Dusk's Deep, Blue Veranda

 

From dusk’s deep blue veranda

Time drinks the dying day

As if, because its supper-time

There’s nothing more to say…

Day-moments, like a ripple

In the harbor or bay

Though I would stretch them to your sky

Slip silently away

Gilt glimmer on the bayou

Where light and darkness vie

'neath dusk’s deep blue veranda

We tarry, you and I

…there touch and thought embraces

Faces and places dear

Then, dusk’s deep blue veranda

Dips and they disappear

© Janet Martin

Of Dimming Day...

 (gorgeous moon tonight!)

Already I can feel the dawn

Of dimming daylight pool

In purple-gray across the lawn

From twilight’s tugging spool

I’d tuck you in my pocket, love

Like some, childhood-sweet prize

But oh, you slip from daylight’s glove

To locket-shaped good-byes

These moments knit together in

Slurs, silk and softly caught

Will never meet like this again

Save perhaps in my thought

...as, tumbling from Time’s two-tiered boon

Its giving-taking thread

Gathers another afternoon

To pictures in my head

…yet, even there, I am aware

‘Tis mere snippets thought keeps

Thus motionless I pause; the air

Of dimming daylight weeps

© Janet Martin

Victoria and I agree that these tired cookies taste better today than they have all season! I don't quite know why but maybe because they're not the after-thought following a dinner; just a nice afternoon snack with a good book and a cup of tea... (or coffee)

Resolve Renewed

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matt 6:33

To touch with sacred gratitude life’s ordinary things

To realize that there is no ‘mundane’ on Mercy-strings

To hope with deeper purpose than the want of flesh and blood

To drink with giddy fervor from a fountain filled by God

To work with holy hunger and to eat with humble heart

To see with wide-eyed wonder the splendor of nature’s art

To hear the melody of moments soft, as they compose

Life-lyrics to a love-song that with each day grows and grows

To pray with patient trust, then surrender every request

To He who sees the Whole and knows what is our utter- best

To recognize with kinder eyes my fellowman, to smile

And welcome opportunity to walk love’s second mile

To read the Word of God more, more and do less worrying

To know that He is able and greater than anything

To love a little slower and to give with more respect

To seek those treasures squandered in haste’s self-centered neglect

To resolve to remember what I should or else, should not

Then to forget the rest lest it devours idle thought

To live and love each day as if it were to be my last

To prepare for The Awesome More when this wee life is past

© Janet Martin

The Morning of the Second Day of The New Year

And now the spout that doles time’s days has dripped one measure’s worth

Of this New year into that winsome, winding far-off firth

A glimmer from yon quiver to a shimmer that we chase

My, my, how swift the skyline dips to kiss dusk’s drowsy face

The scale that weighs the ways of men tips either left or right

The morning of the second day unveils its appetite

We stretch our mouths to drink anew from Bygone’s brimming base

Accepting invitations that oft thoughtless, we embrace

God’s laughter rends the sash that binds the darkness to the air

The tears we weep caught in His hands and held with utmost care

Where heaven gapes with gold; its mold of hope a shaping place

My, my how swift its morning and its evening interlace

Dawn's white-capped moments murmur like a summer full of sea

We gaze with sacred honor on its sweep of mystery

That soon will spill its fill until twilight droops to erase

With hue of deep, deep, deeper blue this second day of grace 

 

…but now the spout that doles Today is rife with Mercy’s mete

God claps His hands and lays Love’s fortune ‘neath our fumbling feet

Time's street, a holy highway that no new day will retrace

My, my, how we should try to run full-well its gifted race

© Janet Martin

Of Unmarred Now...

 The East its lowered bars withdrew and ushered to our arms, time's New! Happy 2015!

 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Pet.1:3

Upon the prow of unmarred Now

Beams hope’s unblemished grace

Still, soon its air will sadly wear

Our scratches on its face

Man’s polished way too soon falls prey

To disappointment’s chill

His shoulder bent with discontent

And error-smitten will

Time disappears; Auld Lang Syne cheers

And bids the old adieu

As on the prow of unmarred Now

We dare to dream anew

For without hope, how can we cope?

And what bids us pursue

That which yet waits beyond the gates

If we disdain the New?

Upon the prow of unmarred Now

Kindly, the New Year gleams

As we press hard to streets un-scarred

…touch plunders Mercy-streams

© Janet Martin