Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Some Worth-(our)-While Resolutions...


 The photo collage below is from a summer front-porch sit at my sister's house!
(see first line of poem below:)
The view was second to none! and the company/fellowship was pretty nice too!
Here's to keeping some simpler, sweeter resolutions in 2020!
 
Happy Last Day of 2019!


 Here's to some totally within reach transformations that might not be quite as quickly visible
as those that took place overnight!



This year, let’s sit upon a porch though this seems like a thing of yore
(Because most of us seem too hurried just to linger anymore)
Just to rave at waves of colour weaving oceans through the sky
Or to marvel at the measure of a moment flitting by

Let’s close our eyes and wander back to simpler, ampler days and years
Or ponder present pleasantries before its pleasure disappears
Let’s pray more for our friends and neighbours, family both far and near
Or rock and talk about the weather or a hymn that we hold dear

Let’s try to pause without a worry about where we ought to be
Let’s learn to linger over pages filled with nature’s poetry
Let’s be awed, struck with wordless wonder as the sun sets in the west
And put down handheld distractions (lest we deem God’s art second best)

Let’s make a firm four-season promise to spend more time far less stressed
For the author of earth’s beauty offers endless ways to be impressed
The flower of an hour soon lies lifeless where spent ages drift
Let’s not let it slip through our fingers without regard for its gift

Let’s make a resolution to be more at ease with fellowman
And strive to please the Giver of all that He grants, the best we can
And let’s with kind, earnest endeavor bind love’s wounds with mercy’s kiss
To heal the heart and bridge the gap twixt what once was with what yet is

Let’s remember that we never know what a day, (nay, an hour) may cast
Let’s make real the cliché to live each day as if it were our last
Let’s picture this world as the foothills in full view of heaven’s gates
Then this will help us keep the focus when we would forget what waits

Let’s be more careful with the air full of echoes that soon will teach
Let’s be aware of the awesome blessing of loved ones still within reach
Let’s treat each other as if we never know if we will meet once more
Let’s make life worth the living by giving without once keeping score

Let’s sip our seasons slowly, wholly humbled by hope’s holy ground
Lest we miss out on what is right before us waiting to be found
Let’s turn the other cheek; not waste our precious whiles seeking revenge
Let’s fill our thoughts with thankfulness that spills out in ten thousand glad amens

© Janet Martin

...on this note I'm off to linger over pages filled with nature's fresh snowfall poetry!


A Love-Note to Ring Out The Old (and ring in the new)



 Below is the full hymn which the stanza above is from;  Something For Thee

 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, 
God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1 John 4:12

When I ponder Thy love for me
It makes me weigh my love for Thee
And measure on the scale of choice
The worship uttered without voice

When on this trial-riddled sphere
I test the timbre of the tear
Pray that its holy grail would be
Thy love for me, my love for Thee

When Duty's rod is meek and plain
Remind me, God, tis not in vain
If task and toil's necessity
Is like a hymn of praise to thee
  
And when my time on earth is through
And there is nothing left to do
But shed this robe of hope and need
To reap the reward of faith’s seed

Lord, let this thought love’s lot console
And keep my heart fixed on the goal
Where triumph’s song will ever be
My love for thee; Thy love for me

Lord, keep my lips from speaking guile
Nor let the lust of flesh defile
But ever let my hunger be
Thy love for me, my love for Thee

© Janet Martin




Monday, December 30, 2019

Fault-(finder) Line


 How old is The Child when they cross 'the line' that takes them out of the safety-zone
I wondered yesterday as we oohed and aahed and cuddled and kissed
The Little One who has (gloriously and innocently) not yet crossed 'the line'...
then, still innocently, they do!
And suddenly the 'law of love' seems to change its tone (in some, anyway)
where we are all prone through human nature/aka Adam's curse
 to be guilty at some point in time
of this tone-change...(shame on us)






When do we start with meaner mind
To point fingers with cruel slight
When does the youngster cross the line
That opens them to verbal bite
Is it when they begin to learn
From a teacher none can ignore
Where life is full of twist-and-turn
On roads they never walked before

When are they no longer too young
To be spared from the critic’s grind
Or become fodder for the Tongue
That is untruthful and unkind
When, instead of encouragement
Do they become the scorner’s prize
Where once they gained The Compliment
Now words condemn and criticize

When does the law of love become
More like a cold betrayer’s kiss?
Is it just when they need someone
To remind them, ‘life is like this’
That it is our mistakes and such
That makes us wiser day by day
When, (when they need kindness so much)
 Do they become the gossip’s prey?

How old does someone have to be
When they are beyond two or three
Do they start to become fair game?
Tell me, oh, thou of verbal skill
(Where we are all part of God’s choir)
When is the child ‘fit for the kill’
That puts them in Talk's line of fire

© Janet Martin

No one ever grows old enough
to be fit enough for the gossiper's firing squad

 but no human being can tame the tongue.
 It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
James 3:8

 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, 
as God in Christ forgave you.
Eph.4:32


Will of the Wintry Wind...


we woke to the wild will of the wind this morning!
all man powerless against its force.
we can muster the might to bear its bluster and batten down hatches
but we cannot thwart or deter that invisible fiend


Wind’s wild wail rakes hill and dale
Rouses sleepy russet leaves
Wakes the world with wrath unfurled
Rattling windows, doors and eaves
Riles the tops of bristled copse
Shrieks across earth’s living room
Tugs at hoods and bundled broods
Hustled by a bully’s broom

Rumbles, roars through out-of-doors
Like a freight train without form
Lunges, lashes, plunges, splashes
Like a sea tossed by the storm
Rankles, rages, rips at pages
Pressed like pansies in a book
Rough shod artist flings a heart-twist  
Into every nook and brook

 Puddles rippled, silver-stippled
Sweeps a sheet of streets, roofs, yards
Double-decker trouble-wreaker
Strews rubble through boulevards
Shakes and shivers brakes and rivers
Not a shred of courtesy
Pulls and pushes the bulrushes
Frazzles frothy filigree

Rosins fiddles bronze and brittle
Made of sticks and prairie grass
Steals our shingles, peels back wrinkles
Fills our fists with teenage sass
Keens desires for home-fires
And its world of simple joys
Makes us gladder for each other
While the wind its will employs

© Janet Martin



Oh, To Know


Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, 
but the Spirit who is from God,
 that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
1 Cor.2:12

 

Oh, to know we are forgiven
Fills faith’s flight with wondrous worth
Tunes heart chords with hymns of heaven
Midst the pangs and twangs of earth

Oh, to know no one is ever
All alone through God alone
Comforts us with kind endeavor
Not to fear time’s vast Unknown

Oh, to know that we are able
Not through might of mortal form
But hope’s anchor keeps us stable
Through the night of trial’s storm

Oh, to know love’s purposed blindness
How, no matter what we boast
Nothing takes the place of kindness
Proving who we love the most

Oh to know soul’s condemnation
Cannot keep its curse of woe
As the promise of salvation
Frees the convict on death-row

Oh, to know in spite of stumbles
By the grace of God we press
My, but how this favour humbles
Grumbles turned to thankfulness

© Janet Martin