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Saturday, April 30, 2022

A Word to Poets (and People In General... )


Whoosh! and another week/month bites the dust!
Farewell April Showers and blizzards!
On a bright note, farm-dust is starting to fly in some areas!
Oh, isn't that wonderful?!!


Even if it smells like manure?!๐Ÿ˜…


Wishing one and all a weekend full of wonder!


Psalm 69:30
I will praise God's name in song and exalt Him with thanksgiving.

Sometimes what means the most in love and life’s strife and lament
Are simple things; a smile, a word of kind encouragement
A grumble never uttered, and an insult never said
Instead of discontent, a compliment, a prayer-bowed head

Sometimes what we need most where heartache’s bitter brunt must be
Where troubles test and dreams are vexed with stiff reality
Are not poetic platitudes or eloquent cliches
But just a hug to tug at heart-strings full of knots and frays

Sometimes what matters most to give is not nickel-and-dime
But the often apology-defended gift of time
Where what we need is not the creed of some best-seller book
But rather the less stressful counsel of a babbling brook

What waits to be will wait to be; enough with now and here
Where moments fall like stars or like the sparkle of a tear
Where you and I in love and life’s commitments of lament
Should strive to give what we all need; time and encouragement

Sometimes workaday weariness can wear our wonder thin
And holes into the soles of shoes somewhere beneath our skin
Sometimes life’s need and noise pleads us to fold want’s weathered wings
And count life’s wealth of simple joys until we feel like kings

Sometimes poetry snared in script is not equipped with ears 
Sometimes a rhyme takes too much time and ink and paper gears 
Sometimes what means the most is not something that prose defines  
But someone who is close enough to read between the lines

๐Ÿ’”๐Ÿ’ž

© Janet Martin


Psalm 34:3
Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.

Friday, April 29, 2022

Little Life-Ladder

Psalm 143:8

Let me hear Your loving devotion in the morning,
for I have put my trust in You.
Teach me the way I should walk, 
for to You I lift up my soul.


I have a few friends going through terribly difficult seasons!
Whether we are in the valley of the shadow of death
or enjoying a view from the heights of success
we are where we are by the grace of God
on our way to beholding Him!


I wish I had a picture of Tot yesterday,
standing at the bottom of this ladder
and looking up, up as if wondering
to what wonderland it leads...
 I identified with the wee one, as I too sometimes
look up, up beyond the Meanwhile...



Through the thick and thin of laughter
‘Neath the rise and set of sun
Before turns to ever-after
Gold and gray mingle as one

In the grin and groan of earning
Wisdom’s wonder-wizened crown
We will never outgrow learning
Till we lay these bodies down

Where ways once keener/greener and younger
Kisses faces with lost youth
We, honed by hope’s sacred hunger
Cling all the more to God’s truth

Not forgotten, not forsaken
As He draws us to the shore
Where death’s sleep is but to waken
In His Presence evermore

Through the highs and lows of living
Flows the wellspring of Enough
Where God, gracious and forgiving
Lavishes us with His love

In the hearing and the calling
Until death collects its claim
We are climbing and yet falling
Up, yet back from whence we came

In the valley of death's shadow
Or on heights of sweet success
Life is like a little ladder
Leaning on/leading to Eternalness  
 
© Janet Martin

Oh, imagine if we had the visual of our little life-ladder
(wherever we happen to be in time's climb),
 leaning against Eternity
held by He who is from Everlasting to Everlasting!

Psalm 116:5
Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
Yes, our God is compassionate.




Thursday, April 28, 2022

A Spring Song



This morning's sunbeams
after yesterday's snowfall


sets spring songs a-ringing!
(in bird and bard!)



The sparkle of frost-brickle
The finch in golden plume
*(or the finch-tree in full plume)
The twinkle in Father Time’s grin
As earth trembles with bloom

Good morning’s hearty handshake
The sky, a big blue bowl
Tipped upside down to grandly crown
The laughter of the soul

The giggle of the garden
The robin’s tiralee
Green sheen unfurled across a world
Wild with expectancy

Where we attuned to anthems
Not written in a book
Join in the hymn of throbbing limb
And chuckle of the brook

How long we wished and waited
For daffodils to glow
For violet stars to deck the bars
Long kissed with flecks of snow

Come, let’s dance on the tarmac
No longer brown and gray
And celebrate the welkin gate
Where winter lost its way (hopefully)๐Ÿ˜‘

© Janet Martin

The sparkle of frost-brickle...



*The finch-tree in full plume/bloom



Good morning’s hearty handshake
The sky, a big blue bowl
Tipped upside down to grandly crown
The laughter of the soul...


How long we wished and waited
For daffodils to glow
...in the words from my two-yr.-old little gal in my childcare-
'I saw dappydils!'

For violet stars to deck the bars
Long kissed with flecks of snow...


The giggle of the garden
The robin’s tiralee
Green sheen unfurled across a world
Wild with expectancy...



Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Already Overflowing


But the fruit of the Spirit is 
love, joy, peace, 
forbearance, kindness, goodness, 
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 
Against such things there is no law.
Gal.5:22-23

we all prefer being treated with
and surrounded by the fruits of the Spirit
named above,
rather than its opposing counterparts;
hate, misery, worry/war,
impatience, hardness, corruption
disloyalty/dishonesty, violence and rashness

When we view life in light of all the Lord
offers, provides and has provided
our hearts can't help but overflow with humble gratitude
for his everlasting love and faithfulness!

(Sometimes these poems are written to re-remind
my own floundering, susceptible-to-fear faith,
 of God's goodness
so I keep my eyes fixed on a Prize
 beyond all comprehension
and my heart overflowing with worship rather than worry!




Ps.45:1 NKJV
My heart is overflowing with a good theme;
I recite my composition concerning the King;
My tongue is the pen of a [c]ready writer.

Already overflowing, though cares of life persist
We serve a God all-knowing who sees through morrow’s mist
This constant consolation with His redeeming grace
Attends the restoration where dread could take hope’s place
Through Mercy’s kind bestowing, the heart becomes a sea
Of wonder overflowing shores of eternity

He within us is greater; thus, the heart overflows
To know that our Creator, no power overthrows
No army can defeat Him, no threat can thwart His plan
Therefore, we ought to fear Him rather than schemes of man
And cling with grateful knowing to He who loves us so
His goodness overflowing this world of want and woe

Let us reason together; if God is for us then
His mercy is the tether His kindness metes; amen
His riches are exceeding; how sweet the Spirit’s fruit
(Earth’s storehouses are fleeting; corruption taints its loot)
Sin’s debt paid; nothing owing! The heart is rent with hymns
Already overflowing where thankful worship brims

Already overflowing; the glory of His grace
Like heaven’s halo glowing through tears God’s fingers trace
Where we are undergoing the growing pains of trust
While mercy is bestowing breath-by-breath dust-to-dust
Until, with nothing owing the heart becomes the soul
Already overflowing with faith at last made whole

© Janet Martin

2 Cor.5:20
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, 
as though God were pleading through us: 
we implore you on Christ’s behalf, 
be reconciled to God.






Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Faithful to the End


 


I am still enjoying a beautiful bouquet given to me a week ago 
after helping at the funeral of  the oldest member in our church family.
 She would have turned 100 years old in July!
Listening to all the heartwarming memories and tributes
was so inspiring and encouraging to we still in the process of 
creating legacies not yet left behind.

Below is the photo released of Queen Elizabeth II 
on her 96th birthday on Thurs. April 21, 2022

 
We cherish her example of faithfulness as well!
 Both of these women
live/lived through an incredible almost-century of progress, 
and tremendous challenges and change
with unwavering faith!

 “For me the teachings of Christ 
and my own personal accountability before God 
provide a framework in which I try to lead my life.”
~Queen Elizabeth~
 
Oh, that we would also be able to leave behind a lifetime legacy, 
not of perfection but of courageous faithfulness to the end,
of 'remembering our own personal accountability before God'
so as we leave we may rejoice in this triumphant farewell...

I have fought the good fight, 
I have finished the race, 
I have kept the faith.


It’s not in how we start but how we end that we achieve
The climax of commitment and the legacy we leave
A few good turns are not enough to earn triumph secured
Or prove the love and faithfulness of the good fight endured

Success and happiness are not always as they appear
Where opulence and pleasure can produce a false veneer
Desire keens the catalyst of longings that will prove
Where we fix our eyes; on things below or things above

Life’s ups and downs that test and try will refine or destroy
Not for the faint of heart is faith fixed on immortal joy
Where faithful to the end God’s promises accompany
Where faithful to the end He bids His followers to be

…thus, breath by breath and step by step and prayer by prayer we go
Faithfulness takes a lifetime its fulfillment to bestow
We cannot rush or fool the proof wrought by life’s highs and lows
Where faithfulness suffers love's thorns with eyes upon The Rose

© Janet Martin






Monday, April 25, 2022

Time Enough...


Sometimes Time flies,
Sometimes it sleeps.
Sometimes it sings
Sometimes it weeps
But one thing is certain,
Whatever the deal
Whatever it grants,
It also will steal!

First bud
Beams bashfully...

I'm so eager to plant the flower seeds a friend gifted to me at Christmas...



My, how far-off summer's larkspur plumes feel while still cradled in seeds...
Though I know, from looking back how it will feel like a flicker that flares and fades
so today I revel in the perfection of flowers not planted yet!



The friendliness of flowers while still cradled in a seed
Feels like a face we cannot kiss because of miles between
The constancy of hours tries the tenure of the reed
And Time Enough will bear the bloom that Time Enough will wean

How far away the other side of suffered sorrow seems
And laughter of tomorrow, while today’s troubles still toss
How broad the gulley seems to groan, agape with broken dreams
Where Time Enough will build a bridge that Time Enough will cross

Better to bear the brunt of whatever today will be
Rather than stare ahead too far or back to yester-reel
The clock weaves and unravels with suave synchronicity
The threads that Time Enough will grant and Time Enough will steal

The beauty of what was or waits gilds gates beyond our touch
Our duty is to treasure well the measure of today
To be tuned to its music and not to fret quite so much
Where Time Enough will write the song that Time Enough will play

© Janet Martin




Earth Always Responds...(to the tender touch of Father Time)


Song of Solomon 2: 10-13 (BSB)

My beloved calls to me,
“Arise, my darling.
Come away with me, my beautiful one.
For now the winter is past;
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers have appeared in the countryside;
the season of singingc has come,
and the cooing of turtledoves
is heard in our land.
The fig tree ripens its figs;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come away, my darling;
come away with me, my beautiful one.”


Earth starts to shed its dormant hues, where nature’s gaberdine
Of brown and gray is woven through with threads of verdant green...


Upon a loom we cannot see we sense its shuttles hum
To trim the limb of barren tree with hints of more to come...


Earth starts to shed its dormant hues, where nature’s gaberdine
Of brown and gray is woven through with threads of verdant green
Upon a loom we cannot see we sense its shuttles hum
To trim the limb of barren tree with hints of more to come

Soon still bedraggled sweeps will beam, where warmer winds caress
Earth’s weathered countenance will gleam with Mercy’s promises
The canvas where spent generations toiled and tilled remains
(We too must bear the castigation Adam’s curse sustains)

How often we begin to think that springtime is amiss
Only to be rebuffed with pink petal-confetti’s kiss
Only to be awestruck anew by ways we cannot change
On an established avenue that none can rearrange

The Maker of heaven and earth keeps every vow He makes
He tunes time’s tethered tide where birth and death’s season-surf breaks
Across the rise and fall of hill and dell His fervor spills
Merlot bud-beakers pulse and swell with favor He instills

Annual metamorphoses-es always steal the show
An unplumbed vault of happiness-es bound to overflow
Where vistas, still silence-immersed in April’s spartan scrim
Are like an orchestra about to burst into full hymn

Earth always responds to the tender touch of Father Time
She blushes as a rush of splendor rises to her clime
As monotones of brown and gray give way to green and gold
And color-worlds about to play May’s wonders to behold

© Janet Martin

Annual metamorphoses-es always steal the show...


An unplumbed vault of happiness-es bound to overflow...





Saturday, April 23, 2022

Wonder-full Compulsion! Plus Butter Tart Recipe ๐Ÿ˜‹

Sometimes the ho-hums of housework
would not feel like an honor to perform
until we look beyond it's faรงade 
to love,
and glimpse the face of God






For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus:
that if One died for all, then all died;
and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves,
but for Him who died for them and rose again.

2 Cor.5:14-15





Compelled by love for He who gave His all, oh let it be
Drawn with desire to put on dear Christ’s humility
For God so loved the world He gave His Son to pay sin’s debt
He rent the bondage of the grave, oh may we ne’er forget

Compelled by love, to honor He who to self-will did die
To offer ourselves to be love’s penitent reply
Where more than Call of Duty bids us bear life’s yoke and rod
With the unhidden beauty of a heart yielded to/exalting God

Compelled by love, first for our God and then for fellowman
Oh, blissful state as we applaud, through servanthood, His plan
Where love did not demand from us the recompense for sin
But rather gave his Son Jesus, His gift of grace to win

Compelled by love, ah, as we contemplate the sacrifice
What higher call could captivate or be worth greater price
Life’s meekest merit never fails; He who is Love supplies
His Spirit's strength as faith prevails and strains toward the Prize

© Janet Martin

Doesn't love's beauty always sweeten the duty?! Aren't you glad?

...some small  'sweetness-es'
sometimes come in the form of
Warm Butter Tart!


Oh!! I'm sorry. Would you like one too?
Here is the best recipe I know!
My mother's...









Friday, April 22, 2022

I Love April After The Snow...








I love April, after the snow when the cusp of creation gleams
With winter’s sepia afterglow off-set by heav’n’s cerulean streams

I love its days, One-of-a-kind, when April like a clean-scrubbed lad
Shivers in a ruffian wind with no towel, waiting to be clad

I love the way sun-rays uncurl quadrillion clenched fists of bud-looms
Before its affections unfurl a gorgeous wonder-world of blooms

I love its sense of imminence; the calm before the blossom storm
The poise of earth’s pure innocence before green grandeur clothes its form

I love the fleecy clouds, like lambs romping upon a sapphire hill
The way its rainy days drench lands with promises God will fulfill

I love the stage before the show, of expectation’s eager eyes
I love April after the snow before creation’s curtain-rise

© Janet Martin

Blissful Ignorance



PAD challenge day 22: For today's prompt, write an organism poem.

There is a scientific explanation for all the wonders of creation!
While I don't condone stupidity 
I do see some merit in blissful ignorance๐Ÿ˜…
and simply reveling in the beholding/listening.

I will thrill to trills and warbles of spring's feathered orchestra...



I am blissfully ecstatic without the wherefore and why
Of the stunning, unprolific declarations of the sky...


I prefer the panoramic pages of dusk's countryside...



You may keep your scientific, staid specifics if you please
I am quite content to linger beneath music in the trees
I will thrill to trills and warbles of spring's feathered orchestra
Rather than drills about mating and territorial blah-blah
I am blissfully ecstatic without the wherefore and why
Of the stunning, unprolific declarations of the sky
Hail to all scholastic sages, to all valedictorian pride
I prefer the panoramic pages of dusk's countryside
You may muse and mull, sweet scholar, over microscopic tracts
I am quite content to marvel without knowing all the facts...

God bless all the scientific geniuses for their gift
I am quite content to lie beneath the sky where cloud-ships drift

Janet๐Ÿ˜Š

Little Lyric for New Day


While beauty trembles in tresses
Of treetops ...

...and garden dirt



Today’s toil and trouble presses
Happiness is honed by hurt
While beauty trembles in tresses
Of treetops and garden dirt

Today tips time’s tray with laughter
Tries and tests its quests with tears
Where Before is poured to After
-math of moment-meted years

Today treats us to nuances
No one has dishonored yet
Pray, no unkind keepsake haunts us
When its molding clay is set

Today tumbles from its Giver
Like a river filled with fish
Would we do more than just shiver
On shorelines of want-and-wish

Today trembles, skies unfolding
Like wings of a butterfly
Where the wonder of beholding
Groans with onus of reply

Today grants its fleeting offer  
Dare we chance a step, oh pray
Before looking to its Author
And thanking Him for today?

© Janet Martin

Pray, no unkind keepsake haunts us
When its molding clay is set



This is the day the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Ps.118:24




Thursday, April 21, 2022

While Faithfully He Parts the Gates...

April mornings in Ontario, Canada serve up a salad-bowl of seasons...
Spring sunshine,


Inspiring picnics...



Picnic lunch: fresh homemade bread, fresh farm-made cheese, zucchini relish canned last summer,
locally made summer sausage, and cucumber slices!
In the fresh air it was a five-star meal in a top-notch setting
of quilt table-tops and no-shoes service!




THEN whoa, back to winter woolies,



...and today?
Raindrop rhinestones and ringlets!



Grand-daughter sighs ecstatically as she counts 'all thothe puddlthe'๐Ÿ’–
(but, no puddle splashing today. They are simply too frigid to be healthy!
Warmer puddle-days are just around the corner!)


Creation swells with goodness; wellsprings brim that none can drain
Life’s Giver keeps His promises; He grants the sun and rain
Where nature heeds its father’s rules and trust its father’s lead
Where miracles burst from capsules of bud and bulb and seed

The crux from which earth’s deluxe wonders seep, thrills mortal gaze
The cradle from which birth thunders in silence, leaps with praise
Awe authors humble worship to He who some dare deny
From the fringe of eternity mercy and grace reply

Love lavishes this creature place with glorious majesty
Although the beauty of His face we cannot clearly see
We glimpse Him in the seasons as they toll from shore to shore
Frilled field and flower oceans rolling past our very door

The thankless creature shakes a fist; the grateful creature bows
As gray, or gold and amethyst bends daybreak's gleaming prows
Where whether unawares or not each precious creatures stands
Not only on a foot-width plot, but in God’s gracious hands

Morning’s welcome mat shimmers as it unveils land and sea
Creation swells with glimmers of the Giver’s majesty
Oh, God forgive, greed claws, hate desecrates and bombs destroy
While faithfully He parts the gates where nature rings with joy

© Janet Martin

Something about the gory scenes of war 
bleeding
beneath trees bursting into blossom 
on hills 
steeped in virgin green
tugs at the crux of one's 
soul! 
๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ˜ข

Psalm 89:11
The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: 
as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.





This Is My Father's World Lyrics
(so comforting for the times we are in as we lift our prayers
for all the hurting to Him)

This is my father's world
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres

This is my father's world
The birds their carols raise
The morning light, the lily white
Declare their maker's praise

This is my father's world
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas
His hand the wonders wrought

This is my father's world
Oh, let me never forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong
God is the ruler yet

This is my father's world
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is king, let the heavens ring
God reigns, let the earth be glad

This is my father's world
He shines in all that's fair
In the rustling grass, I hear him pass
He speaks to me everywhere


Songwriters: C. Barny Robertson / Dp / Maltbie Babcock