Of the Wonder of Words

Words; such quaint and curious things

Like ink-shaped puppets on a string

They draw from us life’s darling sighs

Or fill the dark in curs-ed cries

Painting mind-pictures in the air

They form our worry and our prayer

The wander-lust of wonder stirred

And spilled in ink-jots shaping word

Word; the poet’s rebel-lure

The sermon wee lad must endure

The good, the bad, the bitter-sweet

In endless possibility

A palette of infinite vaunt

They hurt and heal, they soothe and taunt

The mien of thought spoken and heard

Empowered by this thing called word

Foolish and wise access alike

The freedom to this verbal might

And in the syllables we choose

We will reveal thought’s hidden hues

We ought to ponder carefully

Which ones to keep or to set free

For they fall fast and undeterred

In dynamite drops formed in words

Word; language of lip or pen

To inspire, teach or mislead men

Therefore we must give earnest heed

To what we read, think, write thence read

For in this little ink-swirl jot

Lies both the bud and bloom of thought

A seed of potent power incurred

In architecture of a word

© Janet Martin

 "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."
- Luke 6:45

 "I like good strong words that mean something."
- Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

 "The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."
- Thomas Jefferson

 Watch your thoughts, they become your words
Watch your words, they become your actions
Watch your actions, they become your habits
Watch your habits, they become your character
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny."
- Anonymous

 "A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day."
- Emily Dickinson ("A Word is Dead")

 "Words may show a man's wit, but actions his meaning."
- Benjamin Franklin

Of Snowflakes and Grace

It is assuredly so

In shades of virgin snow

Our scarlet robes of sin are cleansed

In love’s redeeming flow

Ah grace, how can this be?

That One should so love me

The Son of God, by His own blood

Washes our sin-stains clean

It is most surely so

Thus, by His grace I go

Our ruddy guilt by Lamb’s blood spilt

Is washed as white as snow

© Janet Martin

The stark and pleading landscape is covered in a blanket of spotless snow...

That's what God's promise is for us... "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

 Isa. 1:18

Snow-song

Rollicking, frolicking, feathery fray

Blanketing evergreen, umber and gray

Embellishing fences and skeletal limb

Swirling and whirling celestial hymn

Cotton-soft canticle, mute melody

Tumbling from chambers of infinity

Spiraling splendor decking land and lake

God’s wonder captured in every flake

Dizzying dazzling, soundless madrigal

Heaven’s extravagance sweeping hill and dell

Choir of cherubs tumbling to the earth

Calling to children in merry-white mirth

Dauntless, dancing choristers spilling their glee

Flinging their anthems, footloose, fancy-free

Rollicking, frolicking, feathery lay

This is the song of a winter snow-day

© Janet Martin

Yes, its a snow-day, no school.

 

From two days of almost non-stop rain melting any snow that had accumulated to

winter making up for lost time...

 

On Diligence

In this era of instant gratification

And presumed recompense

We seem to discredit

Humble diligence

Its pay-off is patient

Its battle is long

Yet, in its commitment

The weak become strong

We ought not to grow weary

In doing our best

For only the diligent

Truly pass life’s test

© Janet Martin

The lesson I taught to Grades 5&6 this past Sunday in Sunday School was on diligence. It spoke to me on so many levels.

Transient Lament

…then, let the dark fret in icy lament

And rage against the far side of the glass

These minstrels pelting frigid limb and grass

Are merely nature’s restless discontent

And like the wantonness of winter-thought

They too shall pass; a twinkle in the eye

Soon we will laugh beneath warm summer sky

Or bask in oceans of for-get-me-not

It is not far to winter’s other side

Moments melt heedless, one into the next

A year veiled in soft half-breath pretext

Slips easily into Time’s thrumming tide

And all the gleaming, potent fantasies

Of better days to come that we desire

While sitting snug beside the flickering fire

Will soon be wafting in the purple autumn breeze

Janet~

Flower-Power

 And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
 yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
 But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?  Matthew 6:28-30





He who denies
God and His awesome power
Has never fully beheld
The heart of a flower

Pink, gold or purple
Magenta or white
All are precious
In His sight

He who desires
To see God's wondrous power
Needs simply to ponder
The art of a flower

Janet ~

Thank-you Megan, for bringing color into a very bleary, dreary gray day:)

Thank-you Nantucket Daffodil for a splash of spring-dreaming! Love that galvanized planter.

Thank-you Kateri, for sharing your beautiful blooms~

Word-flux

 

Sometimes

Words are enough

To convince

Me of

This wonder

Called

Love

Sometimes

Words slaughter

And steal

Love’s assurance

Where only words

Can

Heal 

Darling,

Let's paint a picture

Of oceans stirred

Where we capture

Perfection

Without a

Word

Janet~

Wonder-song

You fill the sea with its fortune

You interlace rock hills with gold

And into the arms of a woman-child

You placed your own Son to hold

You teach the sparrow and swallow

You nudge the bud on the limb

And You grace the harvested fallow

With whispers of day growing dim

God, you hold the stars in the heavens

Reaching fathoms beyond our scope

And you give us innocent children

To fill mundane moments with hope

You shape the fall of a raindrop

You paint the sky on the sea

But the most wonderful wonder of all, my God

Is the wonder that You love me

You point the sun through vast eons

You guide the bird to its nest

You pluck the storm from the ocean

And color the dusk in the west

You give us knowledge and wisdom

And the mortal freedom to choose

The immortal Key to your kingdom

Or the darkness of evil’s dues

God, You father nature’s deliverance

You fill the womb of the earth

God, in love’s tender benevolence

You offer redemption’s re-birth

You bind the chains of the Pleiades

You hear our most feeble call

And God, to know that You love us so

Is the most wonderful wonder of all

Father of Orion’s army

Father of each living thing

Surely Your goodness and mercy

Stirs our longing to sing

Father of boundless compassion

Father of infinity

The micro-drop of the ocean

Is but the beginning of Thee

God of eternal dominion

Perfect and righteous and just

Tipping the jars of the heavens

To nurture this vulnerable dust

Who God, but You can inspire

The bleak, barren furrow and field

Who God, but You can require

The first-fruits of Love’s gracious yield

Who God, but You, is eternal?

Who can boast anything now?

But only what we are able

Because of what You allow

Who can release trembling thunder?

Or explain Love’s mystery

And who can exceed this most wonderful wonder

That this God loves you and me?

© Janet Martin

This song was spawned by the plop of a rain-drop, and like its circle, spread...

Job 37-39

Conception of Misconception...

Poetic Bloomings invites us to try the the memento form  today.

In lack of honest, uttered word

Or the ineptness of

Their mien

In truths too seldom breathed or heard

Lost somewhere in self-love

Between

…the moment when I should have said

Those words that I chose not

To say

Before assumptions in your head

Consume your misled thought

Today

© Janet Martin

Of Destinies in the Rain

The darkness is cloaked in a mantle of rain

Out on the streets in sluggish duress

Late night stragglers suffer its cheerless caress

Pushing through its staccato refrain

Just to make it home in time to peek

At babies snuggled warmly in their cots

And soon the rain begins to soothe their thoughts

Running teardrop kisses down their cheeks

Washing away the ragged robe of cares

For surely there can be no greater joy

Than to behold the soundly-slumbering girl or boy

And to enfold them in our goodnight prayers

© Janet Martin

Meeting-place

 

He meets us

Not where we ought to be

Or in visions

Faint and far

But when we ask

Then God meets us

Exactly

Where

We

Are

He does not meet us

If and when

We earn

A silver star

But if we call

He meets us then

Exactly

As 

We 

Are

 

© Janet Martin

The Known in our Unknowns

Dear Father, I must place my hand in Thine

For oh, You know I do not know the way

A new day breathes on the horizon-line

And what a-waits, God, only You can say

The unknown like a mighty, rolling sea

On which the sailor and his ship must sail

Conceals within its depths life’s mystery

Our vessels without You, oh God are frail

But if You place Your hand beneath the tide

Then we will make it to the other side

Dear Father, keep us in Your constant care

Mortality cannot dissuade the course

Of trials that we all must surely bear

Within life’s storm; it’s cold and bitter force

Would surely toss us to merciless deeps

Where we would sink beneath fear’s murky wave

But with You, God, we trust the One who keeps

His uttered word; God, You alone can save

And in the comfort of Your promises

We press ahead into the misted tress

Dear Father, Captain of our battered bark

And Master of the currents that converge

Protect us from the demons of the dark

And shed Your Light across life’s little surge

The reward of love’s humble diligence

Will someday in Your arms be gratified

So Father, take our hands and lead us thence

Knowing in You our want is satisfied

And though the unknown trembles in the air

Dear Father, oh we know that You are there

© Janet Martin

For J&R K. Please continue to pray for the family which I constantly plead prayer for...they have sent us a letter today confirming their deepest fears and need our prayers more than ever before as they face drastic and sudden unknowns. I do not have the permission or freedom, due to their safety to tell the details of their story, but they are packing as we speak and trusting God to lead.
Here are a few of their specific prayer requests;
You can be praying for:
- saying goodbyes, there are many dear ones whom we will terribly miss and we can only pray that God will meet them wherever they are in their journey with Him
- for the details of packing up 4 years of life here, what to keep, sell, give away etc.
- for our aching hearts, it is hard to say goodbye to a place that we have come to dearly love

And they close with this verse:
 

When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more,
But the righteous has an everlasting foundation.
Proverbs 10:25

Intimacy of Ink

 

With you

The intimate

Possibility

And desire

Of what may transpire

Keeps me returning

Again,

Again

For the burning yearning

Of its hidden fire

Spawns intricate fantasy

An unrestrained intimacy

In obscure romances

And beautiful dances

Flowing enchantingly

A perpetual ecstasy

In the bittersweet

Melody

Of 
The Pen
and The Poetry

© Janet~

Winter Wandering of Feet and Mind

Across the frozen field of brittle plume

Raw, ragged mumbles grumble, tumble cold

They wander through earth’s barren living-room

Like wastrels searching for their squandered gold

Bronze shroud of milkweed shivers, robbed of silk

Flung fecklessly in autumn wantonness  

Now sunlight, pale as sallow honeyed milk

Spills impotently on winter’s duress

While we, trespassers on its powdered hush

Caught in the vortex of longing and love

Pause on the fringe of muted underbrush

To drink the echoes trickling from above

Of green leaf sigh and murmured melodies

Borne in the bantering of summer’s breeze

***

The fallow, in its brief sabbatical

Inspires farmers; his anxieties  

Don eager dreams; his passion virginal

Despite its annual perplexities

And as the wind sashays and pirouettes

Across the still and stricken country-side

Where furrows sleep beneath the silhouettes

Of evergreen against the eventide

And as the farmer nods beside the hearth

Of flick’ring flame while blizzards deck the fir

Somewhere within his chest as in the earth

The nucleus of spring begins to stir

Beneath life’s disappointment and its doubt

Tender belief and hope begins to sprout

***

The woodland does not cast judgment on us

Or render its assumptions as full proof

Of our ineptness; here kind moments pause

As we bow beneath limb and snow-scrim roof

To worship without barriers of time

Or the distraction of man’s shallow ploy

Woodlot cathedral, sacred and sublime

We praise its Maker with unguarded joy

The hour of strife’s turmoil will subside

We battle its forces beneath, above

Though gods of self are never satisfied

Our One True God simply desires our love

Here on the palm of argent hinterland

I hear Him whisper in the winter-land

© Janet Martin

Yesterday's wide open afternoon was the perfect canvas for thinking and skiing as far and fast or slow as the heart desired:) It seemed like even the wind was taking a sabbatical; all was calm and still...the calm before freezing-rain-storm.

Ice Tears

She weeps,

Weighting the plush hush of winter’s girth

In silvery grief against the earth

Ice tears from Mother Nature’s eye

Ellipses dripping from the sky

Where we would fling our poetry

But for the gray melancholy

As glassy shard emotion rends

A sea of white indifference

© Janet Martin

...a light freezing rain is coating everything in a brittle glaze. The field is full of ice-flowers.

 

Behold...

Behold, the orb of burnished gold

Heralding a new day

Behold, the earth bathed in pure garb

Of sin-stains washed away

Behold, the chains of night are gone

And He makes all things new

Behold the trembling of the dawn

Gilding earth’s avenue

Behold the glory of the Lord

Rending dark ether veil

For He has promised in His word

His mercy will not fail

Behold, His day of joy a-waits

Behold His patient love

Gleams from the the port of heaven’s gates

To man from God above

Behold the testament of hope

Streaming from unbarred lea

Behold, His grace bathing earth's slope

In virgin purity

Behold, behold, the glorious Light
Behold, behold the One
He draws the dawn across the night
Behold, behold the Son

© Janet Martin

  

Country-girl Request

Thoughts while hiking through fields last week, where one can sing at the top of one's voice and only God, the wood-creatures and the wind can hear:) I drew on the memory of some summer-walks as well, for this poem

Oh, do not take me from this wonderland

Of azure dome and rippling stream of sedge

Of bloom and bee-song dripping from the hedge

Where God alone nurtures its unchained strand

Oh, do not take me from this throbbing stage

Where night-wind croons a winsome lullaby

Or murmurs a reverent soliloquy

As cricket-cadence ripples from brush-sage

Oh, let me dream on earth’s four-season swell

Dancing with zephyrs drifting from the south

Welcoming winter’s sunbeam in my mouth

Laughing in arms of hinterland and dell

Oh, let me worship the Creator God

Not from cold altars of concrete and steel

But here in humble gladness let me kneel

Upon a plot of wide open-space sod

© Janet Martin

Every so often Jim (hubby) says he would be ready to move into a nearby town. He knows that I am not! (and he's not really, he admits, but likes to see what kind of a reaction he might provoke.:)

When All is Said and Done

 

 When all is said and done...

When all is said an’ done, my luve

And we come near this journey’s end

When we have little left to prove

In clamoring for boasts of men

Will we, when all is said and tried

As twilight edges to the deep

Will we, my luve, be satisified

When we submit to that last sleep?

When all is said and done, my luve

And we are nothing but their tears

As petals whither on a grave

And bygones echo in their ears

Oh, will it be a kind caress

The cadence of that silent song

As tenderly they reminisce

My luve, when all is said an’ done?

When all is said and done, my luve

And swallows skim the vernal crest

Where thence we’ll rest; then tender youth

Will rise to greet life’s luring quest

Shod with the immortality

That slips away beneath the sun

As they advance toward the lea

My luve, when all is said and done

© Janet Martin

I am at a stage in life where my ears are filled with grand hopes and dreams of my own children and their friends as they ‘plan’. Yesterday I chuckled quietly as I listened to their well-laid ‘dreams’. Life, the great Teacher patiently and subtly plies her touch.

I felt like adding a teeny 'Burns' flavor to the poem this morning in memory of him. He was born on Jan. 25. 1759. In my mind there is no other poet quite like Robert Burns.

From my book- Songs from Robert Burns here is a fav...

Now Westlin Winds
(Robert Burns)

Now westlin winds, and slaught'ring guns
Bring August's pleasant weather;
The moorcock springs, on whirring wings,
Amang the blooming heather;
Now waving grain, wide o'er the plain,
Delights the weary Farmer;
The moon shines bright, as I rove at night,
To muse upon my Charmer.

The Pairtrick lo'es the fruitfu' fells;
The Plover lo'es the mountains;
The woodcock haunts the lanely dells;
The soaring Hern the fountains:
Thro' lofty groves, the Cushat roves,
The path o'man to shun it;
The hazel bush o'erhangs the Thrush,
The spreading thorn the Linnet.

Thus ev'ry kind their pleasure find,
The savage and the tender;
Some social join, and leagues combine;
Some solitary wander:
Avaunt, away! the cruel sway,
Tyrannic man's dominion;
The Sportsman's joy, the murd'ring cry,
The flutt'ring, gorg pinion!

But Peggy dear, the ev'ning's clear,
Thick flies the skimming Swallow;
The sky is blue, the fields in view,
All fading-green and yellow:
Come let us stray our gladsome way,
And view the charms o' Nature:
The rustling corn, the fruited thorn
And ilka happy creature.

We'll gently walk, and sweetly talk,
While the silent moon shines clearly;
I'll clasp thy waist, and fondly prest,
Swear how I lo'e thee dearly:
Not vernal show'rs to budding flow'rs,
Not Autumn to the Farmer,
So dear can be, as thou to me,
My fair, my lovely Charmer!

Moonlight Madness

…and sometimes when the night is still

When doubt has pushed against my will

Drenching my spirit with winds ill

Until I fain would curse the quill

I hear you whisper quietly

And somewhere deep inside of me

I’m bolstered by an aching need

For oh, a poet I must be

…and sometimes when the full-moon smiles

Expanding Time’s insistent miles

And when the vaunt of thought beguiles

Spawning keen creature wants awhile

I wrestle with conflicting bliss

The agony of almost kissed

Where perfect words slip to the mist

Invisible and taunting twist

…and sometimes when the night is still

I slip your whisper to my quill

Tracing your tear against my will

While the moon sinks beneath the hill

Before I lay me down to sleep

Or stars fade to the azure deep

I laugh, I pray, I moan, I weep

A poet has a charge to keep

© Janet~

Sonnet of Time's Surging Sea...

Borne from an ether realm, tumultuous tide

Rippling and raging, half-breath ecstasy

Rushing, receding, dark and light collide

Where heaven reaches to embrace the sea

Darling, youth’s kiss fades cold upon the cheek

And where we danced barefoot upon its shore

The breakers crash; cold, foaming crest is bleak

Where summer’s silver sparkle soothed its roar

Yet, as its heaving, shifting billows roll

Hope buoys love’s deep longing in the soul

Subtle, the potent power of this surge

Rankling within the vessel of the heart

My dear, within your arms I sense the urge

Of change tuning the ethereal rampart

And all the darling moments we caress

Like waves, spilling across the sun-warmed beach

Cannot be captured, soon the emptiness

Of echoes fills our frantic, futile reach

Yet, like a pearl within the oysters shell

Time will reveal its treasure; all is well

Impressionistic skylines taunt and lure

We cannot touch its elusive plateau

Nor can our straining, groping grasp secure

Life’s rising, falling arrant ebb and flow

Darling, we tremble in the moment-splurge

Of salty tear startling love’s ling’ring kiss

Upon Time’s lilting lay a mournful dirge

Hovers beyond Spring’s brief, burgeoning bliss

Yet in the subtle surge from mystic deep

We find in its debris, treasures to keep

© Janet Martin

The combination of old music, memories and photos filled me with the sense of standing on last summer’s beach, battered by the surge of invisible waves.

J~

Life's Simple Things

I ask not for wealth

Or the riches of kings

But for a heart that treasures

Life’s simple things

I pray for contentment

In what each hour brings

And for the pure pleasure

Of life’s simple things

True happiness dwells

In bejeweled offerings

Of sweet moment-measure

In life’s simple things

© Janet Martin

Thursday Thoughts on the Transpiring and Expiring of Moments

 

To dredge the past in search of its measure

Is but to forfeit this moment-treasure

***

To pine for the wine in tomorrow’s vine

Is to waste the taste of this moment’s haste

***

Darling, the amazement and astonishment

Which grand architecture induces

Fills me with wild wonder and delight…

Yet, its wonderful wonderment

Pales in weak excuses

Against your heartbeat in the still of the night

***

Intangible trickle

Vast vaporous sea

Time is a twinkle

In eternity

***

Taste the moment on your lip

Oh, and do not let it slip

Into the blue, transpired in vain

For it will not return again

***

What is our calling

Brother to brother?

Why, it is but this

To love one another

***

Sometimes thought’s echo sparks within me

A longing for hours that used to be

But then I remember,

Today’s moment-splendor

Is shaping tomorrow’s memory

***

A sigh, a gasp

Is but the cast

Of moments melting

In the past

Take heed, my love

At what they teach

For soon they slip

Beyond our reach

***

Hold my hand, darling

Love is lonely alone

Each day is a pitfall

Or a stepping-stone

***

Life is a lover

The bliss of its kiss

Is rendered in caresses

Not of what was, but what is

***

Take a moment

To taste the moment

Dissolved

In a moment

***

When you hold me like this

Sweet moment-glance

I’m filled with the urge

To sing and dance

Because ours is such

A tempestuous romance

You offer, but once

Each moment-chance

© Janet Martin