Wednesday, February 28, 2018

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."





Tuesday, February 27, 2018

A Wild-wind Wordle

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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 

Monday, February 26, 2018

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