It Feels Like Fall...

What began as a glorious rhapsody surrendered by noon to rain-song.

It feels like fall; a somber shawl is sprawled across the earth today

And on the lane the song of rain ripples in rivulets blue-gray

The sassy bloom like jilted groom bows her flamboyance to the dirge

Where melody of memory entwines in longing’s silver surge

It feels like fall; the madrigal of moments slips like rain from leaf

The tango of sweet summer’s love sighs languidly in golden sheaf

And where the sheen of virgin green flaunted its verdant opulence

I see of a hint of amber glint jading its fearless confidence

It feels like fall, the garden wall is laced with morning-glory vine

And on the dusk silk-misty musk sparkles like effervescent wine

We trace the place of walnut-lace acknowledging its numbered days

The crickets call; it feels like fall before its full autumnal blaze

© Janet Martin

It did feel like a premature fall day; first sunny then cool and rainy with the scent of late summer dripping from the trees.

Earth's Treasure-trove

Pearl, amethyst and ruby

Emerald and garnet gems

The colors of the rainbow

In July-diadems

How pretty is the treasure

That dazzles summer’s girth

We pluck its priceless measure

From troves beneath the earth

A little rain and sunshine

A little scuff of hoe

A little bit of patience

To watch these treasures grow

And then, oh gladsome morning

When labor yields its worth

As we glean from the garden

Grace-treasures of the earth

© Janet Martin

We had a fresh-from-the-garden lunch today!

Our 'Shouting Voice'

For all the words we tout and spout

In sleek and polished token

The only words we ever shout

Are those in action spoken

© Janet Martin

Let’s make our actions count today!

Happy Last day of July 2013.

Life's Minuet...of Hope and Morning-song

The Keeper of our groans and moans and tears we never share

Softly and patiently intones its sorrow to the air

Then, in kind, wordless empathy He places on our tongue

A sweet and tender melody of hope and morning-song

The dew evaporates at noon; the sun rises to set

And summer slips away too soon; this is life’s minuet

We dance within its moody arms; there is no other choice

Bearing the climax of lost charms in tears that have no voice

 The law of longing rends and ravages the mortal soul

We weep our secret tears, though friends and fellowships console

They cannot place within our clasp those things that cannot be

And only grace succors this gasp of thought’s futility

Life’s moment’s waft; sweet bubble-bliss of half-breath innocence

Before love’s sleek, soft parting kiss bestows deliverance

The revelation spun in youth unveils with bleeding awe

Its increment of stunning truth; the voice of longing’s law

For Love will ever be both longing and contentment met

It spills in silent symmetry of triumph and regret

Yet, we are not victims of hurt; Love bids us to be strong

The realm of heaven tunes this dirt with hope and morning-song

© Janet Martin

Fitness Test

How does life shape you?

In its hurdles and hurt

Do we get back up

Or languish in the dirt?

How do we respond

To its keening drill?

Do we carry on

Letting love mold our will?

Grace is deliverance

And Mercy is free

Lean on its Giver

With humility

The teacher of Time

Wields a winnowing knife

Ever the shaper

Of this little life

Then, count its kind blessing

And oh, never cease

For beyond the testing

Is love’s masterpiece

© Janet Martin

...or cookies!:) 

 

 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Heb. 10:23

Of Preludes and Parting

 

Morning, you murmur on midnight’s mute hem

Threading the skyline in whispers red-gold

Soon you will crown noon’s azure diadem

Ere, dusk surrenders its swoon to your hold

Giver and taker of summer’s high note

Maestro of anthems that tongue cannot sing

You place you music in nature’s glad throat

While we loiter long in its rhythm and swing

For beneath our laughter we know full well

This is the prelude to summer’s farewell

Wild with extravagance you preen the rill

Sketching the etching of pristine tree-top

Softly you spill silhouettes to the hill

Muting earth’s palette in heaven’s backdrop

Tempest of greeting and parting unite

Up from the east, down from north, west and south

Darkness dissolves in your tremor of light

Polestar of summer melting in your mouth

We cannot keep you; your distraction swells

In passionate prelude to fondest farewells

Summer; God’s love-song to soften the miles

Leading to autumn and winter’s duress

Kindly the visage of Providence smiles

There are no seasons to His tenderness

Over the valley in shimmers of mist

He strikes the timbrel of this first-last day

We cannot leave it crumpled and half-kissed

Thus we toss our silent sorrow away

This is the hour of living full well

Tasting the prelude to summer’s farewell

© Janet Martin

This morning parting is on my mind...parting of a favorite month and parting of friends that fly back to Africa tomorrow.

Every page of middle-age

is turning way too fast

Live, laugh, love, we know the truth

Summer will soon be past!

On Coveting and Contentment

It does not do us any good

To covet someone else’s lot

So each of us should give God thanks

And do the best with what we’ve got

To covet someone else lot

Is but to waste our gifted hours

If we look on another’s plot

We sadly miss our own sweet flowers

So each of us should give God thanks

For what we have; lest we despair

And thus neglect to humbly give

The glory to His loving care

…and do the best with what we’ve got

It is our duty, is it not?

How sad to miss life’s joy because

We covet someone else’s lot

© Janet Martin

Between the Plume of Dogwood Bloom

Recently someone waited in our driveway for help to change a flat tire...she admired the view of rolling countryside. Me too! I never tire of it and am 'wowed' constantly by God's handiwork in every season.

Between the plume of dogwood bloom

And autumn’s laden bower

We linger in the candid grin

Of summer’s precious hour

Betwixt the scrim of blushing limb

In springtime’s glad awaking

And orchard bent; heaven has sent

Summer, free for its taking

She does not charge the world at large

For sun-beam dappled grasses

Nor asks a price for blue-sky slice

Or wind-song as it passes

Freely she flings her offerings

Of roses, sunset, showers

Where green and gold on hills unfold

To roadsides filled with flowers

Her melody is fair and free

How soft those sweet caresses

Between the plume of dogwood bloom

And autumn’s flaming tresses

© Janet Martin

Sweet, sweet July
Oh, tell me why
You slip so swiftly
To the sky...

Lovely Love

Love is not a recreational pastime

It stands, faithfully through life’s thick and its thin

Love is a mercy much deeper than laughter

Or beauty that grazes our bindings of skin

Love is relinquishment of self-desire

Bending of knee and re-bowing of will

Love is the traveler of second-mile journeys

Honing our meekness with its keening drill

Love plants its blossoms in suffering’s dark windows

It does not covet lime-light or applause

Knowing that God is its ultimate witness

Love does not grumble or kick at life’s flaws

Love is a splendor of infinite wonder

It does not seek adulation or boast

Yet in the end it is Love; Gift and Giver

That never ceases to astonish us most

© Janet Martin

For my neighbor Laurene who simply spreads love wherever she goes. God bless you, Laurene.

These Seemingly Nothings

It is good, these seemingly nothings

Talking of weather or what yet might be

Chatting of recipes, gardens and children

Painting a picture in thought’s memory

It is precious, life seemingly nothings

Oh what a blessing, beneath summer’s tree

To linger a moment where the sun in shining

And talk of these ‘nothings’ while stirring our tea

God bless the hours of ‘seemingly nothings’

These are the neutrals in life’s tapestry

Camouflaged colors we take for-granted

Until greater sorrows jolt their memory

It is love, these seemingly nothings

…Time’s gentle stitches binding joy and strife

‘Seemingly nothings’ of chuckle and chatter

Helping us bear bigger burdens of life

Treasure the measure of ‘seemingly nothings’

…modest imbuement of mercy’s caress

Nibble of muffin and vase of wild daisies

‘Seemingly nothings’ of God’s tenderness

© Janet Martin

It feels so good to feel good! Victoria and I spent 24 hrs sharing blankets and

 pepto-bismal. Today a neighbor popped by within minutes after she heard we were a little ‘under the weather’ She brought muffins, a cheery smile and we chatted for a while. I realized that I am way too guilty of taking one of life’s greatest blessings too for granted! There really are no ‘nothings’ in life…and I told my neighbor that I thought of her mother, an invalid, when I was sick. My heart goes out to those who suffer every day!  

Of July's Fading Fringes

Hold me, I beg in your kind, azure gaze

Dance to a warm willow-vesper

Nurture my mind with abandonment’s blaze

Sweeten my mouth with your whisper

Cradle me where we will seal our last kiss

Gather me in farewell’s hunger

Torture me tenderly in parting’s bliss

Tarry until I am younger

You know that I will not shackle the gate

I know that you must be leaving

Passion and sorrow; love’s juxtaposed weight

Mingle in bittersweet grieving

I beg you to hold me, sweet, sanguine July

But moments do not pause or linger

Caught in a vortex of wide-open sky

You vanish on my outstretched fingers…

© Janet Martin

There’s a key change in the winds that play

Falling from lilt to sigh

Dripping from tendrils of mid-day

In preeminence of good-bye

Tomorrow it may croon and swell

Over summer’s high-noon

Today it lingers in farewell

Of July; leaving way too soon

Long we a-wait its broad, blue-sky candor

Mid-summer’s easy kin-ship

Somewhere within Time’s wild-flower splendor

Over bronze fringes it slips

There is a key change in the late afternoon

It trickles from lintels of musk

Pooling in mouths of day-lily blooms

Disappearing into the dusk…

Solemn, the orchestra of cricket-cheeping

Ushers her over a floor

Of stubble and clover; while we are sleeping

July will be no more…

© Janet Martin

Sharing a few from a year ago...just getting over a bout of flu;(

Gift of Grace

Between the paths that lie behind

And every path untrodden

Exists the present; here we find

A thing sacred, important

The path behind can’t be retraced

The future is thought-vision

The present is a gift of grace

Worthy of our ambition

We cannot travel yesterday

Or tread tomorrow’s nothing

The worth of life is in Today

A gracious gift of loving

Between the paths of ‘Hope’ and ‘Had’

We bear an exhortation

The present pleads on our behalf

With purposed expectation

And soon the moments it has wrought

Will be life-lesson’s story

Embrace this mercy-gift from God

And use it to His glory

© Janet Martin

Sabbath Song

 "Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest. Ex. 34:21

…and now upon this little earth

The Lord bestowed for mankind’s best

A day of Sabbath from his work

A day of worship, respite, rest

In spirit and in truth, oh God

Accept our offering of praise

’Tis humble thanks; we know You know

The intent of our fumbling ways

…and yet you love us; right and wrong

In spite of our fears and faults

You yearn to hear our grateful song

As tongue Your majesty exalts

And when the morrow fills the lea

Upon Time’s troubled avenue

May our labor ever be

A worship-offering back to You

© Janet Martin

Of Ranklings and Rendezvous

Tonight the night won’t yield to me

The outline of fence-post or tree

Tonight the dark is dark as ink

And all that I can do is think…

The rendezvous of page and pen

Can torment even stronger men

I reach but cannot touch the brink

To spell these wordless thoughts I think

The rankling of the mind and heart

Are ever near, yet far apart

Can Prudence coalesce with She

Who dares to dream in poetry?

Silence seduces sorrow’s sigh?

Tonight the earth is full of sky

Longing could fill its void of naught

But for your whisper in my thought

You are here and I am there

Together in the dark night air

Nay, I am here; are you with She

Who rends the night with poetry?

© Janet Martin

Like Never Before...

So much the same yet like never before

Light rends night’s shadows to brighten our door

Gleaming on meadows of dew-laden lock

Kissing the sun-flow’r and prim holly-hock

Tender assurances spill from yon main

Compassion’s faithfulness, new once again

Hope for life’s journey spills from onyx hull

Yet, only believers can taste it in full

Soft glide life’s moments, from heaven they pour

So much the same yet like never before

Up from the edge of the earth, see His love

Bathing the morning with Light from above

Lord, fill our wishes with love’s simple song

Guide our footsteps and make courage strong

Let our returning of humble thanks pour

So much the same yet like never before

© Janet Martin

 Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day. Ps. 71:8

This Thing...Part Three

Shall we drown in pathetic ignorance

Where vast oceans of information swell?

For what will be man’s great deliverance

If we shun He who stands twixt heav’n and hell?

The rudiments of Knowledge are not based

On mortal entertainment of the mind

Within humanity His will has placed

Ability and its power to find

What He reveals; we are not gods but men

Created by the One who knows all things

If we renounce what He instills, what then?

Will blind lead on the blind in feigned teachings?

Knowledge does not transcend Invisible

Though generations pass This Thing abides

The truth of it Knowledge cannot annul

Base knowledge builds on what the eye ascribes

Only Belief unveils the Law we brave

Belief reveals accountability

Yet, Belief has no power to save
Until we realize our Utter Need

Thus, faith becomes that sacred stepping-stone

For what we see can never be enough

Our vile and guilty penance to atone

Or justify our sacraments of love

So, love provided once for all, a Lamb

His shed blood offers hope, though ages roll

Alpha, Omega, Love’s Supreme I Am

Cries ‘it is finished’; man cannot control

His destiny beyond this leap of Time

Only the blood of Jesus saves the soul

And if we turn away from Love Sublime

Then we reject This Thing that makes us whole

This Thing that breathed into darkness and space

The workings of His gifted universe

This Thing, compassion’s blood-stained thread of grace

Whereby we bless or ignorantly curse

For who would dare to take Love’s name in vain

If with our eyes we saw what His Words tell?

And who would ever turn his back again

If we were shown a glimpse of Heav'n or Hell?

And who would hate the Hands that bore the nails

To seal our recompense; Knowledge is mute

Without love’s faith; its clamoring exhales

Verbose confusion for mouths to dispute

For Love is our lone, Ultimate Hope;

The poverty that plagues the human heart

From new-born cry until that solemn slope

Where life and death are ever sheered apart

Cannot be satisfied with bread and wine

Or things we touch with hungry hands and eyes

A branch will die when severed from the Vine

This truth even Knowledge can recognize

Was not the Tree of Good and Evil named

After Knowledge; and when they both did eat

Their eyes were opened and they were ashamed

As Need became their quest for bread and meat

Yet Fulfillment and Need align within

Thus juxtaposed; ah, tender paradox

God did not leave us hopeless, dead in sin

But gave His Son to die upon the cross

To fulfill Need; and all that we must do

Is ‘Come’; for there are none He will cast out

But those who find Him are too far and few

Many approach but turn away in doubt

Choosing instead the things which eye can see

For Need deceives; unmitigated, stark

Yet, when we put on Immortality

There are but two terminals; Light and Dark

And then what good is knowledge without Love?

But, if we have known Love we have seen God

Some speak of love but deny God above

What good is seed if we refuse the sod?

This Thing confounds meek poets, scholars, scribes

Philosophers and cleric, rich and poor

This Thing we give to get and cannot buy

Or live without; or selfishly procure

What is This Thing for which the whole world cries

While evil wars against its Deity?

Knowledge and ignorance argues, denies

What faith believes, in Love’s humility

God signed its proof, but not of ink on scroll

He poured it, blood-red Passion suffering

From head and hands, from side and feet, His Whole

Wept love; atonement’s last sin-offering

The age of information fills Time’s glass

But it cannot fulfill God’s words of old

Love is the ageless Hope we cling to as

We see God’s ancient prophesies unfold

For what He said will surely come to be

Heaven and Hell could not His wrath withstand

If not for Love; the Love that sets us free

This Thing is more than we can understand…

© Janet Martin

 In the book, A Step of Faith by Richard Paul Evans( book #4 in The Walk series), one line got caught in my thought today...'What a culture we live in. We are swimming in an ocean of information and drowning in ignorance'

This is why I love every single one of Richard Paul Evans books....profound bits tucked into the storyline!

The Ineptness and Forgiveness of Mortal Love

I will never be to you

Everything you want me to

And if I disappoint today

Darling, love me anyway

You will never be to me

Every single thing I need

So let’s just love and give God thanks

Then let His love fill in the blanks

© Janet Martin

Of Loving and Living...

Dawn softly tiptoes from Time’ mysteries

Kissing the dark with slow intricacies

Hope, like a lover undresses the deep

Undoing strings that have held us in sleep

Shall we leave its coaxing love unrequited?

Crushing its dream before it is cited?

Day sprawls before us with reckoning chance

Urging us closer to touch, taste and dance

Darling, the silver of moonlight and mist

Pools cool in the dell, gold on amethyst

Who can resist? Living’s fingertips ache

With weight of desire and love it must make

Unfetter vain fear; let it fly past the sun

Morning is here but soon it too is done

We cannot live on the past and its charms

For then we die lonely in each-other’s arms

Dawn trickles softly from Time’s metronome

Soon it will gather its offering home

It cannot refund or replay its chance

Darling, let’s make love as we touch, taste and dance

© Janet Martin

Making love is a constant laying down of self... Ann Voskamp

Through the Wood

If you should like to hear a song

Unrivaled by mere mortal tongue

And if you should like to recline

Beneath wild morning-glory vine

Or feel time pause within the walls

Of poplar-hemlock-elm-birch halls

If you should like to rest awhile

Where gentle zephyrs tease and smile

And all is peaceful, pure and good

Then you should wander through a wood

If you should like to chase a dream

Where bracken lines the lazy stream

And the whole world is brown and green

With bits of blue tucked high between

Where suddenly life’s little care

Drifts like a leaf upon the air

As you recall your inner child

Before Time drew you to the wild

And hurried pace of adulthood

…then take a detour through the wood

Life does not wait for anyone

And soon another day is done

How sad to by-pass freedom’s hour

And never wander ‘neath the bower

Of nature’s sacred citadel

Out past the sweep of gold-grain swell

Or where the back-road curves beyond

The road well-traveled, past the pond

Where once upon a time we could

Spend hours wandering through the wood

© Janet Martin

 Okay, well maybe not on a July evening unless you enjoy being a mosquito buffet;)

Of Gardens and Good-bye

Although, in Time we are nothing now

But love’s kind memory

I’m glad to know, someway, somehow

This binds us agelessly

And though our paths have parted, love

Know we will never part

Because there are no sad farewells

In gardens of the heart

J~

Of Gates and God

The sun climbs high into the sky

The Unknown does not offer

A greater glimpse to he who trusts

Than to the brazen scoffer

Our fingers rest upon a staff

All we can do is follow

And trust the One who forms and fills

The Unknown's hidden hollow

© Janet Martin

This morning I had a sensation of lifting a latch to open a gate

I cannot predict the twists and turns of life that lie in wait

But all I know is He who goes before me knows the way

I bow my head and beg for trust before I touch this day.

Summer Vesper

 The sunset was, u-u-u-m-m...grand. Actually, there are no words for what the sunset was...

The shadow climbs the gilded gate

Beneath dusk’s grand pavilion

Until blue depths obliterate

Its silhouette horizon

Against the quiet aftermath

Of mid-day’s bustling duty

The Painter of life’s little path

Unfurls night’s somber beauty

And now the sweet familiar dons

A strange and mystic splendor

The moonlight pools on silver lawns

In midnight’s mellow candor

The charcoal hush dims gold and red

Brushing garden and meadow

As all the world is tucked to bed

Beneath night’s velvet shadow

The lithesome step of eager child

Dashes through dream-land pasture

The brook that threads the begging wild

Murmurs in muted laughter

The tangled tress of raven limb

Strums softly with silk fingers

The air is drenched with midnight’s hymn

Where hope and heartache lingers

© Janet Martin

Sweet Summer

Sweet summer sweeps in green-leaf leaps

And gold exhilaration

From mystery to history

And quiet contemplation

Sweet summer swirls, where time unfurls

A swift and subtle stealing

Of sun-flow’r splash and flip-flop flash

Beneath cerulean ceiling

Sweet summer sways in heat-wave haze

And weeping willow-tresses

A serenade of dappled shade

Of iced tea and sun-dresses

Sweet summer sings in offerings

Of petal-perfumed pleasure

In honey-bees and bonny breeze

And muted moment-measure

Sweet summer sighs in veiled good-byes

Where aspen silver shimmers

Against the blue-sky avenue

And in the tear that glimmers

Sweet summer sinks beneath the pinks

Of rhododendron and roses

We touch and taste its gifted haste

Before its shutter closes

© Janet Martin

This summer is sweeping along far too quickly.