Monday, February 29, 2016

Of Hints and Tints





Now stirs the dormant seed in wintry bed
Where from the bond of autumn-frond it fell
The visions that we nursed of storm-cursed dread
Surrender to time’s rolling, tolling swell
And loam that lured dusk’s early lullaby
Grows restless now where summer’s gardens sigh
The overbearing gale pales as the sun
Expands its strands before the day is done
And bronze landscapes are eager for the snow
Of daisy, anemone and musk-mallow

How long the tree has waited, not in vain
To cradle nest and fledgling on its limb
To croon the tune of leaf-song once again
Where now its stands bereft of nature’s hymn
This tug-of-temperatures soon must relent
As Old Man Winter's will and chill is spent
Soon orchard bowers will flower and spill
Fair, pink-frocked ballerinas to each hill
And everyone is young and full of smiles
Eager to dance upon spring’s silk-green isles

Methinks I hear a low, lush river blush
Is it the heady rush of budding shoots?
This game of waiting for the blossomed bush
Teases the frost from nature’s muddy boots
And teaches us the art of patient sighs
For spring that never yet has lost its way
To earth, and the rebirth of paradise
Soon, soon this stone-cold hold will roll away
Where even now both sod and sky are rife
With hints of resurrection and new life

© Janet Martin


Of Moments

One of my friends turned fifty last week. Her husband (a leap-year baby)  celebrates a real birthday today...Happy B-day to all of you who celebrate a real birthday every four years.
Happy Leap-day to all!
...and remember, 
Moments matter because life is moment-matter. 



Already of good part of this morning that is, was!

The way of moments masters
The art of give and take
Its play of tears and laughter
Strums heartstrings with love’s ache

The mien of moments musters
With naught but tick and tock
 A green of mist-kissed echoes
Where thought alone can walk

The stealth of moments garners
From all we cannot keep
A wealth of common treasure
To recall from Past’s deep

The drip of moment-measure
Can steal our breath because
It slips time from our fingers
And seals it to what was

The will of moments moving
Through our touch with ease
Can fill a phantom garden
With flow’r-like memories

© Janet Martin

I know I've shared this verse before but it's a good one. esp. for birthdays!

 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 
Ps. 90:12




Sunday, February 28, 2016

Sometimes All We Need...





Sometimes what seems impossible
…an uphill slip and slide
Becomes a downhill joyride with
Somebody at our side


Sometimes we would give up and quit
After we tried and tried
But then along comes what we need
…somebody at our side

Sometimes the road up to the top
Is more than one man wide
It's a shoulder-to -shoulder crawl
With someone at our side

© Janet Martin

Before It Is Too Late





Because we can’t take it all in
Each new day is a span
Of God-lent opportunity
To do all that we can

…to touch and taste and hear and see
From a bounteous buffet
Of sight and sound, the Majesty
Of He who shapes each day

Before this breath of life is spent
Before God seals time's gate
Let’s live its days in wide-eyed praise
Before it is too late

© Janet Martin

It is more than we can take in, agreed Victoria and I yesterday as we drank in the glory of a dazzling landscape....

Have a Wonder-full. Worshipful  Sunday!


Saturday, February 27, 2016

God Only Knows...





The heart can be a hollow
Full of fantasy
Tortured by the taunt of
What may never be

The heart can burst with hunger
Trespassers of thought
Wrench from guarded corners
Monuments of naught

The heart can break while beating
Ache with soundless pleas
Weighted with the whisper
That bends rigid knees

The heart can hurt with wishes
Inept to disclose
What this skin-cup harbors
And God only knows

© Janet Martin