Wednesday, October 31, 2018

How Then..An October-Farewell Madrigal









How bittersweet the madrigal
Of rain and leaf-notes as they fall
Where petal-puddles pin Farewell
Like medals on earth's frayed lapel

How loyal is autumn's postcard
 Of hill and vale and boulevard
For Nature has no good-old-days
Unruffled by man's changing ways

How swift the scenes of summer spent
As green is bronze and umber rent
The headstones these fond hours wove
Are wreathed in smiles and tears of love

How soundless is the gong that tolls
This birth-to-death breath-hymn that rolls
In four-season-stanzas until
The hands and sands of Time lie still

How sacred is this Soul-full sweep
Where seasons grant what none can keep
As Someone silences the song
That strummed the air all summer long

How temporal the rise and fall
Of bud-to-bloom to deck-earth’s-hall
Where soon High Noon of Want achieves
The resting place of autumn leaves

How then we should not overlook
The Bigger Picture in a book
Where turn of page and age and leaf
Restores each flower to its Chief

© Janet Martin



Monday, October 29, 2018

A Few Of My Fav'rite Fall Things






Leaf-papered walkways and pumpkins on porches
Gusts snuffing gold poplar-tapers and torches
Tea after twilight and long evenings
These are a few of my fav’rite fall things
Frost-dazzled daybreak and warm socks and ‘knickers’
Orchard a-bustle with rosy-cheeked pickers
Harvesters humming hope’s thanksgiving hymns
These are a few of my fav’rite fall things
When the blooms sleep
When the woods weep
When summer has been ‘had’
I think of a few of my fav’rite fall things
Then I don’t feel so sad

Raindrops on windows paint quaint water-colors
Woodpiles replenished as well as fruit cellars
Gardens unraveled and slum’bring ‘til spring
These are a few of my fav’rite fall things
Book-baskets filled with more than wishful glances
Wind-brooms in ballrooms with rake-partnered dances
Wide-eyed tots tickled by autumn’s heaped wings
These are a few of my fav’rite fall things
When the temps drop
When the nuts plop
When I feel time’s sting
I think of a few of my fav’rite fall things
Then I feel like a king

Fresh bread and veggie-soup suppers, not salad
Kiss on my face by a cheeky breeze-ballad
Startled by music from leaf-winnowed strings
These are a few of my fav’rite fall things
Ling’ring to worship on sweeps of corn-stubble
Drinking the thrill of a hill steeped in purple
Spellbound by belfries where Death’s red gong rings
These are a few of my fav’rite fall things
When the jay calls
When the day crawls
Out of bed, gray-clad
I think of a few of my fav’rite fall things
Then oh, I feel so glad

Lure of a longer way home cuz steps crackle
Better-than-ever big bite of fresh apple
Cider, pies, fritters, crisps, muffins, dumplings
Apples are ten of my fav’rite fall things   
The wind is a busker, each grass field, a fiddle
Plump milkweed-pods primed to pop down the middle
Hail the Creator, whatever life brings
Earth is a-blur with fall-favourite things
When the gale moans
When our stiff bones
Seem to creak with cold
I simply start counting my fav’rite fall things
Then I don’t feel so old


Fireside chats and a snooze for no reason
Sweaters and hats that we choose for the season
Chasing leaf-cartwheels like cats chasing strings
These are a few of my fav’rite fall things
Mountain ash garnets set on sky-blue satin
Stark silhouettes sketched on dusk’s coral curtain
Crisp country mornings where fog fragment clings
These are a few of my favourite fall things
When the gale roars  
When the sun snores
When flow’rs turn to seed
I simply start counting my fav’rite fall things
Then I feel blessed indeed

© Janet Martin



© Janet Martin


Silk-soft, Soundless, White-whispered Hush


We've had enough white fluff here to make us think about winter tires etc.
...but happily nothing has finished off fall quite yet!




Silk-soft; from other-worlds aloft cloud-caldrons spill in snow
To gild fall’s fading flare with winter’s first frosty hello
Rollicking chill frills still-life poses of fence-post and tree
It settles in late roses; dusts with stars the dowdy lea

Soundless, like moments rife with life and transformation-bent
First snow wakes in Want’s weathered skin, a child-like wonderment
It stirs the human heart with art on wall-less arcades hung
The melting of a moment like snowflakes caught on the tongue

White-whisper kissed, the sky untwists the cork from flasks that brim
With sparkle-serenades that deck the hills and barren limb
Where it seems we sang hymns of spring not very long ago
Now lilting leaf lies still beneath the frolic of first snow

Hush, hush, the brush that dashes diamond-glitter to the world
Will bring, when bloom-time comes once more, the bitty bud unfurled
to everything under heaven there is a season, oh
Silk-soft, soundless, white-whispered Hush ushers in fall’s first snow

© Janet Martin







We Are Able (through the Rock of Ages)


One of my favourite flee-to 'comfort and hope' hymns...


For we, who seem to be a people perched precariously
Upon these Times and Places filled with Great Uncertainty
It leaves us humbly grateful that in all life’s push and shove
We know that We Are Able through a Father’s faithful love

For we who oft relinquish understanding for meek trust
Where live-laugh-love-weep-pray is but the glove of dust to dust
Know all the answers of this world are but verbose regale
Without the promises of God that can and will not fail

For we, who flee on bended knee before a Father’s throne
And place upon the altar of His grace, each stepping stone
It leaves us humbly grateful that in all we cannot see
God’s love so kind and faithful never forsakes you and me

For we who bear a Living Soul beneath this dying skin
God sent His Son so everyone can access Hope through Him
Then, though the Unknown gapes before us to and through the grave
We know that We Are Able through God’s Love, mighty to save  


© Janet Martin

 For this reason, even though I suffer as I do, I am not ashamed;
for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able 
to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.
 Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching you have heard from me, 
with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 
Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, 
with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. 
2 Tim.1:12-14





Now this is what the LORD says—
He who created you, O Jacob,
and He who formed you, O Israel:
 “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
 I have called you by your name;
you are Mine!
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you go through the rivers,
they will not overwhelm you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be scorched,
and the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
your Savior;
Isa.43:1-3