Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Ears to Hear...Today's Song (and a funny video of my grandson's reaction to the snow!)

Where muffled footsteps fall
En route to find a perch
To revel in the madrigal
In nature’s perfect church...


…to listen as we should
(for time’s timing is keen)
To sermons from the winnowed wood...


That once stood, lush and green


Snow-lovers are singing winter's praises this morning!๐ŸŽœ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ❄❄❄

(the video doesn't pick up the excited and what I am interpreting as happy tweet-tweets๐Ÿ˜Š)

other's not so much๐Ÿ’–๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚



Lord, grant us ears to hear
The melodies of life
Help us find today’s song, so dear
From orchestras run rife
In hush of morn beguiled
By rush of notes dusk quells
In darling laughter of a child (or other sounds of a child๐Ÿ˜‚)
In chimes of Christmas bells

Lord, give us ears to hear
Sacred commonplace lays
That kindle in the eye a tear
And set heart-hearths ablaze
The tea, as it is poured
The click of spoons in cups
Symphonies all ears can afford
To cheer life’s downs with ups

The heave of billows borne
On time’s four-season tide
The brittle leaves in sheaves of corn
Snow-truffled countryside
Where muffled footsteps fall
En route to find a perch
To revel in the madrigal
In nature’s perfect church

…to listen as we should
(for time’s timing is keen)
To sermons from the winnowed wood
That once stood, lush and green
To treasure tenderly
The timbre of ‘hello’
Before the solemn harmony
Of final farewells flow

Lord, give us ears to hear
The cries of those in need
Your still, small Voice to counter fear
And condemn lust and greed
Lord, grant us ears to hear
Beyond the noise of strife
The tempo of love’s songs so dear
Tuning the joys of life

© Janet Martin

He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
Matt.11:15




Saturday, December 24, 2022

Snowbound!

We are in the thick of a blizzard! 

Stay safe and warm!










Now is the hour of reprieve
When every sprig becomes a sheave
Bent with a brumal burst of stars
When featherdown bedecks earth’s bars
As each snow-swaddled house and yard
Composes a vintage post-card
And every home becomes more sweet
When gales go howling down the street
And happiness is safe and sound
When we are cozy and snowbound

When window-frames are works of art
That only winter can impart
When mugs of steaming luxury
Are like hugs of coffee and tea
When nothing presses to be toiled
When we are awe and wonder spoiled
As nature brushes slopes awry
And swirls the scope of land and sky
With wild beauty, while tempests hound
And rile plans with two words; snowbound

Now books are like frigates unfurled
From fireside nooks, across the world
Because, ink snared in verbal font
Can take us anywhere we want
Like travelers who need no fare
To reserve a room or a chair
Clad in comfy flannel and fleece
As we are filled with joy and peace
While wild winds wail, pummel and pound
The storm-tossed seas we sail; snowbound

Soup pots simmer with five-star meals
Thankfulness bows our heads and feels
A hymn no words can capture, quite
As worlds are blurred with white on white
As we pray for the brave who bear
The elements, for creature care
While we are safe and sound and glad
For woodpiles heaped, feet slipper-clad
While winter wonderlands confound
We who are home-sweet-home-snowbound

Now is the hour of content
How swift the gift of came-and-went
Of so-it-goes, this-too-shall-pass
While we peer through snow-swaddled glass
To watch the birds and then recall
‘God sees the little sparrow fall’
Then to let smiles and laughter cheer
The solace of sweet home so dear
While we are snug and safe and sound
In hours of reprieve, snowbound

© Janet Martin





Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Relentless Gladness or For The Sake of Souls Still Lost

Psalm 51:7

Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; 
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

(whiter than snow?!! Can you imagine it?)
We are in a snow-white world today in Ontario!
Well, on closer scrutiny, white that dons hues of blues and golds!
Gorgeous!




“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. 
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; 
though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
Isa.1:18

This world is so full of madness, evil scheme and rebel pride
Yet, through grace, relentless gladness of faith, hope and love abide
For greater is He within us than the meanness of the age
We have victory in Jesus even while vile battles rage

Come, let us reason together whether young, old, rich or poor
Take the yoke that mercy tethers to the Hand, scarred and secure
He who walked in Eden’s Garden where guilt sought to hide away
Will still sorry sinner pardon; harden not your heart today

Though our stains of sin are scarlet he will wash us white as snow
Break the chain that binds the harlot to the chamber of the foe
This is no trite invitation when Christ calls, ‘come unto Me’
The seal of the soul's salvation drenched the cross of Calvary

Yet with grace-empowered patience God restrains the trumpet sound
And the face-to-face acquaintance of His own gathered around
For this world so full of madness, suffering and trouble-tossed
He delays That Day of Gladness, for the sake of souls still lost

Faith is fitted for the hour, not by the power of man
But by He who did not cower when confronted with Love's Plan/hate's clan
He did not claim the advantage of equality with God
But beheld beyond death's vantage, its defeat and triumph's laud


© Janet Martin



Tuesday, November 30, 2021

A Soft Snowfall Poem


This poem was started on the back of an envelope
I found in Jim's truck after church on Sunday
while I waited for him to look after a few work details
It was inspired by the scenes
where it felt like God shook the snow-globe we are living in๐Ÿ˜Š

Teasels topped in frosty toques...


Branches brushed in stencil-art



Wild grass bent like white-washed stooks...


Brook banks plush and snowflake-starred 


Every sprig, white pom-pom crowned



Every twig cotton-ball bowed



Teasels topped in frosty toques
Branches brushed in stencil-art
Wild grass bent like white-washed stooks
Brook banks plush and snowflake-starred

Every sprig, white pom-pom crowned
Every twig, cotton-ball bowed
Every footstep, snuffed of sound
Everybody white-world wowed (well, almost:)

Earth and heavens interfuse
Where the meadow meets the sky
Beauty exceeds duty’s dues
Rousing worship’s perfect sigh

Windsong is a whisper, oh
Birdsong is muffled in white
Woodlands wear wool scarves of snow
Dreamlands waken pure delight

Earth is like a snow-globe shook
Where the countryside and town
Look like pictures in a book
Tucked beneath white eiderdown

© Janet Martin




Saturday, February 20, 2021

Whisper-Soft

 We woke to a whisper-soft world!

Happy One-month-till-spring-Saturday!!

The sun has a lot of gold beaming to do this year to get rid of white whispers...๐Ÿ˜Š




White whispers cling to everything 
Like featherdown from angel-wings 
White whispers blanket barren limbs 
Like notes composing argent hymns 
White whispers deck hill, rill and dell 
Like stars that lost their grip and fell 
White whispers muffle sound, like feet 
A-dancing, down a downy street 
White whispers sparkle like a sweep 
Of diamond-dazzle-streams, knee-deep 
White whispers tumble, twirl and waft 
Until the world is whisper-soft 

© Janet Martin 

Friday, January 29, 2021

Dawn Ditty








...and then, a little later on
the dawn, with a tremendous yawn
could not contain hope's hip-hooray
and chased the brooding clouds away

Janet~




There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

7 The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Psalm 46:4-7








Monday, May 11, 2020

Trying to Be Patient But...




Garden fingers itching
Flowers beg to bloom
We long to be stretching (shoeless)
In earth’s living-room
We are shiver-weary
Summer-ready, oh
Please, please May snow-flurry
It is time to GO

© Janet Martin

All Together Now...

All together now...let's say it and mean it!
This is the day the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Ps.118:24

 (although most of us will admit the colour of the backdrop has ceased to be amusing
I've never in all of my almost 54 years seen anything like it!
The snow-plow just went by on May the 11th!)



We cannot sway the soundless force
Where morning spills its charge
And we are called to stay the course
With He who stays the barge

For retrospect will soon survey
Today’s proffered appeal
A medley of moments that play
A melody, surreal

Then make the most of here and now
This holy bread we break
Is more than time’s begotten chow
To thanklessly partake

This is the day the Lord has made
For rich and poor the same
To rejoice and be glad in it
And glorify His name

Then praise him all together, love
Who knows what waits to be
Where we are at the mercy of
Love's flawless majesty 

© Janet Martin


 oh well I said to Victoria...
it really does look like this is the last of it
Victoria's reply; I'll believe it when I see it'
(can't really blame her!)
Victoria's remark jolted a little add-on poem

 
I’ll believe it when I see
Sometimes glibly we reply
When bare fact and expectation
Vex us with what meets the eye

I’ll believe it when I see it
May we never dare to dare
He who all will bow before Him
When He appears on the air

Too late then for the redemption
He beckons all to receive
If we wait until we see Him
Before we choose to believe

© Janet Martin