Hell's Kitchen

Let’s make temptation

Feel like the right thing

Feather its outcome

With ribbons and string

Let’s make Sin’s poison

Look and taste rather nice

Let’s sweeten death’s symptoms

With sugar and spice

Let’s make the cost of love

Seem much too large

Let’s offer lots of stuff

At no extra charge

Let’s keep the sheep-ple

Distracted until

They find out too late

The full price of the thrill

© Janet Martin

Consider Yourself Warmed, oops, I mean Warned!

The word 'beware' can be replaced with 'be aware' if you prefer!

Beware of the flowers

Noon showers, blue breeze

Of bracken-fringed bowers

Of silver-capped seas

Of wild apple orchards

And autumn-tinged woods

Of moon-dappled gardens

Where willow-wind broods

Beware of green meadows

Of gold-tousled hills

Of twilight’s tall shadows

And midnight’s starred rills

Of ice-cream and daydream

Yes, beware of this

Especially the sunbeam

That feels like a kiss

Beware of the chair

That was not made for two

Beware of the air

Imbibed with dusky dew

Beware of the river

Behind the old church

Beware of the shiver

Of poplar and birch

Beware of the fingers

Strumming strings of grass

The moment that lingers

When it ought to pass

Beware of desire

Beware of the spark

That kindles a fire

Before it is dark

Beware of brook-banter

Of thoroughbred thrills

Of sky-high decanter

That drains as it fills

Pay heed to these warning;

Beware of tick-tocks

They steal mist-mauve mornings

And sunset-bathed docks

Beware of mud-puddles

And most common things

That stirs and befuddles

A world full of kings

Beware of the years, dear

You’ll learn soon enough

That nothing is as it appears

Dearest dears

If you are in love

© Janet Martin

Sheer Wonder of So Much Love

All-in-a-Friday-morning's-musing...

Last night at supper we were discussing something that led to someone saying

how those days back then (of Emily and Melissa living at home)

feel like a dream and suddenly I had to swallow SO hard

to keep from adding extra salt to the soup I was eating...

 Time, what a trickster; turning something totally common into love's tender trophy, even now!

Suddenly I understand the song Row, Row Your Boat a little better...esp. with this video.

As a wife and mother I’ve learned things

 I thought I was incapable of

And would be utterly impossible

 If it wasn’t for so much love

As a wife and mother I carry

A hold beneath ivory-ribbed bars

A vault tattooed and almost buried

With wave upon wave of brave salt-stars

As a wife and mother I’ve tasted

Love’s bitterest gall and sweetest joys

And I’d wonder if it was worth it

But for so many precious girls and boys

As a mother and wife I could be

So sad over so much lost

Until I remember that love always comes

With so much cost

As a wife and mother I know I’d be

A continuous, emotional mess

If it wasn’t for the sheer, dear beauty of

So much happiness

© Janet Martin

Let's Make Love

 Let's make love a daily celebration

Welcome (Lord-willing) to two weeks of focusing on the tenderest, testing-est,

loveliest, trickiest, truest topic above all; Love

(one of my favourite love-songs of all time!)

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Col.3:14

Let’s make love the utter reason

For each darling dream and dare

Touch the timbre of each season

With the reverence of prayer

Let’s be nicer to each other

Who knows who is next to fly

Past Passion’s dust-to-dust border

Through the reaches of the sky

Let’s dance, not like one-night lovers

But with a lifetime to learn

The fine art of hearts that hunger

For more than Time’s no return

Let’s be brave enough to utter

Words like ‘not my will but thine’

Let’s make love the bread and butter

In this life of yours and mine

Let’s not try to plan tomorrow

Let’s make love patient and kind

Oh my darling, joy and sorrow

Are like lovers, intertwined

For the laws of imperfection

Makes life’s making love far more

Than the intimate affection

That a kiss likes to explore

Let’s cast off our inhibition

Brave the fear of letting go

Bold enough for true submission

To the One who Loved/loves us so

© Janet Martin

Here's to two weeks of a whole lotta love songs

 

Happy February!

Because of schedules that keep me housebound more than I would choose if life was like that,

I feel like I didn’t quite get my fill of January’s thrills but better that way than the opposite, right?

Hopefully we live each day as if we didn't get quite enough of live-laugh-love,

always eager for a little more in the morning. 

A prayer of Dedication

Make me thankful for the moment

For the gift of now and here

Let me live as if the Present

Was about to disappear

Make me hungry for the hour

Tasting it with diligence

Counting blessings like the miser

Counts his dollars and his cents

Make me useful, careful, prayerful

Make me humble, helpful, kind

For with moment-measure’s sparkle

Soon a life is left behind

Amen 

© Janet Martin

 Remember your Creator
    in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
    and the years approach when you will say,
    “I find no pleasure in them”—

Eccles.12:1

 Now all has been heard;
    here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
    for this is the duty of all mankind.
¹⁴ For God will bring every deed into judgment,
    including every hidden thing,
    whether it is good or evil.

Eccles.12:13-14