Monday, March 4, 2019

Quite an Undertaking; This


Moments, breaths, steps, all seem rather small when isolated
but my what an undertaking they are when looking back at the legacy they weave/leave ... 



Breath by breath and step by step
Day to week to month to year
What we are makes who we were
Who we were fills farewell’s tear
Quite an undertaking; this
What we fashion with What Is
Best we live with holy mien
Lest we miss what could/should have been

© Janet Martin

More Monday-(Everyday) Reasons To Sing...#2


This is a second go-round of reasons to sing
 because when we start focusing on Blessing instead of Burden
it's a song that never ends! 



For a kind word
For the song bird
For spring soft-bursting budded seams
For mastered goals
When twilight tolls
From belfries of unfulfilled dreams
For time’s untried
Where dawn runs wide
For Hope in spite of trouble’s ‘yet’
For time-out ‘joys’
For naughty boys
Who try to be good, but forget

For laughter’s lilt
For nature’s quilt
Of white before bright green-bronze-gold
For a Good Book
For meals to cook
For fond memories to enfold
For dinner-hour
Summer-shower
Autumn-bower’s beauty-tide
For birthday cakes
And turquoise lakes
For friendliness of fireside

For comfy clothes
And freckled nose
Crinkled and begging for a kiss
For innocence
For bloom-lined fence
For the first-dance of this; What Is
For happiness
Of blue-sky tress
For tender tug of letting go
Where what we held
Begins to meld
With Reminiscence' Picture Show

For ripe bananas
Red bandanas
Rocking chairs for lullabies
For baby’s coo
For nature’s woo
-ing ways to vex domestic ties
For motherhood
And God is good
And Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep
For little girls
With bouncy curls
For hands to hold and floors to sweep

For strength and health
And simple wealth
Of family we love so much
For living large
And free of charge
When it comes to sunsets and such
For work to do
For hopes come true
And some, still faith’s fodder for prayer
For keeping on
Though seasons pawn
Our youth for Truth’s unyielding stare

For things to learn
And wings to earn
For flying if but to crash-land
To sit and fit
The grit of it
Into a Higher Helping Hand
For friends that cheer
Through smile or tear
For rows to hoe and miles to go
For bloom-filled crocks
For sky-wide clocks
That force our work shod feet to slow

For front rows seats
Where night competes
With the beginning of Today
For poetry
Waiting to be
Before dusk folds its page away
For God’s kind grace
To help us face
What waits within Time’s veiled facade
For roads that twist
Through mud and mist
But ultimately lead to God

© Janet Martin


Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth.
2Sing to the LORD, praise His name;
proclaim His salvation day after day.
3Declare His glory among the nations,
His wonderful deeds among all peoples.
4For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
He is to be feared above all gods.
5For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but it is the LORD who made the heavens.
6Splendor and majesty are before Him;
strength and beauty fill His sanctuary. 

Psalm 96:1-6


Reasons To Sing...

Sometimes on Mondays, singing for the love of life's Giver is not my foremost thought...
Sometimes I focus on long to-do lists a little before I ought
Sometimes, to inspire glad Reason to sing for the love of more than I planned
I need let go of want-woe-worrying, so He can hold my hand

 A little while ago I shared Reasons I Write Poetry
Today I'm focusing on Reasons to Sing 
(partly because singing was not my first impulse this morning, 
until I read Ann Voskamp's devotional where she encouraged us 
instead of trying to 'do it all' this week to focus on letting Christ 'be it all'!


(the first stanza works as a single poem which was my original plan but the words kept coming:)


If we let go we start to see
The One who holds us faithfully
If we unclench our fists of greed
We start to see another’s need
If we stare pride straight in the face
We die to self and live by grace
If we choose faith in place of fear
We hush the demons that we hear
And if we want to know life’s best
We love; then trust God for the rest

His hierarchy exceeds time’s graph
His mercy pleads on our behalf
His Excellence, earth’s hills exalt
His Example, no one can fault
His Holiness, eclipses awe
His love, life’s pure and perfect law
His Way, pursued through humble prayer 
Leads to Reward beyond compare
His Word is Truth and without end
The Presence of a faithful Friend

His Law, a universal rule
His blood shed for both wise and fool
His Righteousness our sole Soul-boast
His sacrifice, our uttermost
His death so we may live, our hope
His promises so we may cope
His Resurrection so that we
May also share death’s victory
His Strength for time-length’s push and pull
Till faith-turned-sight makes half-joy full



© Janet Martin

Sunday, March 3, 2019

On Looking Longer...


 A few of today's perfect reasons why I never hurry any seasons!







Look longer; the hunger that drives us to plunder
The sky-line hemmed cages of four-season font
Is soon softly stricken with whispers that quicken
The death of what now leaves us smitten with want

Look closer; hope’s chasseur stampedes earth’s composure
Yes, winter will wane where it swallows the street
Then, relish the wonder of landscapes a-thunder
With flowers that slumber beneath boreal fleet

Look gladly; not madly past masterpiece medleys
A-h-h! Savour the stomping ground of seasoned spree
And don’t try to hurry life’s worship and worry
But live in the moment; not what waits to be

Look deeper; the Keeper of planter and reaper
Delights beauty-seekers with love’s perfect law
Then look ere the morrow turns joy into sorrow
With death of what now leaves us breathless with awe

© Janet Martin

 Psalm 104:24
O LORD, how manifold are thy works! 
in wisdom hast thou made them all: 
the earth is full of thy riches.

Friday, March 1, 2019

Well, It's Morning (and March!)


 Happy, happy March💚💧💨🌞


Well, it’s morning
Hope’s adorning
Sweeps the countryside with light
Duty beckons
Where man reckons
With the charge of wrong and right

Well, it’s morning
Earnest warning
Mingles with love’s law of grace
Bids us muster
More than bluster
For the vigor of the chase

Well, its morning
No returning
To the trampled trails of Past
Mercy meters
To dawn’s greeters
A new day, never yet cast

Well, it’s morning
Oh my darling
Let’s not dream of should’ring care
Without yielding
Unknown’s wielding
To the One who hears our prayer

© Janet Martin

 
Psalm 5:3
In the morning, O LORD, You hear my voice;
 at daybreak I lay my plea before You and wait in expectation.

What a comfort to know we can lay our every plea before Him
AND wait in expectation!
Sometimes I lay my plea before Him then pick back up the 'pack of cares
I professed to lay down
instead of waiting in expectation...