Vesper

I like a land where dusk rolls free

Across unhindered hills

Where vesper-flushed tranquility

The heart’s deep hunger fills

I like a clime where green is chief

Before gold flows waist high

Where time is marked by turn of leaf

And woodland’s fading sigh

I like to lounge on banks of grass

And list to zephyrs jive

The river like a looking glass

Where swallows dip and dive

I like a land, glorious and grand

Because God made it so

And all we truly understand

Is, tis by grace we go

Tomorrow is another day

(If Time its grace imparts)

To send the travelers on their way

With hope-refurbished hearts

© Janet Martin

A Psalm of Joy

We are invited  at 1-minute Bible Love Notes to write a psalm of joy to our Creator! 

Thank-you Benjy, for sharing a poem I wrote entitled Miracle on your blog today

Oh Lord, you broke the dark. Your light

Before all things, obeyed

Then, moon and stars to rule by night

And sun to rule by day

Oh Lord, you filled Void with your Word

Creating bird and flow’r

Our eyes have seen, our ears have heard

But glimpses of your Pow’r

You shake the firmaments with awe

With purple, red and gold

You drape the air where dusk and dawn

Are Someone to behold

Summer, winter, springtime and fall

Declare Your workmanship

Where earth is like a banquet hall

And man, the guest in it

Oh Lord, there is none greater, no

Father of everything

You stoke the seed from whence fruits flow

To succor Need’s wellspring

You spoke and broke Vast Nothingness

Drew miracles from dirt

Pledged Hope’s immortal Awesomeness

To mankind’s mortal hurt

Oh Lord, you took pity on us

Cursed with sin’s guilt and shame

And freely gave Your Son, Jesus

Salvation’s sacred Name

Oh Lord, You broke the dark. Your Light

Before all things, obeyed

Love paid sin’s debt with blood whereby

All sinners can be saved

© Janet Martin

More Or Less...

The older I get sometimes it seems

That what I thought I knew

Plays tricks on me and I am quite

Uncertain what to do

So when somebody asks me, 'if-

What-how-why, tell me, oh'

I find it safest to reply

I really just don’t know

..because the more birthdays I get

The less the years have cleared

And all my answers patented

In youth have disappeared

For what I thought was not, is so

And what I thought so, not

And all the rest I must confess

It seems I've quite forgot

© Janet Martin

Does My Life Really Matter?

When the snow blows cold over my grave-stone

And time has long forgotten me

When the life I live is the dust of bones

And my name, not even a memory

Tell me, precious person, oh, tell me true

Does life really matter or what I do?

When the clatter of moment-matter stills

Enshrouded in Past’s endless pall

When season-to-season-to-season spills

Without one thought of me at all

Tell me, will it really matter a bit

This life I live and what I do with it?

What is the meaning and worth of my life?

This pull and push of plow and pen

This little pittance of pleasure and strife

When I die, will it matter then? 

After the laughter and sorrow of years

Will life really matter when time disappears?

When the world is a-whirl with years to come

And I, a faceless name perhaps

On somebody’s family-tree, the sum

Of cares that filled prayers, arms and laps

Will it matter a mite, this flight on sod?

...this rite of passage that leads back to God

Here, where it is certain that Time forgets

The once-upon-a-him-or-her

As its warm wind shimmers from east to west

Over this place where milestones were

Will it really matter, this vapor-cajole?

Oh yes, because life is a matter of soul

© Janet Martin

Not so much The What as For Who?

God never forgets either me or you!

We are all His whether we know it or not!

This matter of moments matters a lot

Because soon we will meet the One who gave

The soul that once wore those bones in the grave


 It is written: “As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will confess to God.” So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us stop judging one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.…

Romans 14:11-13

I know I've posted this song before, but I love it!

The Splash

It’s not so much the number of the days and years we live

But what we did or do with them; this makes us who we are

It’s not so much what we’ve attained as the measure we give

That leaves us satisfied or wishing on yon childhood’s star

It’s not so much our have-and-hold as learning to let go

And in the meantime counting Mercy’s blessings one by one

Then while the smile and sigh of moment melts like summer snow

We learn it’s not so much a touch of Time but grace alone

This age old way of growing old is not just about years

We pass this way but once and none of us knows where it ends

So, while we marvel at how readily time disappears

It’s up to us to make the most of each new day it sends

The here-and-now we hold is all we have, like weightless gold

Its ladder to far yonder blue scatters footholds like ash

While we climb up and up and join the ranks of growing old

We learn, it’s not so much the number as it is the splash

© Janet Martin

Last night at a  Ladies Spring Tea at church we, all at various stages of getting older were treated to a wonderful sense of humor by a dear seen-some-HARD-times lady a little further along in life than most of us present, and it reminded me to ‘revel in the splash’ not the number!

Today hubby adds another rung to the ladder of years….Happy 52^nd, Jim.