Showing posts with label reason. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reason. Show all posts

Friday, December 1, 2023

Above All (Else)

Jim (my husband) called while I was struggling 
through the middle of the third stanza of today's poem, 
and in the course of conversation he remarked 
that he's driving through a stretch of the north 
that always feels like forever to get through!!
I told him 'thank-you!! that imagery was exactly what I needed
 to give this poem steam through the middle of it!
(Jim is a great conversationalist and I've written many a verse whilst conversing, 
or, he converses and I interject an occasional 'ugh-huh')😅😂💖

The initial inspiration of this poem was sparked after I came home last night
 after enjoying dinner at my daughter's home and getting a first-hand reminder 
of the end of day endurance tests when children are tired and parents are too!
Hang in there, parents of little children! 
it really is worth every lackluster labor of love!
Hang in there mother/daddy that feels like you walk or rock, 
rather than sleep the night away!
Hang in there, engineer of eighteen wheels. 
And we will soon welcome you to warm home fires, Lord willing! 
Hang in there, dear daughter-son-parent-spouse etc, traveling home after dark 
after spending precious time with a loved one in a long term care facility or hospital! 
Hang in there, husband and wife whose marriage ties seem strained to breaking point! 
God is love! 
Love never fails!

***

I couldn't help but chuckle at the amplified tranquility
of our house after we returned home last night.
That forever-stretch of raising youngsters,
as I look back feels more like a silk scarf
that slip-slipped through my fingers and disappeared!
only Victoria and I left to decorate the tree
while listening to Christmas music...
bittersweet!!
(for her and me)




Above all else, though duty’s dues may seem common and small
And in the grand scheme of pursuits, not very grand at all
Where no corporate ladder hails to scale with eagerness
And no plaque or trophy regales accomplishment’s success
Where no one notes the unsung skills of mundane ministry
Or celebrates the daily drills of domesticity

Above all else, no matter how we view Duty’s reply
It is not what but Who we do it for, not where but why
Then, in our search to satisfy fulfillment’s siren call
We find, to our surprise, a One-size Reason that fits all
For we will find the kind of wealth that always grants Enough
When what we do, above all else, is a labour of love

Love is enough to make remarkable, the commonplace
It transforms life into a miracle of joy and grace
It equips us to weather what loveless motives reject
For, ‘stretches of forever’ are so brief in retrospect
The miles that seem mundane, thankless, a mess of prayers and tears/fears
Soon meld into the counterpane of yester-days-and-years

Love instills wonder, thrills the things of modest recompense
It fills the world with whirring wings we cannot see, but sense
Because angels of mercy travel on the common beat
Clad in workday apparel; their wings look like hands and feet
As love fills with thunderous applause, each care-worn mile they trod
For above all, love is the wondrous evidence of God

Above all, let love carve a sacred crucifix within
Above all, fix faith's sight-scarred gaze, on the image of Him
Upon a cross, a cross that should have been for you and me
He bore love's brutal albatross to show how love should be
So, lest love grows ungrateful when love seems impossible 
Remember, love is faithful and will triumph, above all

© Janet Martin

1 Cor.13:4-8
Love is patient, love is kind. 
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 
5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,
 it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 
7 It always protects, always trusts,
 always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails.


Monday, November 6, 2023

Better Reason



PAD Challenge day 6: For today’s prompt, take the phrase
"Better (blank)," replace the blank with a new word or phrase,
make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.



Better critique better, Reason's Sleek Begetter
So eager to charm and entice
Desire's effulgence with instant indulgence
Better to first ponder the price

And weigh velvet voices that prey on quick choices
And trick us to trade truth for lies
Better, first to measure the worth of the treasure
And cost of the pleasure we prize

Because oft desire can be a soft liar
If we heed no Higher Decree
Than gratification of infatuation's
Accommodating fantasy

Better to look better where seduction's fetter
Is not always easy to spot
Better to fight battles before Fool's Proof tattles
On Reason's Begetter of Thought

To weigh the approach of a 'promise'-drawn coach
Where knights in shining armor plead
To study the path and the long aftermath
(of) Where Yielding to Impulse may lead...

...better to pray before we leap
Into the fray of Whim
Better to ask the Lord to keep
Thought's pleasure stayed on Him 

© Janet Martin

Today's devotion...


...from this book!



Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Crux of Compulsion...

 



Whether to the beat of a city street...



or beneath blue-eyed smile of a country mile




...something compels us to keep trying!


What compels us to keep trying
What propels us on and up
On front-lines of selfless dying
What refurbishes life’s cup

What makes sacred, duty’s mission
And its yoke of common task
What kindles renewed ambition
As morn pours from mercy’s flask

What brings purpose and devotion
To life’s daily grind and fuss
What adds music to the motion
Pray, is it Christ’s love in us?

He, who makes us new, while living
He who died then rose again
Does His love, kind and forgiving
Compel us to follow Him

© Janet Martin

For the love of Christ compels us…


Through highs and lows
God's grace bestows
all that we need,
My dear,
to succeed!

Whether to the beat
of a city street
or beneath blue-eyed smile
of a
 country mile

Whether street-light bright
or star-light dim
All walks of life 
eventually
lead to Him

Janet~

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Reasoning Reason


A little while ago I thanked a friend for all the time/freedom 
she and her husband sacrifice for 'the church' 
Her reply; "All for Jesus!"
Imagine if we all lived with that as our unflinching cause/zeal?!

(Sharing some music from one of my favourite bands)




To make the most of what we hold
And who we ought to be and how
Is to be modest-meekly bold
With what we have right here, right now

And not for man’s approving eye
Should we be driven to and fro
But by the grace of God to try
To honour He who loves us so

For all we have He grants us first
Without His grace our cause is lost/loss
And we would still be Hopeless-cursed
If love had not endured the Cost/cross

Then when we meet God one on One
Where Truth unveils what yet seems hid
Pray all He sees will be His Son
As the Reason for all we did

© Janet Martin

 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
Psalm 139:3


Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Sole/Soul-purpose of Life



May is a month etched in hearts and minds of Nova Scotians who lost loved ones in the


if life were simply sea and sky
and sod beneath our feet
and hills and dells of low and high
or hard or easy street
if you and I were all there was
without the hope for more
then joy would be a joke because
what would this life be for?

if wake and sleep and work and eat
and struggle to survive
would be the sole goal of this fete
to keep ourselves alive
if sum of what a clock can coax
is all that we could claim
then happiness would a hoax
and life a cruel game

but life is so much more than days
blazing trails to a grave
much more than meted moment-haze 
that we are born to brave
life is a gift from from loving God
a rift that seasons skim
while breath by breath we scale the rod
that draws us back to Him

for we are more than accidents
that fell from who knows where
To try the ways of providence
then fade into thin air
We are the workmanship of He
who sparks each mortal flame
on Wick of Immortality
that none but God can claim


Janet Martin







Saturday, April 20, 2019

Piercing The Fiercest Dark...


 PAD Challenge day 20; For today’s prompt, write a dark poem. 

How brief the leaf of lilt and rhyme
If it feeds nothing more than Time...
How dull the tug and pull of heart
If it feels nothing more than art


What good the blood of poet’s pen
What merit its cajole
If not to rouse the thoughts of men
To Jot’s Ultimate Goal

How futile Fancy’s flares of ink
-lit worlds beneath our skin
If not to stir Him-Her to think
About the soul within

How vain the pain of poem-birth
A vixen and a fraud
If not to fill heaven and earth
With love and awe of God

How trite the blighted swirl and arc
Of alphabetic flight
If not to pierce the fiercest dark
With Love’s poetic Light
 

© Janet Martin

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Let's Live Poetry (the reason to write it)

PAD Challenge day 17: For today’s prompt, write a reason poem.



Reasons I write and read poetry
 ...because summer slips through the stars far too soon
because morning drip-drips into afternoon ...
Warning (this is one of those poems I had to rein in with 'whoa Nellie'!)😉





Because the brook murmurs and the milk cow moos
And little tot flutters his big, baby blues
…and mothers are always with their child in heart
And new day is always a fresh work of art
Because spring, ah spring fills and spills dappled drink
Where the poet grapples with purple and pink
Where blossom-confetti wafts softly and decks
The emerald of earth with pastel-perfumed flecks
…because after the hour of flower is through
A poem can gather its petals anew

…because trouble and sorrow must have its say
But a Poem can brush tender tears away
Or usher salt-stars from soul-deeps to the shore
To help hurt and hunger find laughter once more
Because wonder, wishes and worry oft spar
Because of who, what, where and how people are
Because we love Beauty; how its steals our breath
And Poem can suture the wounds of its death
To remind, as its stitches brave the eyes of men
That Richness remains to make us glad again

Because we all need the Greatest of These; love
Not one of us, by ourselves is complete or enough
For love must be given in order to find
And how can we give without someone in mind
And then when we feel the heel of heartache press
Love, wrapped in Poem can stir happiness
And Happiness hinged to the Giver of life
Makes worthy this earthy fling of joy and strife
Because of the cross that precedes Victor's Crown
Where Love gave Himself and laid His life down

I write poetry to keep pieces of Past
The music of moments slips through us so fast
It’s hard to remember September, my dears
After the culled ember of leaf disappears
After laughter’s lilt in farewells that must be
The grave keeps the body but we, poetry (aka memories)
Forgive me for rambling; the rhythm of rhyme
Teases font to dance to the rubric of time
Because when its bully kicks me in the shin
I retaliate with a poem, and grin

I write when the rush of ink runs deep-sea blue
The page is a chasm for Poem to run through
I write in parched places when I must beseech
The pen to touch the faces that fingers can’t reach
Because Poem whispers across years and miles
The world drawn together by syllabic smiles
Because I believe we would all better be
If we took more time to read more poetry
Because my dear love, we are all fellowmen
And Poem can mother our common-ground yen

...and Poem can help us on throughways of sod
To grace gifted breath by the glimpses of God 
Ah, look there His touch, where without poetry 
Trouble and such might be all we would see
So I write Poetry, lest noise-mongers dim
The eye and the ear to the Whisper of Him
Because we all need Someone worth living for
While work-work-work keeps the wolf from the door
While live-laugh-love wears the glove of life thin
While we stuff echoes into pockets of skin

…because the wall crumbles that stood tall and strong
Because nothing stays The Way It Is for long
Because better days are not always ahead
And Poem is life’s bit o’ butter on bread
Because we all grow old sooner than we thought
Stunned by Surrender whether willing or not
And none of us knows how long Future will be
Then by all means, darling, let’s live poetry
For what could be better than living life smitten
With poetry still waiting to be written

© Janet Martin