Each Autumn (a Sonnet)

Autumn anoints awe’s points of view with fuel...

Each frame, a work of art second to none...

Each drop of rain, a heaven-rendered/splendored jewel

Each leaf a candle, kindled by the sun

Autumn anoints awe’s points of view with fuel

Each frame, a work of art second to none

Each drop of rain, a heaven-rendered/splendored jewel

Each leaf a candle, kindled by the sun

Each bloom an image of mortality

Each gourd, an opaque gleam midst frost-felled maze

Each tree, a flower-like appeal ‘pick-me!’

Each orchard, a postcard of Good Ole Days

Each swell of hill and dell, a sweeping song

Each turn of head, an elixir for hearts

Each task, permission to trespass among

Foothills no human handiwork imparts

Each morn-noon-night a glory-crowned façade

Each Autumn anoints points of view with God

Janet Martin

An Anniversary Celebration of Sonnets

 37 years...

Thank-you, Lord

 

This photo was taken at my niece's wedding on May 24th,

where we gathered to witness the marriage and celebrate

Newlyweds, 

who were sparkling with visions of marital bliss 

dancing in their heads!

All of us who have been married for

well, really, almost any amount of time know

'till death doth part' takes more than we can successfully

and beautifully accomplish on our own!

But with God nothing is impossible!

Especially faithful love,

which He is the Author of! 

Below is Jim's 'home away from home'

contributing often to the successes and challenges 

of marriage and love's second miles

(pun intended 😅💓 )

He left yesterday morning with plans of picking up a load out west!

On Sunday night after returning home from a family reunion

I cooked and baked a week's worth of supplies

Last night the load got cancelled 😒

He will be returning home tonight if all goes as planned.

And such is life

***

So much of life is out of our hands

But never love; love helps us bear all things

Not with determined and selfish demands

But with the strength that self-surrender brings 

Love, a story that begins in the heart

 Soon finds its feet as blindness starts to see

To pull together lest we drift apart

Takes sacrificing 'I' for 'us' and 'we'

Love never runs out of lessons to teach

No one can outlive its so-much-to-learn 

Then, before one of us is out of reach

Let's make the most of each day's no-return 

Before the solemn sundering of ties

Forever closes doors and lips and eyes 

© Janet Martin

***

1 Cor.13:4-8  (NKJV)

Love suffers long and is kind; 

love does not envy; 

love does not parade itself,

 is not [a]puffed up;

 5 does not behave rudely, 

does not seek its own,

 is not provoked, 

[b]thinks no evil; 

6 does not rejoice in iniquity, 

but rejoices in the truth; 

7 bears all things, 

believes all things, 

hopes all things, 

endures all things.

8 Love never fails...

Darling, in a world mad with lust and spite

Let's make a vow to guard against the trend 

Committing rather to fight love's good fight  

By God's grace to be faithful to the end 

Darling, the world will never sympathize

With altars filled with ash of sacrifice 

Love suffers long and is kind; what a prize

True love esteems the other; what a price 

Darling, to-have-and-hold is no small fete 

To love-and-cherish until death doth part

Is not a vacation on Easy Street

Nor an endeavor for the faint of heart

Darling, let's give love every finest chance

And live life humbly, by the grace God grants

© Janet Martin

Eccles.4:12

... and a three strand cord is not quickly broken.

Armed with a world of wonderful advice

Is not enough to master love's success

Until we learn love's law of sacrifice

Marriage will suffer much unhappiness 

Fond hopes and dreams are lovely to behold 

But life does not cater to Well-laid Plan 

Its highway does not flawlessly unfold

According to the want and wish of man 

The ups and downs of love and life are sure

Marriage takes two people, humanly-flawed

And binds them with ties able to endure

If woven with the third strand who is God

Darling, let's pray through both life's grand and grim 

That our love reflects the love of Him

© Janet Martin

And last but not least, 

after many somber reminders this past year+

through many sudden losses of  Husband or Wife of

neighbours, friends and family,

 a sonnet of solemn awareness/thankfulness...

***

No one can see or guarantee Tonight 

Death often enters/visits where/when we least expect

Sobering us with meek, wiser insight;

Love, both a charge and gift none should neglect 

Each day pulses with opportunity

To love each other better, and God first 

To make the most of little words like 'we'

And weather faithfully life's best and worst 

So when death comes (and it most surely will)

Our deepest sorrow will not be regret

But, as the bitter tears of parting spill

We praise God for the joy of love's vows kept 

 

Darling, while time is still on our side

Let's try our best to live love Self-denied 

© Janet Martin

O Perfect Love - Best Wedding Hymn with Lyrics 

Lyrics-Dorothy F. Gurney

1 O perfect Love, all human thought transcending,

lowly we kneel in prayer before thy throne,

that theirs may be the love which knows no ending,

whom thou in sacred vow dost join in one.

2 O perfect Life, be thou their full assurance

of tender charity and steadfast faith,

of patient hope and quiet, brave endurance,

with childlike trust that fears no pain or death.

3 Grant them the joy which brightens earthly sorrow;

grant them the peace which calms all earthly strife;

grant them the vision of the glorious morrow

that will reveal eternal love and life.

Psalter Hymnal, 1987

Sonnet of Love From a Father

Today's poem-a-day prompt from Robert Lee Brewer @ Writer's Digest-

For today's prompt, write a remix poem.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a remix poem

but yesterday, as I finished

Love Letter from a Father

another poem began to form from another Father...

Face to Face with Christ My Saviour

 

"Someday the way I work all things for good

To those who trust in me, will be made clear

Someday I will not be misunderstood

Faith’s dark glass in between will disappear

And we will see each other face to face

The substance of hope, Father-Spirit-Son

Will grant the final portion of My grace

As you behold Salvation’s Three-in-One

Someday the cares that press will cease to be

The battlefield will fade like morning dew

My armour will be shed in victory

For I AM Faithful, Trustworthy and True

So, take heart, though wars test and teardrops fall

The joy, still set before is worth it all

Love, Your Heavenly Father

p.s. and I shall supply all your need

according to my riches in glory by Christ Jesus~"

© Janet Martin

And my God shall supply all your need 

according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Phil. 14:19

Rev.21:1-8

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”

[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, 

and there was no longer any sea. 

2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

 prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! 

God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. 

They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 

4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’

[b] or mourning or crying or pain, 

for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” 

Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

6 He said to me: “It is done. 

I am the Alpha and the Omega, 

the Beginning and the End. 

To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 

7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, 

and I will be their God and they will be my children.

 8 But the cowardly,

 the unbelieving, 

the vile, 

the murderers, 

the sexually immoral, 

those who practice magic arts, 

the idolaters 

and all liars—

they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 

This is the second death.”

For Your Name's Sake (some sonnets)

You drape the dell with scarves of silver tulle...

You carve the curving course of brook-song hue...

...the earth is full Of the glorious handiwork of You

You drape the dell with scarves of silver tulle

You carve the curving course of brook-song hue

That shimmers out to sea; the earth is full

Of the glorious handiwork of You

You fill and whet the seed that leaps to life

Fruit and flower reply; ah, who are we

That we should doubt Your ways while earth runs rife

With Your mercy, glory and majesty

You stir within the human heart a sense

Of holiness and power undeterred

A Culmination, awesome and immense

That eye has not yet seen nor ear yet heard

Oh Lord, let no path I pursue or take

Be for a lesser cause than Your name’s sake

***

Ps.23:3

...he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

***

You wake and rouse the earth from winter’s clutch

With ways we love and have come to expect

With daffodils and robin trills and such

With plumes and blooms sun-kisses resurrect

You tune four-season’s steadfast carousels

Sun, moon and stars their ordained circuits stay

And never stray; not one planet rebels

Your perfect law and order they obey

Nothing and no one can usurp Your will

Ancient oracles have not slipped your ken

Heaven and earth will not pass away till

Each jot and tittle is fulfilled. Amen

Behold! where autumn’s auburn petals fell

Springtime’s unfailing hallelujahs swell

***

Ps.24:1

The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof;

***

The earth is Yours, and its fulness thereof

The greedy forget this and want for more

Than Your goodness, mercy, kindness and love

Offering wealth that pales this world’s brief store 

Your righteousness and truth are of great price

The wise covet its fortune earnestly

Striving to be a living sacrifice

Lest worship be a show of vanity

You rend the dark; cut mercy’s legions loose

You bend heavens and earth with evidence

Of You; thus, we are all without excuse

When it comes to devotion’s recompense

Dear Lord, whatever life may bring our way

Help us endeavor to trust and obey

***

Ps.103:8

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

***

Compassionate and slow to anger, You

Withhold judgment, but not forever, oh

Someday total accounting will come due

Pity the one who heard You and said 'no'  

You, who held nothing back but gave Yourself

Because salvation has no other name

Pity the one who prizes prideful pelf

Above the love that robs death/hell of its claim

Time's four-season circuit spins round and round

Some sense its sacred toll, some scoff and sneer

But someday Time's Veneer will run aground 

And all earth's tribes will mourn with holy fear

Then, hope and grace and faith will be no more

When who we chose to serve settles the score 

© Janet Martin

***

Matt.24:30

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, 

and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, 

and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven 

with power and great glory.

***

Behold! where autumn’s auburn petals fell...

Springtime’s unfailing hallelujahs swell

School/Leap of Faith- A Sonnet

As we were leaving on Sat. for our annual weekend in TO I realized

the pink eye I was trying to ignore was suddenly getting much worse.

We stopped to pick up a prescription because all the over-the-counter meds were sold out!

(bit of a pink eye epidemic on in our area)

To top it off, a mild sore throat escalated into wild discomfort.

By Sat. night the long anticipated dinner, (and remainder of the weekend)

was more endured than enjoyed!

While I know this is small on the grand scale of troubles

it was/is still super disappointing!

But on we go...

with so much still to be thankful for!

1 Thess.5:18

give thanks in all circumstances;

 for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

I didn't get any photos this weekend except a few at 

Krispy Kreme donuts on the way home...

There's a good parable in watching the process of a donut being made.

A glob of sticky dough, mixed, pressed and fried before the

final, delectable sweet-treat finish!

So, speaking in donut terms, sometimes

 when we're in the gob-of-sticky-dough stage

 or the pressing and frying stage

it might be easy to forget

 there's a 'sweet-treat' finish!

To roam among grave stones of seasons spent

Is but to squander what soon wastes away

To wander in deserts of discontent

Is but to miss the treasure of Today

To mourn for what we cannot change is vain

Distracting us from present precious sands

To dread the unknown is a futile pain

Better to pray and leave it in God’s hands

His grace, always sufficient for life’s lot

His mercy new each morning, praise His name

His love transcends the scope of mortal thought

His promises are free for all to claim

His goodness greater than affliction’s lathe 

His peace, perfected in each leap of faith

© Janet Martin

Jim needed to leave for work when we got home!

I snuggled on the couch and listened to an extremely uplifting message 

from David Jeremiah about faith.

I couldn't find the exact one on YouTube, 

but below is a link to another gem of a message filled with invaluable reminders.

It starts in with this...

From David Jeremiah-The School of Faith

"One of the sobering thoughts about the Christian life is the truth that God is far more interested in who we become and what we are than in what we do. He cares a whole lot more about how we live than about what we accomplish. His purpose is to build Christians, not cathedrals. His focus is on people, not programs, and for this reason, when God is working in the life of a person, he often allows unexplainable events to prepare and perfect those that he is getting ready to serve him in a much bigger way in the kingdom. The New Testament says this: "Whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives". Often when difficult things happen in our lives, it's not the evidence of something that is wrong, but proof that something is right."

***

Life aka, 

The School of faith

is filled with highs and lows,

 joys and woes,

 in all shapes and sizes

thorns and rose-

coloured surprises

Everything comes, 

then it goes.

What yet waits

Only God knows...

But,

Whether we are enjoying the flower

or being pricked by its stem

God is faithful.

Forever

Amen 

Donuts remind me of a song from days gone by when

our children were little...

Life Without Jesus is Like a Donut

A Sonnet of Wonderment/Confoundment

Jer.32:17

‘Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth

by Your great power and outstretched arm.

There is nothing too hard for You.

Time cannot shift the Hand that tunes the tide

That manifests God’s ancient covenant

That ebbs and flows across the countryside

To author amaranthine wonderment

Where we could shout until no voice is left

The height and breadth of beauty to descry

Only to concede mortal is bereft

Of words to adequately gratify

…the thirst that bursts into a hymn of praise

Too grand for script of syllable and rhyme

To God, who never ceases to amaze

Unphased, He proves the changeless ways of Time

And rouses from Confoundment's inept mold 

Agape stutters of 'Ah, Lord God, behold.'

© Janet Martin

Gen.8:22

“While the earth remains, 

Seedtime and harvest, 

Cold and heat, 

Winter and summer,

 And day and night 

Shall not cease.”

Psalm 40:5
Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done,

 and the plans You have for us--

none can compare to You--

if I proclaim and declare them, 

they are more than I can count.

Psalm 111:2

Great are the works of the LORD;

 they are pondered by all who delight in them.

Psalm 92:5
How great are Your works, O LORD, 

how deep are Your thoughts!

The Truth About Things

This poem was inspired partly by this morning's Bible Love Note

and partly by spending a few hours yesterday burning

brush picked up and raked form the yard...

'At death all Things will turn to dust and ash'

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: 

and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Eccles.12:7

Truth does not shift its weight from foot to foot

Or like a shadow; it is absolute

The precedence of God no one outranks

Man’s part is to obey and give Him thanks

This keeps the heart from becoming enslaved

To the futility of Things, the ‘old man’ craved

Truth teaches us to value what we ought

Lest in the quest for wealth, Truth is forgot

Only treasures in heaven will not rust

All else at death will turn to ash and dust

Naked we came and naked we will leave

Beware, lest snare of Satan doth deceive

The grave is the cadaver’s final splash

At death all Things will turn to dust and ash

© Janet Martin

 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, 

where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 

20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 

where moth and rust do not destroy,

and where thieves do not break in and steal.

21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.…

Matt.6:19-21

On that note I am about to leave to buy some things,

Because some Things serve a sweet cause such as

 a gift for Grand-daughter's second birthday!

Last year store-lockdowns and Covid restrictions

 kept her first birthday a rather low-key

celebration. no gifts, no party!

This year hopefully we will celebrate with renewed awareness and thankfulness

 of the preciousness of words like 'together' and 'hello'

and 'have a piece of cake'!

Seasoned Scene Sonnet

Isa.45:5-6&12 

(click link to read the whole powerful chapter)

I am the Lord, and there is no other;

apart from me there is no God.

I will strengthen you,

though you have not acknowledged me,

so that from the rising of the sun

to the place of its setting

people may know there is none besides me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other...

It is I who made the earth

and created mankind on it.

My own hands stretched out the heavens;

I marshaled their starry hosts.

The morning melts the dark, the heavens spawn 

Dawn’s ever-ebbing shadows from the air 

Unrolling, like a bolt of blush chiffon 

Gilt gossamer that tumbles through our stare 

Unveiling labour, love and longing’s stage 

Where scenes change with each season’s ordered rite 

While overhead the heavens never age 

But mark the night and day with dark and light 

To leave its imprint not in stars, but hearts 

A script composed of constant no return

As ways and means of circumstance imparts 

An ever-startling scope of more-to-learn 

Hope, like a bud that still withholds the rose 

Keeps us caught between knees and tippy-toes 

© Janet Martin

Forever-Chris Tomlin

Balancing Burdens...

Go Light Your World

To bear the weight of the woes of this world
Would drain us of all hope of happiness
To dwell on the darkness where Light unfurled
Beckons, is to miss God’s kind faithfulness

To suffer we must; but to hurt alone
Would surely be hardship’s most bitter part
The Lord does not leave us Comfortless, no
Though this world’s sorrows can shatter the heart

Worry is not the same thing as concern
Worry frets anxiously; futile and hard
Concern will caution, encourage, discern
Stand like a strong, loyal soldier on guard

Lord, help us daily Thy grace to employ
To bear life’s burdens with courage and joy

© Janet Martin 

 

1 Pet.5:6-7

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, 

so that in due time He may exalt you.  

7Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you