Colour Blind Cat.

Christmas is coming,
We'll all be getting fat
I'm busy making Christmas cards
With a most half hearted cat.
It's really quite a blessing

I think he's colour blind
He's painted Santa purple
And the snow a sort of lime
My promarkers are vanishing
He hides them under chairs
And when I reprimand him
He says "I do not care"
So I'll do the rest myself I think
In colours that I choose
And if he offers help again
I sadly must refuse!

Traces of Gold

This poem was inspired by a friend who spoke of creating something beautiful out of the discarded and the unwanted............for you Helen.

Lord you take the discarded, all we cast aside
And you treasure and nurture, regard with great pride
for you name as your own each and every, bar none
Since you loved us enough to send Jesus your son.
No "unwanted", no "useless", no one "past their best"
Unhindered by age or ill health or the rest
of the things that we feel our worth would deny
Your perception is greater than our natural eye.

You delight in restoring the damaged and broken
with long term solutions, not temporary token
No half hearted "patching up" measures you take
For you deal in wholeness when souls are at stake.
You take broken pieces, the lost you restore
We come with so little, gain abundantly more
Your ways may we replicate, help us to view 
The people around us the way that you do,
To somehow look deeper, more clearly behold
Beneath surface grime lie traces of gold.

Karen Holmes
September 28th 2012

Safe Again

I just felt very strongly that I should write this poem.  Perhaps someone has been fooled or deceived into thinking that God has turned His back, that He isn't interested any more, that the relationship you once enjoyed with Him is ended forever.  This is not God's way, God holds open His arms to each and everyone of us - worship is about God - not us, let us recognise His voice as he calls us back into a place of safe keeping and let us remember that God is bigger than all our thoughts and all our deeds.

For a long time now I've held
to a misconceived belief
that our friendship, Lord was over
and I've cried such tears of grief.
All those years of walking with you
all the blessed times I've known
full Salvation through my Jesus
yet suddenly I felt alone.
For I thought that I had fallen
far from grace and cast aside
so I ran, confused and angry
from your presence tried to hide.

Oh my God, I'm hurting deeply,
Great Redeemer, Sovereign King
recently I've heard you calling
arms outstretched and welcoming.
Is it true? Oh Great Creator
Do you look on me and smile?
Do you seek to draw me nearer
as a loved and precious child?
Oh my God, my soul rejoices
As I run to your embrace
Safe again, your arms around me
Boundless love, Amazing Grace.

Karen Holmes.
June 15th 2012

Always the Answer

Inspired by a comment on facebook.  Having listened to the  song by Robin Mark "I will walk" which includes the lyrics "And I will walk with You and I will find a way to show your Word is truth"  I wondered aloud how I could do that - the reply - "Love is always the answer"  Thank you Debs.x

I only have love to offer
That’s all that I can give
I don’t have wealth or riches
A fancy life to live
I’ve the usual qualifications
And a couple more beside
But I don’t claim that I know much
I’m no scholar, though I’ve tried
I don’t have vast experience
I haven’t travelled far
I’ve not won any medals
Just a long ago gold star!
I don’t have all the answers
Sometimes words fail me as well
But I’m good at holding someone’s hand
Or lifting one who fell
I’m good at letting people cry
I’m good at joining in!
I’m good at walking side by side
Wherever you have been.
That’s all I have to offer
It’s not a lot, I know
But love’s always the answer
When there’s no place else to go.

Karen Holmes
April 24th 2012

Ducks

Yes this is true - it happened to me today, much to the amusement of a cyclist also on the tow path!

I was walking along the canalside
Being followed by a duck
I’d reached in my pocket for something
And that was all it took
It looked at me and quacked and so
I quacked back in reply
It then set off in hot pursuit
And others heard it’s cry
And looked up from their slumbers
And climbed onto the side
Their quacking rose in volume
Like a uncontrolled vast tide
They made me feel guilty
For I hadn’t any bread
I thought I should go buy some
The poor things must be fed
But in the end I didn’t
I forgot whilst in the Range
But when I walked back home
They still remembered me, how strange!
This time I did not talk to them
Or even meet their eye
Till I was safely past them
Then I bid them all goodbye!


Karen Holmes
12 April 2010

Good Intentions

Disclaimer - the person mentioned in this verse is entirely fictional and any resemblence to persons living or dead (of chocolate poisoning) is completely co-incidental!

As a healthy, good alternative I’ll have a boiled egg
I’ll cook it so it’s runny and toast a bit of bread
Some healthy olive spread and then some Bovril on it too
I think that this will be quite nice, and then a grape or two
Or maybe a banana or an apple crisp and fresh
I have no time for junk food, biscuits, cakes and all the rest
A cup of tea with  just skimmed milk, no sugar will I add
There’s no need for indulgences they only make you bad.

But then I think, a little treat would surely go down well
I bought myself an Easter egg, the smallest that they sell.
I thought I’d have a bit to taste then give the rest away
Just one small piece, after my lunch, to mark this Easter Day
I looked upon the pretty box and opened with great care
It wouldn’t do to mess it up, as this was meant to share
The foil looked so pretty, machine wrapped I suppose
And as I moved it to one side, the aroma hit my nose!

Ooh lovely, creamy chocolate, just waiting there for me
I tried to break it gently but there was no way I could see
So I hit it with my fist and grabbed the biggest piece I saw
And soon I’d eaten half of it - and then I’d scoffed it all!
Oh heck - that wasn’t what I planned
My healthy bubble burst
Although at least self righteously
I’d had some fresh fruit first!!

Karen Holmes
April 6th 2012

The old, old story.

Whilst trying to come up with a new Easter poem this year I found I simply couldn't.  What more could be added?  And so I wrote this

I cannot come up with a new line of thought
On Easter, when God each human soul sought
with a passion so deep, that He turned His face
from his son, an act of selfless grace.
His zeal for us, His aching desire
To do whatever was required
To pave the way for our return
How can mankind such great love spurn?

I cannot think how great the cost
To reclaim one who wandered lost
And aimlessly through life’s vast maze.
How can we not bow down in praise?
How can we still ignore His cry
When we know He sent His son to die?
Why would we turn and walk away
From the truth of the risen Christ today?

I have no words to offer here
To bring a new message, for if it’s not clear
from all we’ve heard and all we know
there’s no fresh news I can bestow.
For it is finished, done, complete
No other love can yet compete
with this amazing love divine
I rest my case in these few lines.

A verse from my Sunday school days
“The old, old story it is ever new
The old, old story praise the Lord tis true
That Jesus died for me as well as you
I love the old, old story”

Karen Holmes
April 5 2012