April: A poet’s favorite month! 🙂
DAY 30 prompt from Robert Lee Brewer of Poetic Asides: Write a praise poem.
Link to Poetic Asides PAD Challenge Day 30
Want to use a form, and need help choosing one? Here’s our Bloomin’ list ( 😉 ): Inform Poets .
UPDATE: The last day of April? Really? Sad to see it come to an end. All month (plus a 10-day “countdown”), we’ve shared Robert’s 2020 April Poem-a-Day Challenge prompts right here at Poetic Bloomings. We suspended our own Sunday prompts and other features during April, in favor of simply poeming alongside the WD Poetic Asides group. It’s been great fun!
To those who have joined us, whether regularly or sporadically: you have made our April fly by. It has been our pleasure to host you. We hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have. You are a treasure to Walt and me!
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Tomorrow (May 1), look for Walt’s weekly “For Your Consideration” prompts to begin again. We will also resume our Sunday morning “Seed” prompts, and Wednesday “Inform Poet” prompts. Enjoy the last day of Robert Lee Brewer’s April PAD Challenge at Asides, and then let’s jump back into tending our garden here at Bloomings!
❤
Connect, keep healthy, and poem on!
POETIC BLOOMINGS 
AFTEREFFECT
When praise
had turned his head
from level to upward,
it was certain he would not see
the cliff.
This should be on one of those motivational posters!
AN ODE TO AN ADOBE ABODE
It stands upon the plain, as plain
as plains themselves, but years of rain
and wind have wreaked their will. In pain
I walk the lane. I walk the lane
with memories of sunshine days
when laughs within would mimic rays
that bounced along the walls in ways
that whispered praise. That whispered praise.
I love the repetition
Me too, me too!!
THE SONG OF THE CEDAR WAXWINGS
(Based on “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition”; Frank Loesser, 1942)
Praise the Lord and pass the blinkin’ berry;
praise the Lord and pass the blinkin’ berry;
praise the Lord and pass the blinkin’ berry
and we’ll all get drunk.
Praise the Lord and let us all be merry;
can’t afford to drop one from our aerie;
praise the Lord and pass the blinkin’ berry;
and we’ll all get drunk.
Yes, the Great Waxwing said it,
you’ve got to give him credit
for a son-if-a-gun of a punner was he.
So, praise the Lord, no load’s too much to carry;
hop aboard before they turn to sherry;
praise the Lord and pass the blinkin’ berry
and we’ll all get drunk.
I love, love, love this ditty
Super duper!
Praise
4/30/20
For every breath I take,
for every thought I think,
for every beat of my heart,
I praise and glorify Your name, Lord Jesus.
For every word I write,
for every task I do,
for every life I touch,
I praise and glorify Your name, Lord Jesus.
For every day I’ve been granted,
for every blessing I’ve received,
for everything You’ve allowed,
I praise and glorify Your name, Lord Jesus.
Worthy praise indeed
Thx.
D
A
Y
30
Self Love
Only we ourselves can free us,
as no one else can be us.
What we think, we’ll surely see,
assume it is and it will be.
Sending love into the world, to all today,
letting thoughts of darkness slip away,
we lovingly, faithfully praise,
creatively, honestly bless.
Good shines through the murky haze,
as we smile, receive. No more, no less.
We prepare not to die,
but rather more to live, to grow,
as life and death in the same place lie,
view our poems, what they give, for us to know.
We forgive ourselves for any doubt,
knowing Spirit is within, without.
We are one with God,
come what may.
It’s all ours to choose,
this and every day.
“It’s all ours to choose,
this and every day.” … Amen and amen
Praise the Peacemakers
Praise to the mild-mannered ones
who don’t succumb to fits of ire
who plod through the fray of rainy days,
delays, missteps, upsets, and suffer the fools
of the world with lips upcurled.
Praise to the ones slow to wrath,
pick a path of peace, toss a fleece of kindness
over the shoulders of the rabble-rouser
and be a douser of incivility.
Praise, praise the mild mannered ones.
Well said! Love the “fleece of kindness”.
This one belongs on the icebox
Thanks William
THANK GOD, by Walter J Wojtanik
Thank God April is over,
the undue pressure we poets
put on ourselves can get shelved
for another year especially
through the COVID dilemma.
Poems would not flow
the more we had to go through,
My efforts were just so-so now,
not a wow like they used to be.
April is gone and I long for normalcy.
I don’t see it ever getting close.
Thank God, April is over.
Any effort is good – yours especially
Yes
Closer to seeing my kids and grandkids in person. Thank goodness
In Praise of Change
She’d grown quite fond of cloudy days
for they were all she ever knew,
their dull and subdued somber ways,
their many shades of smoke-like gray.
Until, one day, the Sun peeked through.
She’d grown quite fond of cloudy days
until she had been touched by rays.
looked up and spied a patch of blue,
no dull and subdued somber ways.
Instead, a yellow burst of praise.
A different, joyous point of view.
She’d grown quite fond of cloudy days
now, no more doubts, no more malaise.
She felt as if her heartbeats grew,
no dull and subdued somber ways.
Then clouds returned, her courage swayed
afraid to embrace something new.
She’d grown quite fond of cloudy days,
their dull and subdued somber ways.
–
Really nice. I love the repetition. We have had so much rain after the spring weather (that was too early) that I am not at all so fond of it but tolerate it.
It’s been gloomy and wet here
Superb villanelle.
Thanks. One of my favorite forms
Last poem of April, 2020. What a month!
FROM HIM, THROUGH HIM, TO HIM (Sonnet to my God)
Oh, stillness deep within me, never wane
when chaos saturates the world without.
I know the very God who sees and reigns –
whose still, small voice speaks peace, and quiets doubt.
He gave mankind a gnawing in our soul
that won’t be satisfied without His will.
And only He can quench that thirsty hole;
and only through His food, we get our fill.
At times, my praise rings sonorous and strong,
and springs from nourished soul that feeds on Him.
At times my praise, just weak and weary song,
seeps sluggishly from apathy within.
Oh, Father, fill me up when I am drained,
and may my praise be endless; unrestrained.
© Marie Elena Good, 2020
This sonnet is full of lovely sounds.
Lovely. And those last two line a beautiful plea.
In praise of poeming pals
who persist in praise
and inspiration
despite pandemonium.
Pressing On
What I appreciate about you, hubby,
is that though two strokes robbed you
of so much, you’re not depressed
or rendered useless by self-pity.
You don’t drag me down in gloom.
You appreciate me when I
do things you can’t do anymore.
You just plug along and
do whatever you can each day.
You laugh at my jokes.
You cry when you think about the Lord.
A lot of people would be very difficult
to live with after what happened to you.
Thank you for just pressing on.
Great
A worthy praise and wonderful husband
Glory
“Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: ‘He is good; his love endures forever.’ Then the temple of the LORD was filled with the cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.” (2 Chronicles 5:13-14 NIV)
At the dedication of the temple,
God, You, showed up.
I praise You for many things,
creation, love, forgiveness
holiness, eternal power.
But Your glory sets me in awe.
In the presence of Your glory
fire falls, priests can’t stand,
people hit the pavement to worship You.
Your glory is unique to You.
No one even comes close.
I praise You for Your glory.
Thank You for the times
that I’ve tasted even drops of it
during worship, out in nature
in prayer, or by that still, small voice.
My heart sings, “You are good
and Your love endures forever.”