I Hope It Is (about this Poem-Porch)

Some would likely call this poem blog/porch a prolific contribution to the plethora of

verbose vomit we have available these days with the click of a button!

I'm inclined to believe for every 'garbage verbiage' 

there is a 'good and healthy option' too!

So much I would love to  read and time does not allow!

We have to pick and choose a few from the millions of options!

So, thank-you to everyone who takes a few moments 

to drop by this poem-porch!

I hope it is never a waste of your precious time!

...and if you don't drop by, well, you won't see this but I understand! 

We all have only so many hours in a day

and poetry/rhyme is not everyone's 'cup of tea'. 😊 

I sure hope it is more than verbose vomit!

I hope it is ...

An arm around a shoulder

A hug to the heart.

High-fives to growing older

A poetic 'restart'

A joyful celebration

For hope anchored in

The God of salvation

Who forgives our sin

I hope it is...

A place where our fingers

Their pointing will cease

Where love's Presence lingers

In comforting peace

Where doubt's dark clouds dwindle

And faith is renewed

A place to rekindle

Meek gratitude

I hope it is...

A welcome home feeling

Poetic sweet tea

An invisible gathering

Of extended family 

I hope when you visit

This small porch will bless

Your day with God's kisses

And love's happiness

From Janet

by God's grace

for His glory

with love💖

A Soft Snowfall Poem

This poem was started on the back of an envelope

I found in Jim's truck after church on Sunday

while I waited for him to look after a few work details

It was inspired by the scenes

where it felt like God shook the snow-globe we are living in😊

Teasels topped in frosty toques...

Branches brushed in stencil-art

Wild grass bent like white-washed stooks...

Brook banks plush and snowflake-starred 

Every sprig, white pom-pom crowned

Every twig cotton-ball bowed

Teasels topped in frosty toques

Branches brushed in stencil-art

Wild grass bent like white-washed stooks

Brook banks plush and snowflake-starred

Every sprig, white pom-pom crowned

Every twig, cotton-ball bowed

Every footstep, snuffed of sound

Everybody white-world wowed (well, almost:)

Earth and heavens interfuse

Where the meadow meets the sky

Beauty exceeds duty’s dues

Rousing worship’s perfect sigh

Windsong is a whisper, oh

Birdsong is muffled in white

Woodlands wear wool scarves of snow

Dreamlands waken pure delight

Earth is like a snow-globe shook

Where the countryside and town

Look like pictures in a book

Tucked beneath white eiderdown

© Janet Martin

This Life-We-Live Love-Letter...

Hope; what a bitter-sweetest word

for when we hurt

then we seek Hope!

Psalm 71:14-18

As for me, I will always have hope;

I will praise you more and more.

My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds,

of your saving acts all day long—

though I know not how to relate them all.

 I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign Lord;

I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone.

 Since my youth, God, you have taught me,

and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.

Even when I am old and gray,

do not forsake me, my God,

till I declare your power to the next generation,

your mighty acts to all who are to come.

And here is our living hope!

Matt.1:21

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,

because he will save his people from their sins."

So,

All about Jesus

or

not about Jesus at all

Who is our life-we-live love-letter to/about?

'Where we are in the process of shaping love’s sacred sum

Then pray for fresh awareness of He who dawn’s page is from'

I was unable to share these photos 'hot off mercy's press' yesterday 

because our internet went down while I was working on this post

and was down all day!

Here is a bit of yester-gold to brighten today's gray😊

This life of you and I is like a love letter we pen

To He who grants the grace whereby we rise and shine again

Where we are in the process of shaping love’s sacred sum

Then pray for fresh awareness of He who dawn’s page is from

The grave will soon collect the boast and bones of you and me

Then, that which matters most will unveil truth’s finality

Dawn’s page of brand-new day soon fills with ink spilled into act

Where what we do and say portrays solemn matters of fact

How subtle is the shuttle of the loom that weaves life’s threads

Reverence and rebuttal groom the rooms of hearts and heads

Where seasons lent soon disappear into revise-proof past

Where the bough bent with now and here soon leaves sheer shadows cast

Love’s weight of cares could crush us beyond ways and means to cope

Without God’s hands to cup us and His word to anchor Hope

Then, when the heart is broken, still true love will suffer long

Through that which God has spoken to comfort and keep us strong

This life-we-live love-letter is a holy enterprise

Our gift to the Creator given when the body dies

Where each new day is a fresh page awaiting our reply

Where what we do and say writes so much more than meets the eye

© Janet Martin

Psalm 62:8

Trust in Him at all times, you people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah

Thursday Thoughts on Thanksgiving and Hope

Happy Thanksgiving to our American neighbours/friends💖

It is always touching and inspiring to watch the wonder and joy of children

as the gaze at the babe in the manger...

Pray, as they grow they will never lose the wonder

but come to know the boundless hope and joy

only faith in Jesus can give!

This kind of poem is always hard

to reel in to page-size portions.

someday we will have eternity to sing it; 

no time constraints!

(this can be read as six shorter poems or one longer poem)

When earthen vaults have overflowed

With plant-to-harvest sum

When orchards and vineyards have glowed

With garnet, gold and plum

When once again the land and limb

Is culled of ripened food

Then once again we raise a hymn

Of humble gratitude

For eyes to see and hands to hold

And fold in thankful prayer

For wonders that never grow old

For strength, love’s load to bear

For hope in God’s Supremacy

Who teaches us to trust

His lifeline thrown upon a sea

Of groaning dust-to-dust

***

Upon earth’s hearth scattered with ash

Of autumn’s fallen leaves

Where days are doffed of summer’s sash

Of dusk’s long-ling’ring eves

Where seasons, like a carousel

Spin round and round and round

Where time is like a tolling bell

Where we tread holy ground

Where all we have and hold is lent

And not meant to enslave

Where not one solitary cent

Can cheer us in the grave

Where God who fills earth’s treasure trove

Where bud and seed-gems brim

Upon this hearth we lift our love

In worship-songs to Him

***

From hands bearing redemption’s scars

Where once man’s pardon poured

From hands that established the stars

Hope’s anchor is restored

For on atonement’s cruel cross

Sin’s debt of guilt was paid

By He, who saw beyond his loss

To souls that would be saved

Then, to the God of earth and sky

With selfish heart undone

May endless praise be our reply

For what His grace has won

So when we cross that Awesome Deep

The angels will applaud

For Death will be Victory’s leap

Into the Arms of God

***

Give thanks for He whose love bestows

The blessings grace employs

Where would-be mis’ry overflows

With wonder’s countless joys

No woebegone, bleak hopelessness

In spite of woes that be

But pure and utter thankfulness

For Hope through Calvary

Where horror’s darkest hour wed

With The True Light unfurled

For, from redemption’s fountain bled

Joy’s beacon to the world

And what appeared as death at first

Where hatred seemed to win

Was but the heel that crushed the cursed

And evil wage of sin

***

For fruit of faith and field we sing

With glad and grateful laud

Where the altar and offering

Will prove who is our God

Where we will never be alone

If we believe in He

Who left the glory of his throne

To die upon a tree

Who, Lord of all, suffered life’s loss

Jesus, mighty to save

Obedient, endured the cross

To overthrow the grave

And instill to this toil and strife

Soul’s goal, purposed and true

The promise of eternal life

When life on earth is through

***

*Do not despair; love’s weight of care

Is but the tender price

And in a sense, a little share

Of God’s great sacrifice

Then, when the second mile seems long

And songs are groaned and wept

When we are weak, then we are strong

God’s grace is not inept

But tunes in us the humble cry

Not I, but Christ in me

The Rock upon which we rely

Is hope’s Sufficiency

Then we will let our worship spill

Though dark the glass between

For someday, face to face God will

Unveil what is unseen

© Janet Martin

*this last stanza was written with my cousin Wayne and his family in mind.

What trial they suffer as Wayne's MS continues to try and test,

and forces them into decisions/care arrangements 

love mourns to need to make

😢🙏💔

Luke 2:10-11

Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid,

 for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy 

which will be to all people. 

For there is born to you this day in the city of David 

a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 

It's beginning to look like Christmas...😀

Heaven's Overflow

Psalm 113:3

From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, 

the name of the LORD is to be praised.

This November we are treated to one spectacular sunrise/sunset after the next...

this Never-Before-Seen sunrise is happening right now!! (or was when I started this post)

Honey! Says Mr. Very-Extra-Matter-of-Fact to me whenever

I am over-rapturously rhapsodizing at heavenly declarations.

'there have been skies forever, with many a sunrise and set.

This is nothing new!!'

and I reply Yes!! but, that's the beauty of it!

This is new! 

No one has ever seen this sunrise/set before!

This is the Beauty of each and every day...

always new!

Like God's mercies every morning!

Lam3:22-24

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

A tremor on celestial strings...

Who knows what will unfold

On music sheets from welkin springs

Of magenta and gold

Where, wonder of all wonders, He

Who measures dust of days

With original Majesty

Not one sunrise replays

The Beauty of the Lord is such

No daybreak can deplete

Beneath His unparalleled touch

He never hits 'repeat'

But breathes upon the dark of dawn

Mercy's latest release

Beneath the charge of Hope's baton

A brand, new masterpiece

A brand, new day the Lord has made

For His Name to be praised

Beauty is like a love-song played

To keep Faith's gaze amazed

Then, lift your eyes unto the hills

That hang from heaven's gates

And join the worship hymn that spills

For God knows what yet waits

Sunrise, sunset, again, again

As long as grace bestows

The music bars for love's refrain

As Heaven overflows

Janet Martin

Behold Our God

Living Hope

Symphony That Was...

 

Leaf-lamps clung to woodland wicks for dear life this year!

We didn't get a killer frost to hasten their departure!

But now suddenly earth feels like a hall emptied of crowds

after the show...

Dusk casts brief shadows on a strobe of golden stillness

before drawing the shades as darkness swaddles supper-hour

Victoria and I were drawn outdoors

 as November Dusk outdid itself

in symphonic splendor

Now that the limb is stripped of leaf

The woods and countryside

Seem stilled beneath a silver sheath

Of silence amplified

Now that leaf-lilt has been subdued

The landscape dons an air

Of reverence and solitude

Akin to solemn prayer

Now that the lamp of leaf is snuffed

Of luminescent glow

The halls of hills and field seem buffed

To showcase stars of snow 

Now that the leaves have fallen down

The hush after applause

Swaddles the countryside and town

With Symphony That Was

© Janet Martin

On Living The Gift

This is the day the Lord has made;

we will rejoice and be glad in it

Psalm 118:24

(the circumference of the brilliance of this sunrise was almost full circle!!

It’s so much more than merely left-foot-right-foot-left-foray

This life we live so much more than moment-metered decay

So much more than an unrewarded leap of say-and-do

This life we live is what we give to God when it is through

It’s so much more than toast to boast about what we achieve

These steps we strew behind become the legacy we leave/weave

Then, as the door to One More Day swings stunningly ajar

May we remember by Whose grace and love we go, and are

It’s so much more than grin-and-bear-it, tick-tock-morn-to-night

Or touch-and-taste’s burgeoning tray of distress and delight

This is the day the Lord has made and as its mercies brim

We live the gift we give to God when we return to Him

© Janet Martin

Here are twenty-one beautiful verses on 'living the gift'!

Eph.5:1-21

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 

2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, 

an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, 

let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 

4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, 

but rather giving of thanks. 

5 For [a]this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, 

who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 

6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, 

for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 

7 Therefore do not be partakers with them.

Walk in Light

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. 

Walk as children of light 

9 (for the fruit of the [b]Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 

10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 

11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather [c]expose them. 

12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 

13 But all things that are [d]exposed are made manifest by the light, 

for whatever makes manifest is light. 

14 Therefore He says:

“Awake, you who sleep,

Arise from the dead,

And Christ will give you light.”

Walk in Wisdom

15 See then that you walk [e]circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 

16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 

18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 

19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, 

singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 

20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father 

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

21 submitting to one another in the fear of [f]God.

...then it began to snow...

...and the sun disappeared

into a snow-globe swirled world!

Tell Me, What Good Can a Good Thought Do (without God)?

A few Good Songs to start a New Week on...

Promises-Matt Boswell & Matt Papa

  

O, Worship the Risen Christ-Matt Boswell & Matt Papa

Goodness of God Rhett Walker

 

'Think good thoughts' and 'think positive thoughts'

are becoming popular phrases in this age!

Please tell me what good can a good thought do

without God?

(without yielding thought to prayer)

James 1:16-18

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 

Every good and perfect gift is from above, 

coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, 

with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.

He chose to give us birth through the word of truth,

 that we would be a kind of firstfruits of His creation.

Tell me, what good can good thought do

When we are down and out

If Good Thought is not first thought through

To Who ‘Good’ is about

Good thought is good but cannot turn

The tables of despair

To hope if we rebel and spurn

Good thought turned into prayer

For if the Good Thinker refutes

Goodness by Goodness blessed

Mortal’s inferior substitutes

Are pitiful at best

Dare we with atheistic bent

Omit the Name whereby

Goodness, mercy and love prevent

What law would justify

Ah, what is thought (both good and ill)

But our utter need

To submit to the Perfect Will

Of God to intercede

Good or positive thoughts alone

Are like trying to fly

While we, manacled to a stone

Are leaping for the sky

Tell me, what good is Good Thought’s sum

Without the power of

The One all Goodness proceeds from

God’s Never-failing Love

Therefore, the goodness Mind suggests

Flows not from mortal aught

But from God's grace that manifests

His love in noble thought

Tell me, what good are good thoughts when

By True Goodness bereft

Bids a façade without God, then

Is any goodness left? 

© Janet Martin

Lots more 'goodness' where these verses came from:

God's Word

You are good, and do good; 

teach me Your statutes. 

Psalm 119:68

You also gave Your good Spirit to instruct them, 

and did not withhold Your manna from their mouth, 

and gave them water for their thirst. 

Nehemiah 9:20

Hear me, O Lord, for Your lovingkindness is good; 

turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies. 

Psalm 69:16

The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; 

and He knows those who trust in Him. 

Nahum 1:7

No one is good but One, 

that is, God. 

Mark 10:18

He loves righteousness and justice; 

the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. 

Psalm 33:5

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; 

blessed is the man who trusts in Him! 

Psalm 34:8

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. 

For the Lord is good; 

His mercy is everlasting. 

Psalm 100:4-5

Oh, how great is Your goodness, 

which You have laid up for those who fear You, 

which You have prepared for those who trust in You 

in the presence of the sons of men! 

You shall hide them in the secret place

 of Your presence from the plots of man; 

You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion 

from the strife of tongues. 

Psalm 31:19-20

Day Breaks...

From moonrise 

to sunrise

the heavens draw our eyes upward

in universal worship to the Creator of heaven and earth.

Day breaks the sky, ebony-hued

Like wonder-thunder without sound

Like Mercy’s covenant renewed

Like golden signatures unbound

Day breaks the seal on skyline’s scroll

The blush of Beginning unfurled

To weathered carriages of Soul

Perfection crowns a broken world

© Janet Martin

Psalm 19:1-6

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
 Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
 They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
     It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
    like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
 It rises at one end of the heavens
    and makes its circuit to the other;
    nothing is deprived of its warmth.

I Cannot Help But Laugh a Bit...(A Precious Moments Medley)

Sometimes I look back on a day or week that at first glance seems quite commonplace

until its scenes/music plays back to me and I see it for what each moment is; precious!!

 

Pumpkin Snowman instructions here

Tea-party 'cheers'

...and last but not least, the ever-changing window-framed art of each season!!!

(because it was this view through my window as I was passing through the kitchen

that inspired the first four lines in this poem)

I cannot help but laugh a bit

At the dear and sheer thrill of it

Of seasons as they spill and slide

Across acquiescent countryside

Of vistas ever changing hue

Of kiss and hug, hello, adieu

Of Old Man Winter’s hearty grin

In spite of what we think of him

Of home-sweet-home’s sweet friendliness

To thwart life’s out-of-sorted-ness

Of cherishing the day in hand

On pedestals of waning sand

Of passing pictures, window-framed

Soon by the Rite of Twilight claimed

Of what seems common until we

Scan it with closer scrutiny

Where word like ‘us’ and ‘with’ and ‘we’

Suggest your lovely company

Suggest a cup of tea and such

The poetry of taste and touch

And then I have to laugh, tis true

At the sheer and dear joy of you

I cannot help but laugh a bit

And sing and weep and pray a bit

The fling and swing and sway of it

The come-whatever-may of it

The way the tune of Time is played

The way that flowers flare and fade

The ebb and ache and eddy of

The give and take of life and love

The sense of something like a dance

Where moment-medleys glide and glance

Where wave on wave of hours roll

Across shorelines of grave and goal

Where youth soon wears the tender trace

Of truth; where dreamlands interlace

With matters of four-season fact

Where time will not leave us intact

And Want is better now because

It is much simpler than it was

When we were green as spring, fresh-spun

And king and queen of Opinion

Where in the autograph of it

I cannot help but laugh a bit

© Janet Martin

Soon, soon a season's sweet collage

turns into echo-decoupage