May Medley

Today's somewhat tardy poem muddled its way through

a myriad of chores, errands and such...

(such as just now, chasing washed winter coats that blew off the line

 in this wildly windy, dusty, hot afternoon!

We really need rain!

An early morning

grocery-greenhouse run left me still looking for a few things 

I was unable to get on round one...

Muffins over-baked

 midst food-prep;

Greek salad fixings and veggies for quickie-lunches-to-go

 

...midst putting supper in the crockpot 

...midst phone calls

trying to find a greenhouse not sold out of stevia!

I found one 😊

The coral dahlia below winked at me in one greenhouse (easing the disappointment) 

while I was told regretfully, they were sold out of stevia.

May is always a busy month but may we never lose focus on what truly matters

 midst the mayhem...

Take time to take pleasure in its quick offerings, like lilacs 

and Solomon's seal...

May we make our May day's count for more than numbers ticked off

on a calendar!

May we seek to count our blessings rather than complain or stare

At life’s holes that gape with questions that shape meekness into prayer

May we not miss The Big Picture, intent on what seems amiss

May we learn to trust the Teacher, knowing life is more than This

May we do what we are able through He who helps and equips

And keeps our footing stable in a hand that never slips

May we vow to make now matter as if God was plain to see

May we try to serve our Master with love and humility

May we sense amidst the muddle of struggle and suffering

Someone greater than the trouble that this world is sure to bring

May we bear each other’s burden rather than dodge Duty’s Call

May we learn to truly love the One who loves us above all

© Janet Martin

1 Cor.10:31

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,

do it all for the glory of God.

The song below echoes the message in Ann Voskamp's post today!

If you read this could you pray for Ann?!!

She has been through so much lately!

God is Good -Jonathan McReynolds

Hooray for May Day!

We smile because God in control, consoles the broken world with blooms...

May makes us glad to feel at home on earth’s green-gilded loam, the trees

Have broken wide bark-cups that spill into a billion melodies

They fill the air and thrill the prayers of we with ears tuned to the chime

Of flower-bells and dandy yellow-lions bobbing perfect time

May is a broom that sweeps out rooms of doom and gloom beneath our skin

It flings ajar the shutters of the heart and lets the sunshine in

Where labour of the hand is sweeter than it was, because the earth

Renewed after the winter, beams with nature’s miracles of birth

May wears a lilac-perfumed breeze and teases bees to bumble-buzz

And guzzle nectar from a chalice dainty as there ever was

We smile because God in control, consoles the broken world with blooms

He satisfies the longing soul with goodness brimming from plumbed plumes

May plays a hymn of hope renewed and happiness in simple things

Like picnics in the fresh-clad woods and concerts from minstrels with wings

Like lying on a dappled quilt beneath the gilt of sun-spun leaf

To laugh while shadows tickle toes and kiss the curves of care and grief

Like orchard-ballrooms filled with ballerinas in blush-pink tutus 

Like puddles of forget-me-nots and tots as they kick off their shoes

May makes us feel like royalty in palaces of grass and sky

May is a happy hip-hooray of spark rekindled in time's eye 

A day in May is like a gem placed in the palm of outstretched hands

It is an orchestra that a perfect and kind Maestro commands

It is God’s touch upon the shoulder of a very needy world

To make us glad to stand upon a banner of Goodness unfurled

© Janet Martin

Psalm 107:8-9 & 21-22 & 31 KJV

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness,

and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

 For he satisfieth the longing soul, 

and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, 

for his wonderful works to the children of men!

And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, 

and declare his works with rejoicing.

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, 

and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Monday Morning Mosaic

 

For farmers May is planting season

For all of us it is a gift of grace and blossom-glory!

Sometimes, when our feet and hearts hurt

we get distracted by the dirt of life and love

but no matter what, we are in the care of the Giver 

...the blossom but the bloom before the fruit;

The fruit, the fortune of harvest!

Nurtured and nourished, tossed and tested

by many a sunbeam and gale!

Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
    whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

Eccles.11:4

Laughter leaves us feeling nourished

Longing drains delight

Kind words gladden and encourage

Harsh words crush and bite

Love is patient and forgiving

Others-ward inclined

Not intent on shallow living

With self first in mind

Hope is more than bread for hunger

Hope is for the soul

It is like a steadfast anchor

Where doubt’s billows roll

Failure makes us feel like quitting

Success makes us smile

Though the struggle is faith-gritting

God makes worth earth’s while

Heaven, beyond comprehension

Waits if faith endures

Hell should seize sober attention

Devious are its lures

Life was never a gift granted

To be a joyride

Immortality-implanted

Mortal dust is tried

Worship keeps us meek and thankful

Worry binds and blinds

Pray each day love’s flame will kindle

Heart, soul, strength and mind

Life is laughter, longing, hunger

Gain and loss's pains

Life is never growing younger

As its charter wanes  

God is love; He never leaves us

His Word, firm and true

Is the Light HE IS, to lead us

Till this life is through

© Janet Martin

May's Maestro

Perchance, doth art of May entrance

With undulating hues/views...

Perchance, doth art of May entrance

With undulating hues/views

Doth it stir hearts to sing and dance

As earth its garb renews

Doth Blossom’s dainty decoupage

Rouse hallelujah hymns

Played like an orchestral montage

From bud-bedazzled limbs

Doth May ignite awed happiness

As breathless gaze beholds

The evidence of God’s caress

Where emerald tress unfolds

Doth hope feel like it finds it wings

As verdant vibrato

Spills from earth’s trembling springs and strings

In vibrant crescendo

Doth its melody keen delight

As nature’s opus lauds

In symphonies hidden from sight

Until May’s Maestro nods

© Janet Martin

Song of Solomon 4:16
Awake, O north wind; 

and come, thou south; 

blow upon my garden, 

that the spices thereof may flow out. 

Let my beloved come into his garden,

 and eat his pleasant fruits.

Already Breath-taken

 

Already breath-taken

Ere buds fully waken

And silence is broken

By leaf-token’s laud

Already dumbfounded

By beauty unbounded

For we are surrounded

By glimpses of God

Already enchanted

By blooms, still unplanted

And tree-tops half-glistered

In whispers green-gold

Already delighted

By dreams unrequited

Yet we are excited

To watch them unfold

Already forgotten

Winter’s frigid cotton

And battles we fought in

A world, cold and white

Already forgiven

The green side of livin’

Rolls out to blue heavens

In sighs of delight

© Janet Martin

Hooray for May or May Minuet

 For as the earth brings forth its bud...

In Ontario buds are on the brink of bursting into glorious hallelujah...

We watch, already breath-taken by the prelude!

Bright bolts of flower-fabric unfurl with flamboyant flare

Where emerald backdrops emanate from worlds, long bleak and bare

The woodland, draped in olive haze of lacy filigree

Beckons both feathered busker and bumbling humanity

Where mercy’s favor is renewed the farmer plants the field

He labours yet must learn to lean on He who grants the yield

Lord pray, first green will burst with gold and gold with harvest hymn

As earth becomes a fountain where bud and seedling-hope brim

Now garden dreams run rampant like a stream after spring-show’rs

Forgotten are the aches and pains of toil’s back-breaking hours

Where mosaics of morrow’s posies bloom in flawless form

And culinary conceptions take thought’s tastebuds by storm

Wild apple-orchards dapple hillsides in pastel chiffon

Like ballerinas poised to twirl as the music turns on

And we all become boys and girls, in heart if not in skin

As May melts chill winds with romance of sunbeam’s dance and grin

May’s Masterpiece Creator dazzles sweeps of sky and sod

Mankind, the awed spectator strolls art-galleries by God

The wonder-pangs that Beauty both kindles and satisfies

Since time began grants glimpses of a Perfect Paradise

Three cheers for May, a pansy-lilac-hyacinth-hooray

A sit-a-bit and take a quick half-aft-noon holiday

To drink the ink of poetry not snared on pages yet

To watch while earth becomes a stage for nature’s minuet

© Janet Martin

Isa.61:11

For as the earth brings forth its bud,
As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth,
So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise 

to spring forth before all the nations.

Minuet Dance

(reminds me of sunbeams, breezes, butterflies and blossoms)

Making The Most of What's Left of May/Life

I dare not waste the haste with which May’s merry moments sparkle through

A freshly-unfurled canopy, an apple-blossom-dappled flue

The color-friendly flower-side that warms the hearth of dreamer’s hearts

Makes us so glad to be alive in the happiness May imparts

The bud that clenched its teeny fist relents and almost overnight

The barren branch is filled with hymns of leafy sigh and shadow-light

I dare not shut my eyes lest the surprises I’ve come to expect

Are scattered at my feet and no amount of grief can resurrect

How swift the gift of seasons strews its wrapping paper vapour to thin air

A rift twixt fingertips and past’s echo-established thoroughfare

The freedoms that we balance where duty’s insistent ties entwine

We ought to savour like those moments just before we rise and shine

I dare not waste the haste that turns May into June, June to July

Until another year adheres to sentimental me-oh-my

Come, let’s do lunch beneath the maple-green umbrella’s umbral arc

For May will soon slip into June like daylight turning into dark

© Janet Martin

 ...and don't sweat the small stuff!

May-hem or May-break

 Little Girl and I picked flowers yesterday...(tulips and fern-leaf peony)

this morning as I was writing/painting this poem her mom texted me;

' Little girl is thrilled by the flower's sweet smell

but suddenly concerned that they are dying!'

I replied, "aw, sweet little girl is already being introduced to love's bittersweet;

the thrill of holding and the heart-tug of letting go."

Unfortunately these peonies bloom at best, only a few days

but oh so pretty in their passing!

May heals the hearts that winter wounded; wows us with its vim

Where verdant verve of virgin green lavishes land and limb

As Wand of May breaks soldered seams that quarantined the gem

And teases from bud-bondage Bloom's unfettered diadem

To thrill once more, since days of yore, all who pause to applaud

With never-failing wonderment, the handiwork of God

May breaks sod’s seal with eager abandon where Time is chief

And so begins another blur of seasoned joy and grief

A vexing intermingling of love’s laughter and lament

Beauty bound by the law of life’s momentous covenant

Unraveled ‘neath a blue-sky gavel poised above earth’s bars

As buds spill red-pink-purple-gold pillage of petal-stars

Now we take longer looking-breaks to wander where the world

Is like a freshly painted banner gloriously unfurled

With some parts plowed and planted, some nature’s free-hand release

But all together lovely like an Artist’s masterpiece

Where May breaks through the barriers that held blossoms at bay

The leader of a Grand Parade that blooms summer away

© Janet Martin

This past week our world turned green as it burst into bloom (in our area in southern Ontario)

where in this month we have gone from winter to summer in short order

...we are in the midst of a heat-wave with afternoon temps feeling like 34-36C!!