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

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

To suffer that which none can tame

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