Happiness and Garden/Flower Poemlets

 

Each time that we seek to impress

We rob ourselves of happiness

Better to praise the One who grants

The ways and means to sing and dance

***

Happiness is the heart’s applause

Though scarred with hard regrets

Hope balances its scale because

God forgives and forgets

***

How can one be an atheist

And be a gardener too

How can one watch a bud untwist

Yet deny you-know-Who

***

Don’t wait until it is too late

To sit where flowers nod

The mettle of petals soon fades

And garnishes the sod

This is the day the Lord has made

Don’t wait to give Him laud

The petals round our Soul soon fade

And return us to God

© Janet Martin

 

 

 If you are a garden and poem lover chances are you too 

have savored these inspired words by

 Dorothy Frances Gurney

(esp. the 2nd last stanza)

 

THE Lord God planted a garden

In the first white days of the world,

And He set there an angel warden

In a garment of light enfurled. 

So near to the peace of Heaven,

That the hawk might nest with the wren,

For there in the cool of the even

God walked with the first of men.

 

And I dream that these garden-closes

With their shade and their sun-flecked sod

And their lilies and bowers of roses,

Were laid by the hand of God.

 

The kiss of the sun for pardon,

The song of the birds for mirth,--

One is nearer God's heart in a garden

Than anywhere else on earth
.

For He broke it for us in a garden

Under the olive-trees

Where the angel of strength was the warden

And the soul of the world found ease.

 D.F.G.

Life, A Little Word With Big Ramification

Gardening...a mixed bag of flowers and frustration!

these flowers didn't even get to bloom 

before an army of green caterpillars destroyed them over night!

 

so, no columbines this year.

 

Life...a mixed bag of celebration and sorrow!

The bleeding hearts that survived the May snows are beautiful!

 The hostas are being mangled by something but not sure what!

Usually hosta look good at least for a little before the snails destroy them

but I don't think this is snails. Too many pieces lying around!

But, this is life...a series of problem-solving!

Life, its very word involves us; inhale, exhale, fragile cord

Leasing to each one the onus of its blessing from the Lord

Life, a very small but serious undertaking of a toll

Where a shawl of fleeting fabric veils the All of deathless soul

Soon the summary of choices will unfold the doer’s due

Soon life’s orchestra of voices will fade from earth’s avenue

Life, how often we must struggle to weather its ‘my, oh my’

Where this ephemeral bubble holds much more than meets the eye

Life, how uncertain the nearness to the end of numbered days

When we open up our eyes and only Jesus fills our gaze

© Janet Martin

 
Ecclesiastes 3:2
a time to be born and a time to die, 

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

So Much To Live For!

I've just returned from a few nights in New England 

where I was treated to a year in Tasha Tudor's gardens! 

Oh, the bliss of book-travel! 

This trip was such great inspiration to start those seedling-dreams now!

Here's a sneak-peek to a trip you can take too (if you can find the book!)

I had this unexpected pleasure thanks to a friend 

who lent me a book she borrowed from a friend so

unfortunately you will need to find your own 'ticket' to borrow or buy!😀

A trip like this can remind us of so much to live/love for!

So much to live for where moments soft-wed

Wellsprings of waiting with wishes fulfilled

Morning is breaking, mercy is not dead

Rife runs the river that death has not stilled

Where life is granting so much to love for

Four-season circuits of hold and let go

Leaving us torn between graces of yore

Before the faces we kiss with hello

So much to reach for from dawn’s pulsing prow

Where soon high noon then twilight sweeps the lea

Meteor-showers of right here, right now

Sparkle and fizz into echo-debris

Beckoning us to be all that we can

Before the hour of reckoning comes

Where still so much to learn vexes the plan

Caught in the flux of Bygone’s tallied sums

So much to hope for where seasons soft-shed

Petals of farewell for buds primed with plume

Soon we will transplant the dreams in our head

Into the gardens that leap into bloom

So many poems still waiting to be

So many moments to measure and pour

Turning time into opportunity

Where today wakens so much to live for

© Janet Martin

A Little Like a Garden...

My sister gave me the book Romance in the Garden by John H. Tobe

 in June for my birthday.

I began reading it recently and am not too far along yet but already totally in love with it 

because of little chapters like the one below

This soil we till where want and will

Bequeaths hope’s hearty toil

Yields far more than the crops we plan

As we gather its spoil

Sweat of the brow, push of the plow

‘Neath summer’s sprawling hue

Begets far more than gifted snore

When workaday is through

In the employ of grief and joy’s

Incumbent aftermath

We pause awhile to smile and smile

At blooms along the path

And in the wake of give and take

We come to realize

The trophy of a work worn glove

Makes more beloved the prize

For there we heard the singing bird

While bending to the task

And as we knelt, ah, there we felt

God close enough to ask

And there we learned respect is earned

This no one can demand

And there we find few things as kind

As that of helping hand

…or how the thrill of the downhill

Is not without the climb

and what we choose midst dreams and dues

Becomes how we spend time

How moments spill a plot we till

With what none can uproot

From One who grants far more than plants

As seed unfurls its fruit

© Janet Martin

 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; 

for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

 Galatians 6:7

Lest We Overlook The Giver

 Last Saturday night at a tractor-pull some let the full brunt of the 'music'

screech through them while others chose to 'protect' themselves a little...

 

Lest the well that dreams are drawn from fills with lifeless dust and ash

Lest a soulful swell of sorrow snuffs the sparkle from the splash

Lest a holy Heaven-hunger does not keen hope’s humble cheer

Lest no more than what we had and held comforts the mourner’s tear

Lest the dread of death is greater than life’s hearty appetite

Lest the weight of worry suffocates what wonder would delight

(Plant a garden)

Lest the Reason for the season seems as futile as the wind

Lacking passion for the ration of what no one can rescind

Lest we lose, not merely moments, but the gaping gate it grants

Let’s keep eyes and ears wide open to the music of the dance

Let’s choose love and glad thanksgiving over hours set adrift

Lest we overlook the Present and the Giver of its gift

(Like a garden)

© Janet Martin

I added the 'garden' bit as a personal joy-bell-ringer😊. 

Feel free to change that line to whatever rings yours.

other option for me besides 'plant a garden' would be (in purely random order)

'pour a coffee'

'write/read a poem'

'hold a baby or toddler'

'ride a bike'

'read a book/Book'

'find a brook'

...and so on, lest we let a spent season snuff the melody from the moment at hand!

For some, believe it or not, their joy-bell ringer is a tractor-pull!