After-effects Of Youth

...and just like that-- what ever 'That' might be

Is gathered up and one more month 

is simply history...

I stumble on a wisp of blue and peer through smoke-hued haze

To trace faces and places lost, save to my shut-eye gaze

Where abstract panoramas splay and echo’s shadow lies

Like tatters from a page splattered with tints of paradise

…where once upon the gentle spawn of dawn to dusk we sailed

Blind to the ocean of spent leaves beneath the tides we hailed

Wild with a thirst roused by the durst that fans the dreamer’s fire

And firsts we tasted then, blessed-cursed with notion and desire

…before the firsts that hurt a bit because we realize

The taste of haste is bittersweet and takes us by surprise

While we began becoming nothing like our fantasy

Seasons slipped past our windows like a stream slips to the sea

The berth of Bygone groans beneath the weightless weight of days

I fumble with the hue of blue pressed into yesterdays

Where I cannot impress upon the nonchalance of youth

How swift the green of seventeen is scorched with ageless truth

…or how time’s prow cuts through the Now that rolls across a shore

How looking back, is like a strange mirage of nevermore

How looking forward is an art; the heart soft-torn between

A place mired in memories and what has not yet been

© Janet Martin

A Gladsome Fact (especially when considering roads not taken yet)

My daily wish...to be as hungry for life as my little early-morning girl is for her breakfast; 

Almost every day her first words after removal of coat and boots are "I'm hungry!"

(I hate when my 'hunger' is overshadowed by apprehension instead of meek trust.)

"All gone!" she announces approx. two minutes later

Here, hidden within reach on roads we have not taken yet

We peer, with thought’s best guesses at perhaps-shaped silhouettes

For one sure fact, as time goes by, the trav’ler of it learns

That plan is interrupted oft, with unexpected turns

The range of here- to-there runs rife with life’s common foray

Yet, who can tell what waits to fill this shell of new today?

Where miles that wind and ties that bind are interwoven strings

As step by step unravels and unveils life’s hidden things

Ah, does your pulse thus quicken at the thought of what yet waits

Where mortal cups Immortal and but one breath separates

Does step-by-step and day-to-day don a more sacred grit

When we consider Time and the propensity of it

Here, on the threshold of what none of us beholds in full

We pray the Lord to guard and guide what twilight’s tide will lull

Where, hidden within in reach on roads soon only Thought can trace

We ought to trust the One that sets its stepping-stones in place

We speak a language learned by circumstance and consequence

Today is always history-in-waiting; we commence

On fringes of Imminence toward Today’s Vast Unknown

Oh, aren’t you glad of One Sure Fact; we never walk alone

© Janet Martin

Deut.31:8

 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; 

he will never leave you nor forsake you. 

Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

A Wild-wind Wordle

 

it rattles the branches, maraca-style 
it scatters the birds that chatter and croon
it chases the girl with honey-sweet smile
across the edge of an afternoon
where crescendo of bared-teeth gale
shatters the silence that else would be
but for the blue-some winds that wail
as winter defies gravity
with ballads that electrify
the brooding poets blood-less sigh

Janet~

a little Wordle-fun on a wind-wild afternoon!

electrify farewell with kisses

Honey, time's blue-blooded flame

trembles with the bare essentials

of credentials without shame

where the crescendo of hours

shatters high noon's bird's-eye view 

as the dry bones of spent flowers

rattle down the avenue

until snagged in guttered edges

like a dream at middle-age

where teeth clench as twilight wedges

between Her and the next stage

Janet~

Of Sunlit Scrawl...(and something we all have in common)

 What in the world?!

Just one more day and February is done?!

It feels like it has just begun!

...and yes, the sun is scrawling on 'burnished mead', (don't you LOVE it?:)

not a white spread-sheet of hill and dell as we would assume for Canadian February!

Enjoy, because we know it can change in the blink of an eye!

How we spend these last two days of February will vary

but one thing we all have in common...

This madrigal of sunlit scrawl

On burnished mead and blue-brushed bars

Soft-pours from molds of green-blush-golds

A highway threaded through the stars

This elemental filament

That leads not to, but through the grave

Weaves from the floss of gain and loss

An exodus we all must brave

This paradox of doors and locks

And clocks that mark the march of years

Rallies a staid, formless brigade

That sallies forth and disappears  

This thoroughfare of care and prayer

And wall-less waiting rooms of hope

This interplay of night to day

Of hold, let go, of yup and nope

...since time began can vex the plan

Of man to man and dust-to-dust

As shadows fall to snuff the scrawl

That leads us all to That Last Must

© Janet Martin

 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body,
whether good or bad.

2 Cor.5:10

...another thing we all have in common is the everlasting love of God!

John 3:16  
For God so loved the world, 
that he gave his only Son, 
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

 ...the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, 
but is patient toward you, 
not wishing that any should perish, 
but that all should reach repentance.
2 Pet.3:9 

Sometimes Life Says "Nope"...

 ...because life is not what life is all about!

Sometimes we forget that when we gaze at hardships 

(so many HARD hardships)

that vex our little 'Now'...

Sometimes we are like little children

needing to learn to accept "no" 

when it would seem "yes" is far more agreeable to our understanding.

Just as we say "no" to a child because it is for their good, though they do not understand,

So God sometimes says "no" to us

When we hear 'yes' we're as delighted as Brantley, our grandson when he is watching The Wiggles!

...but oh, when we hear "no"!

Sometimes we want and wish and dream

And pray and plead and beg and hope

But in spite of our loudest scream

Sometimes life says ‘nope’

Sometimes we plan and wheel and deal

And dig our heels in the steep slope

Where life cares little how we feel

…sometimes it says ‘nope’

Sometimes we grit our teeth and groan

And strive to learn new ways to cope

Then, just when we think we have won

Sometimes life says ‘nope’

Sometimes no matter what we do

All we can do is trust and grope

The Hand that holds us firm and true

Even when life says ‘nope’

God says ‘Hope’

© Janet Martin

A Living Hope

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! 

By His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope 

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, 

reserved in heaven for you,

who through faith are protected by God’s power for the salvation 

that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer various trials,

so that the authenticity of your faith—more precious than gold, 

which perishes even though refined by fire—

may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; 

and though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him 

and rejoice with an inexpressible and glorious joy,

now that you are receiving the goal of your faith, 

the salvation of your souls. 

1 Pet.1:3-9