Thursday, July 17, 2014

There Is Something 'bout a Garden...





There is something ‘bout a garden
Quite unlike its kindred ‘folk’
For a garden is a paradise
In spite of all its work

It listens while we pluck and pull
And prune and stake and weed
Nature unfolds its ‘wonderful’
From nothing but a seed

God’s rain and sun caresses
Each seedling like a prayer
And how its laughter blesses
Each one who pauses there

…not by its grand perfection
But by its impetus
A sweet and strange reflection
Of God’s kind patience with us

We cannot hurry flowers
Nor can we rush the root
That needs its ordained hours
Before we see its fruit

And while we wait we wander
Among its reaching green
To play and pray and ponder
Life’s miracles unseen

And somewhere in the measure
Of tilling, toiling-test
The bud unfolds its pleasure
And puts our doubts to rest

Yes, there’s something ‘bout a garden
Quite unlike all other earth
Where bare feet pitter-patter
On God's footpaths to re-birth

© Janet Martin

I have a feeling after a week away, we are going to return to a sunflower-jungle;) I decided to leave the ‘volunteer plants’ after some of the potatoes didn’t come up…if the soil isn’t working for produce plant Pleasure!


Beneath sun-flower coppice zinnias beam!

Incomprehensible All



(What wakes the bird to break night's polished deep with song?) He was singing up a storm until I got my camera out then he needed a breather:), oh, well I caught a few notes of 'joy unmeasured and fully of glory'!


What wakes the bird to break
Night’s polished deep with song
What stirs the depths above the lake
To fill its dark with dawn?

What urges green to gold?
Or probes each pulsing bud
Its rush, intangible, yet bold
Draws gardens from the mud

Ah, what rolls like a sea
Within the human breast?
Where apathy and sympathy
And joy and sorrow wrest

What stills the heart at last
Yet fills the new born wail
With breath of life; what binds us fast
Through suffering’s stormy gale?

What makes me miss you so
Yet comforts as I weep?
What keens the longing in our souls
To draw us from our sleep?

What refurbishes hope?
Or shatters twilight’s sky
To fall in petals on a slope
Where only clouds pass by

…or silvers dawn with dew
Or lavishes the lea
or kisses me with thoughts of you
Pray tell, what can it be?

What is this awesome force
No scientist can prove
Yet spawns the Want to seek its Source?
I think it must be love

© Janet Martin





  

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

We are Blessed...with Today





…and here we are, recipients of heaven-glimpses, oh
Gentle, the morning melts the dark like springtime melts the snow
The hour spreads and ripples, its circumference exhales
To tint with periwinkle pasture-lane in star-like veils

These glimpses hush our pleading for the clattering of things
And somehow what we’re needing spills to earth from seraph-wings
Behind the gray of rainy day, we know an ocean waits
Its ether hold will pour like gold through heaven’s broken gates

Today is quite unlike its predecessors, none before
Has ever worn its garment or passed through Time’s two-fold door
And when it disappears, then, only then will this day be
A button on the uniform of bridled history

Here we are; tomorrow is a foreign fantasy
But ah, today implores from us the best that we can be
To touch kind heaven-glimpses with the wonder of a child
To let our fingers linger where the love of God runs wild

What good are our long faces with our bellies full of bread?
Unfold those fists; God’s graces are not drum-rolls for the dead
Where dread and worry tramples beneath ever-seeking feet
Love’s delicate examples of God-gifted meadow-sweet

Here we are, but only for a little while then we
Like Time, but with a soul will fade into eternity
Our remnant like the seeds that fall where barren blossoms die
Come, now the hour pleads from God, ah, how will we reply?

© Janet Martin

...my first reply will be with cloth and broom, then we'll see;)

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

This Life





This trip-slip, death-grip, fumbling, stumbling, fully humbling flight
This ‘it seems I must learn through my mistakes what I do right’
This churning, yearning, no-returning, ever-learning leap
Propels us ever onward; rise ‘n shine, labor and sleep

This groping, hoping, coping, holding, folding dawn to dusk
This ‘count your many blessings’ journey and ‘in God we trust’
This crying, sighing, trying, wondering, pondering surge
Does not excuse us from its quest as dark and daylight merge

This bloody, muddy study vexes and perplexes us
This all-consuming rooming-house of living’s muss and fuss
This trial-and-error troubling terror would be hard to bear
If we couldn’t call on Jesus in love’s tender splendor; prayer

© Janet Martin
  

This All-knowing God





This all-knowing God
Knows far beyond our thought
Oh, that we would learn to trust
In all we deem is not

Our understanding pales
Where His mercy begins
Subordinate acumen fails
In creatures prone to sin

Yet, this all-knowing God
Loves us beyond our greed
We covet our desires, but
He knows our deepest need

© Janet Martin

 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
    fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
    over the man who carries out evil devices! Ps. 37:7

It is so hard not to fret; esp. where the desires for our loved ones are concerned!
This message really spoke to me today!