hide-n-seek.

 

Hills to slide on in the winter time, ponds to skate,

creeks to swim in, vines to swing on, trees to climb.

Who needed a little wooden and metal playground?

 

When we were out late or it was time for meals

the neighbors would hear their dad whistle.

My mom and aunts would just yell our names out the door.

 

After my parents passed I was taking care of things in the house

when I heard my aunt yelling from her house

which was across the road, at the foot of our large yard.

 

I went down to see what she was hollering about.

She said, “I’m glad the bellering system still works.”

PAD 13-3 lucky or unlucky

 We laughed

when our daughter

rubbed her daddy’s bald head

and made a wish.

PAD 13-2 lucky or unlucky

 Keep on Keeping On 

I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 

Sorry to disappoint you, Solomon seems to say,

Though you try hard, troubles may come your way.

You can prepare for the battle, train for the race,

but still meet failure, something you’ll have to face.

You may plant your garden in the best conditions,

still the harvest may fall short of your ambition.

You may hone your skills, get your master’s degree,

but remain unnoticed and unrewarded by the majority.

Success doesn’t come to those who never fail,

but those who keep on keeping on will prevail.

PAD 13-1 unlucky or lucky

 Unlucky

 

Today is Friday the 13^th 2020

which sounds like

breaking a mirror,

opening your umbrella inside,

walking under a ladder

and ten thousand black cats

crossing your path

all rolled into one.

PAD 12-3 number

 5,883

 

I used to think poetry

Absolutely not for me.

And though it may sound outrageous

Poetry became contagious.

I caught the bug at a writers camp

And soon became a poetry champ.

Wrote a poem a day since 2004

And grew in loving poetry more.

It may sound like an impossibility

But my poems number 5,883!

PAD 12-2 Number

 Trinity

 

One in three or is it three in one

Father, Spirit and the Son

Joyful blessings are all three

The one-in-three God surely loves me.

PAD 12-1 number

 The Day Ann Turned Ten

Mom wished she could afford more than a craft,

A simply made rag doll with button eyes.

The toy Ann wanted walked and talked and sang.

This doll may be a terrible surprise.

 

The birthday song hung silent in the air.

The diamond-shaped small cake cut shortly aft.

But something entered their small home to play,

A tiny frisky kitten with blue eyes .

 

The new rag doll now open and unmasked,

but Ann was more enthralled with her new guest.

Ann played with that sweet kitty and she laughed.

With loud delighted giggles their house rang.

 

The kitten came in like a rescue raft.

Mom though of that birthday with a heart pang.

PAD 11-3 color

 On My Bucket List

 I would love to stand in a cold crisp night

among a crowd of snowy pines pointing up

to the blue-green aurora borealis looking like

a luminescent angel descending from Heaven.

PAD 11-2 color

 The sun dipped down into the sea

Like a white glowing pupil in a red-orange eye

Above it, luminous orange clouds

Interspersed with blackness of night

PAD 11-1 color

 Periwinkle

 

I am a periwinkle fan.

A pastel purple mixed with blue.

It calms you like no other can.

And may improve your point of view.

Include it daily is my plan.

It makes my mood feel light and new. 

PAD 10-3 easy or diffictult

 

Find Rest

His yoke is easy, His burden is light.

The weary and burdened find rest.

His ways are just, true and right.

His yoke is easy, His burden is light.

In Him fears and worries take flight.

His intentions for you are the best.

His yoke is easy, His burden is light.

The weary and burdened find rest.

PAD 10-2 difficult or easy

Easy

 

We often wish things would come easy,

Flowing smoothly, light and breezy.  

We become stronger against resistance.

It takes effort to go the distance.

The higher the goal, the harder the trial,

Makes the struggle all worthwhile.

PAD-10-1 Easy or difficult

 Difficult

 

D oing things yourself can make things tough.

I ntricate problems may show you’re not enough.

F ace the grim reality, you need a helping hand.

F ighting hard, you try to understand,

I t gets tricky when you’re all alone.

C omplexities of life, can knock you off your throne.

U ntie your knotty troubles one and all, by reaching out and making a call.

L ife gets problematic. On whom can you depend?

T horns aren’t so thorny when you have a friend.

PAD 9-3 Our Blank

 Our World

 

Tightknit world

Mostly lived inside the house

Looking out the windows

While doing dailies

And day dreaming

Of escapes