Through Praise or Complaint?

 Victoria was dearly hoping for a snow-day, but the weather completed earth's beauty-treatment while she slept;-) so off she went with a hug, hot tea and prayer.

 

From heights that hover shore to shore

And covers earth with sky

See, fading darkness forms the door

Where morning meets our eye

And be its banner blue and brusque

Or gold and glory wrought

Its color climbs time’s stair where dusk

Soon summons birth to naught

This oracle from mercy’s God

Ought to fill thought with awe

And spill to hearts, glad worship’s laud

As we behold love’s law

Look; opportunity brand-new

Anoints time’s fresh-lit flare

Grace grants no feckless ballyhoo

Or glum, ho-hum affair

But offers to scoffer and saint

A gift where moments pour

From God through man’s praise or complaint

Into what is no more

© Janet Martin

A One-time Opportunity

Now we, beneath time’s setting-rising sun

For all the sighing, laughing, weeping strife

Have but one opportunity, my love

To live, come thus what may, a lovely life

This passing through time’s way is fraught with care

And oft we may be tempted to complain

But, if we shape our pleas in humble prayer

God is faithful to comfort and sustain

There are no guarantees in life but one

With its last breath, death seals our destiny

Where we reckon to God what we have done

With this; the courtship of eternity

For, but once we traverse Mercy’s through-way

The cradle and the grave wrest side by side

Betwixt, God grants the opportunity

To live, come thus what may, a lovely life

© Janet Martin

We stood at the coffin for a few moments, among throngs of neighbors, family and friends who came to do the same; see one who has lived his lovely life and to offer condolences to his dearest love’s, as they experience God’s arms around their deep, deep sorrow and relief for their beloved Arnold who will never suffer again!

 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted...Ps.34:18

Dare For Today

PAD Challenge day 8: For today’s prompt, write a dare poem.

I dare you to let go,

Of what we cannot change

And hold to what we can, my dear

For life, so swift and strange

Waits for no one but hastes away

Yet, always leaves behind Today

Futile to mope and hope 

For what can never be, 

Each new Today, my dear, is rich

With opportunity

And so I dare you to let go

Of what we cannot change or know

I dare you to embrace

The moment you are in

To live-laugh-love with all your heart

What will not pass again

And in this chase twixt sky and sod

I dare you, friend, to trust in God

 Janet Martin

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths. 

Prov.3:5-6

Unfettered

The world outside the windowpane is white with new-born snow

Where off-spring of time’s womb stirs in the cradle of the east

Mercy’s kind benediction spreads yesterday’s afterglow

Like oceans of compassion in a new and untried feast

We cannot see beyond the veil that drapes perception’s guess

Or tug it from the tresses where Now blesses us with Time

The beauty of love’s duty lays its yoke of brokenness

Across the air; hope and despair align in its design

We borrow from the Giver of time’s river ‘bless and keep’

And within this request upon love’s lane-ways we proceed

Assurance of endurance lies, not in our blind-eyed leap

But in the One who leads and satisfies each moment-need

The world outside the windowpane is white with new-born snow

Time’s off-spring beckons and behooves; come, savor every bite

Mercy’s kind benediction springs from whence all blessings flow

Where oceans of compassion rush unfettered, snowy-white

© Janet Martin


 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isa. 41:10

Time's Sorrow-gates

 Unexpected changes of plans are often great opportunities in disguise...

Our plans are packaged like a gift; new dawn’s half-waking stares

Of blue before the lending of its light to thoroughfares

Is still enough to stir within us hope for what yet waits

Of life and love to come a-tumbling through Time’s sorrow-gates

Twixt levees that cup frozen Past and hope’s wide-open seas

We plan our plans and pray our payers; ‘if-God-so-wills-it-pleas’

And oft upon the soft-ing dark before night quite deflates

We touch our toes to highs and lows poured through Time’s sorrow-gates

Life’s waves though staid beneath our feet toss people-plans adrift

Through the Gate-keeper’s hand time’s grand deluge of moments sift

We cannot barter with the charter of the Unknown preordained

Our plans are at the mercy of God’s mercy unrestrained

The heart and mind are intertwined as sorrow is with joy

Our utter longing undefined; dawn wakes now to deploy

Its untrained troop of moments to where hope accommodates

Untarnished New of gray-gold-blue poured through time’s sorrow-gates

© Janet Martin

As I slid deeper into blankets at the sound of the beeping alarm-clock I tried to pin-point what I’m reaching for; ah yes, hope for strength and grace for the day ahead and the Unknowns that disregard the best-laid plans.

The to-do lists at present are stacked with happy preparation-plans for two dinners we are hosting at our house this week-end. These ‘plans’ are always at the mercy of ‘Unknowns’. 

So far I have cupcakes done for the Sunday dinner and some Christmas cookies for both, but hopefully by tonight there will be a lot more food and cleaning completed!

Living in the Middle...

This morning yesterday's 'undone' greets me as soon as I step into the kitchen!

As the dawn breaks and we persuade our feet

To return once more to tasks left undone

As the clock ticks its staid, staccato beat

Expanding moments beneath rain or sun

We are not simply enduring its bliss

No, it is something much better than this

As life’s call reverberates through our senses

Tugging us into its sleek moment-tide

We tread the rubrics of its recompenses

Not simply to suffer a home-spun joy-ride

We should remember beneath toil’s routine

We form the echo of ‘what once had been’

As we embrace this new grace-gifted dawning

We are not merely employing its space

Here in the shadow of heaven’s cloud-awning

We shape the pictures that our thoughts will trace

Oh, what a blessed opportunity

To live in the middle of a memory

© Janet Martin

It's Today...

It’s today; the threads of yesterday can never be un-spun

Tomorrow is a canvas on which nothing can be done

But now, beneath our feet and hands, oh see its offering splay

The framework of accomplishment transpires; it’s today

Step bold and humbly to the runway of time’s offering

For soon its coffers will be emptied of its silk and string

But now unfurls the imminence of all we do and say

To each the same, a span of moments to employ; Today

The pattern of a lifetime is not woven in the morrow

The filament of yesterday we cannot steal or borrow

But now, the invitation rings from morning’s gold and gray

As mercy lends its bounty in another gift; Today

Do not despair or try to bear what we can never alter

The past and future are its own; beneath their weight we falter

But God above in gracious love imparts His strength and stay

And He will give us just enough for what we need; Today

© Janet Martin