"Thank Goodness for the unfailing things."
Amen!
Here is an Ode to Goodness
Where not so long ago I lost my heart
on a snow-canvas of blue shadow-art
one mysterious little critter left a trail of heart-shaped tracks in the snow, as far as the eye could go...
I used the advantages of ink to
open this poem with a buttercup meadow😊
Doesn't just saying the word 'buttercup' make the day feel brighter?!
Buttercups spilling like sparkles of sun
Over a meadow of flora, fresh-spun
Where not so long ago I lost my heart
On a snow-canvas of blue-shadow art
Creation cannot deny He who spills
Four season splendour to hollows and hills
Jack-frosted window-pane, plush, blushing morn
Dreams running rampant in gardens reborn
Time is a flutter, a gilt butterfly
Winter-spring-summer-and-autumn, oh my
Over and over, earth’s flower is wrought
By what the Father of nature has taught
Light shatters darkness at break of Today
Nothing can keep what God promised, at bay
We gape as if we have never beheld
Amethyst mist with molten oceans meld
Goodness and Mercy will never betray
Hearts that have humbled their will to His way
The surface showcases blush-blue-gold-green
While faith embraces The Sacred Unseen
Larks lift their lyrics without second-guess
Hark! Can you hear it? Perfect happiness
Winter's hearth flickers with quickening cheer
Of warmth and welcome to all who draw near
Leave to the atheist, spec, blind and rude
Futile debates of love misunderstood
Better to marvel where beauty confirms
Goodness to we, little better than worms
Snow-flowers shower the bower with stars
Gazillion sequins bedeck brumal bars
Where Old Man Winter will yield to the charm
Of a fair, golden-haired lass on his arm
Rivers will gurgle and giggle, set free
Out through the wide-open veldt to the sea
Farmers will whistle and mothers will sing
Throwing back shutters to welcome in spring
Robins will warble and buds will unfold
Pink-petal miracles, green, purple, gold
Woodlands will brandish fresh notes from each limb
As nature heralds the Bard of the hymn
Seeds will astonish as we watch them grow
Specks small and brownish God’s power will show
Unfathomed increase, our hunger to feed
Divine Providence contained in a seed
No one can thwart what the Lord sets in place
Evil will never be greater than grace
Seasons will never be left to ‘perhaps’
*Hear how the hill sings and how the tree claps
Lilies will never forget how to bloom
Consider He who arranges the loom
That weaves the fabric that so clothes the field
That breathes the wonder whereby hearts are healed
That woos the worship from we, always caught
Between what has been and what yet is not
That keeps us, still in the thick of the fight
Cradled in colours of mercy and light
Where soon the afternoon climbs the last knoll
Like tilted steeples the blue shadows toll
Where freeways twinkle with dot-to-dot cars
Where dusk is waiting to draw down the stars
Where we are never forsaken by He
Who trails but fringes of His Majesty,
Who lowered glory through sky after sky
Of unplumbed galaxies to you and I
Praise to the Giver of wonder and mirth
Praise to the Maker of heaven and earth
Praise to the riches no miser can hoard
From God’s abundance of goodness outpoured
Praise to the Artist of supreme design
Praise to the way awe and joy intertwine
Praise to the Author of beauty unflawed
Praise to the goodness and mercy of God
© Janet Martin
Isa.55:12
*You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
