Happy Spring Greeting

Happy First Day of Spring!

Gramma finally relented a few days ago

(because we were only a few sleeps away from the date circled on the calendar)

when granddaughter was promised she could finally use 'her favorite teapot')

We garnished our mint-leaf tea with dried marigold and recalled the day we harvested them

while dreaming of delightful garden days to come...

The sun tangles in tresses, still barren, where spring’s debut

Caresses sod and soul with notes of an emerging tune...

The sun tangles in tresses, still barren, where spring’s debut

Caresses sod and soul with notes of an emerging tune

Hope and delight ignite ballads of blossoms coming true

Contentment like a butterfly breaks from winter’s cocoon

And joy peals from a belfry that we sense but cannot see

As Nature keeps God’s promises of what will always be

The breezes tease us with visions of verdant countryside

Hillsides and brook banks beckon us to linger on earth’s loom

To revel in impressions of a trove of gates flung wide

As buds begin to breathe and bulging bulbs burst into bloom

And robins sing a song of spring and Reason dares to dance

As gladness finds fresh anchors in life’s sea of circumstance

The snow recedes like ebbing tides from winter-weary shores

Dawn is an eager child dashing across time’s gleaming sands

Dreams tiptoe, careful not to arouse Old Man Winter's snores

We, well aware of streets soon winnowed by time’s gleaning hands

Grapple once more with tug of wars, beauty and duty spun

On how to make the most of moments melting in the sun

© Janet Martin

For, lo, the winter is past,

The rain is over and gone;

The flowers appear on the earth;

The time of the singing of birds is come,

And the voice of the turtle

Is heard in our land;

The fig tree putteth forth her green figs,

And the vines with the tender grape

Give a good smell

.

Song of Solomon 2:11-13

Sneak-peek at Spring Things

 Four more sleeps till the first day of spring!!

Soon earth will burst with garden rooms

Forsythia and dogwood plumes

Tulips and daffodils will stroll

Like little girls across the knoll

And heaven will tip welkin jars

To dapple dells with violet stars

And orchard thoroughfares will tease

Noses with heady blossom breeze

And honey bees will buzz and hum

From lilac to geranium

And rose buds will spill miracles

And trees will hoist lace parasols

And woodland citadels will ring

With feathered throngs that sing and sing

And brooks will tumble out to the sea

With a refurbished melody

And raindrop tap dancers will waltz

And puppies will turn somersaults

...and puddles will be full of feet

Where almost-heaven and earth meet

And housewives will fling windows wide

To welcome the outdoors inside

And farmers will stoke dusty slopes

While planting seed-sized prayers and hopes

And children, like colored balloons

Will swing away warm afternoons

And laundry lines will be a string 

Of motley banners, fluttering

And the air will kindle a grin

That starts somewhere beneath our skin 

And life will be sweeter because

Spring fills the world where winter was

© Janet Martin

The Wonderworld of 'Will' or The Best of 'This'

Oh, the wonders of tomorrow...

Little grand-daughter sighed with ecstasy  as she relived

 a euphoric plethora of summer memories

 while peering through winter's window...toward spring!

Tomorrow will soon be today's challenges and joys

Tomorrow will soon steal today's girls and boys

Tomorrow will change (for better or worse) what Today still is

Tomorrow is a world away; let's make the best of This

'Grandma, why did you tape the door shut?', questioned grand-daughter the other day.

"Because it's not very tight", I replied "and we need to keep the shivery wind outside!

But, one warm, wonderful sunny day Gramma will take the tape off!

We will open the door and set the rocking chair and flowers

 back on the deck and have tea out there

and read books and have campfire suppers!

 Won't that be a happy day?!!"

And grand-daughters eyes sparkled with heaven-like anticipation as she sighed,

'ye-e-eth!! and aunty Mel will be here too, right?'

' Oh, I hope so,' was all gramma could promise😅💖

I've always believed anticipation is one of life's purest pleasures,

but let's not miss what is while we dream, right?!

Someday porch flowerpots will brim with pretty petal-plumes

The wooly-white woodland will ring with reawakened tunes

The meadow will be like a green-spun picnic blanket spread

Beneath a canopy of sun-kissed blue skies overhead

The barren branch will burgeon with hues of replenished shade

The gale will gentle its halloos into a serenade

Raindrop-waltzes will wash the world and rouse earth from its sleep

And windows will not frame counterpanes unfurled, white and deep

New beginnings will flower and blossoms will deck the grass

Dreamland’s barred gate will lower and beckon us to trespass

The quiet interlude between harvest and Planting Must

Will turn into a bustling scene of machine-startled dust

The clock will feast on a buffet of quickened hour-chime

Hearthside evenings borne away until next winter-time

And we will taste spring’s cheeriness that waits within our thought

And we will wear the weariness we had somehow forgot

And we will wonder at the way each season swiftly spills

While hunger scavenges hope’s tray that each new day refills

And we will bow our head in thanks to mortal’s gracious God

Where we will soon join silenced ranks in earth’s grave-stippled sod

The wonderworld of 'will' is filled with what yet waits to be

With tears and laughter not yet spilled into a memory

But, lest we miss the best of This that will fill yesteryears

Let's make the most of what yet is before it disappears 

© Janet Martin

Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, 

until you return to the ground--because out of it were you taken. 

For dust you are, and to dust you shall return."

Eccles.12:7

Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,

 And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

A Rich Canvas (of God's Flawless Poetry)

Where Mercy's faithful essence renews more than barren limb

He cheers us with His presence as we place our trust in Him...

Green deepens, a rich canvas for nature’s calligraphy

The land is young; it dances with God’s flawless poetry

Where wonder, like an elixir reminds the careworn heart

To trust in the Creator of earth’s unparalleled art

This life, so full of care would be too hard to bear, but for

The Lord’s unrivaled majesty only proud fools ignore

Where Mercy's faithful essence renews more than barren limb

He cheers us with His presence as we place our trust in Him

Hunger and heartache’s Texas vexes worlds beneath our skin

The belly of the whale perplexes well-laid schemes of sin

Where all we have is lent; God gives and takes, for He is Lord

Where spring is like a bower bent with hope and grace restored

Vales deepen; a rich canvas for faith's meek and fervent plea

Though spirits groan, hope dances as God spills pure poetry

Where a whole world of wonder waits to tune faith's ears and eyes

To trust in He who tends the gates/straits that lead to paradise

© Janet Martin

Psalm 138

I will praise You with my whole heart;

Before the gods I will sing praises to You.

2 I will worship toward Your holy temple,

And praise Your name

For Your lovingkindness and Your truth;

For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.

3 In the day when I cried out, You answered me,

And made me bold with strength in my soul.

4 All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Lord,

When they hear the words of Your mouth.

5 Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord,

For great is the glory of the Lord.

6 Though the Lord is on high,

Yet He regards the lowly;

But the proud He knows from afar.

7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;

You will stretch out Your hand

Against the wrath of my enemies,

And Your right hand will save me.

8 The Lord will [a]perfect that which concerns me;

Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;

Do not forsake the works of Your hands.

 The Old Cross Road (click link to listen) 

James Rowe 1920

1. There are many paths through this world of sin,
   But there’s only one I shall travel in;
   ’Tis the old Cross Road, or the way called “Straight”—
   There is just one way to the pearly gate.
   • Refrain:
     There is just one way to the pearly gate,
     To the crown of life and the friends who wait;
     ’Tis the old Cross Road, or the way called “Straight”—
     There is just one way to the pearly gate.
2. There are some who sneer at the old Cross Road,
   At the pearly gate and the soul’s abode;
   Yet I mind them not, but, with happy song
   And assurance sweet, still I press along.
3. Others risk their souls on some new-made way,
   Thinking they will come to the gate someday;
   Oh, may they find out, ere their lives are done,
   That the old Cross Road is the only one.

 

Where May Runs Footloose...

So much to inspire this little tribute to May

and childhood...

The first two lines of this poem were birthed here, yesterday

while on a little brook-bank picnic with Granddaughter and daughter...

While half-leaf tree limbs splashed a shawl of shadow-holes over us.

So little left wanting where brook-babble gleams

With nothing but nature to nurture daydreams

Listening to lyrics no pencil can trace

Sprawled on a shadow-shawl of first-leaf lace

Watching the mantle return to the wood

Gently relearning the joy of childhood

So little left needing where May-breezes strum

The pulses of earth where all birth burgeons from

...thrum of an orchestra's ballad imparts

Green-gilded gladness that streams through our hearts

Seed that soon spills into tassels of corn

Dapples the hills of a landscape reborn 

So little left slighted where May runs footloose 

 Each tree like a taper of gold and chartreuse 

Each dell like a marvelous medley of hymns

Where the bare branch blossoms and the bud brims

Annual Genesis, granting a glimpse

Of Eden's garden and love's innocence  

© Janet Martin

Annual Genesis, granting a glimpse

Of Eden's garden and love's innocence...

"M-m-m! I eat it" said two year old when I told her Janet

is planting Candy onions...

 So little left slighted where May runs footloose 

 Each tree like a taper of gold and chartreuse ...

On this weekend's to-do list-- dusting😐

Seeds that soon spill into tassels of corn

Dapples the hill of a landscape reborn ...

The Things That Don't Change...(never lose their wonder)

Thank God for joy's wonder in life's changeless things

like laughter and love as a child's childhood wings...

💖💖💖

Last night I dashed to a nearby farmer's field to

revel in the wonderful joy

of the heaven's declaring the glory of God!

While I ogled and ah-h-ed, the farmer who owns the field happened by with his tractor.

He hopped out to admire the view too.

Who knew that this burly, dirt-covered busy man and I shared in common

a sheer delight over nature's wonders...

that he too takes pictures every year of buds unfolding and barn swallows nesting etc.

that he thrills to the pink flood of daybreak as it rushes through his milking parlour.

We celebrated the fact that for all life's change and trouble

the things that never change, never lose their wonder💖

The things that don’t change never lose their wonder

The Hand that wrings Spring’s shower-bowers brings

Beauty to feed the soul’s ravenous hunger

A world unfurled with green and petaled things

Where the swallow swoops and the woodland rings

Heavens on fire with dawn and dusk glory

Tugging our gaze from earth’s cares for a bit

As if Someone bigger is writing love’s story

Where we are honored to be part of it

In spite of tests to Quest’s valor and grit

Wonder is the gem in life’s crown of troubles

Thrill of the hill decked with daffodil-frills

Joy of a child chasing rainbow-gilt bubbles

Wealth of the bud as its treasure-trove spills

Over the edges of hedges and rills

Brook-laughter luring bare feet to its shimmer

Green is the valley and blue is the sky

Spread like a banquet-blanket heaped with dinner

Food for the spirit and feast for the eye

Tugging at tethers hinged to hearts, oh my

Mint tints in treetops long stripped of leaf-luster

First maple-plume is a daisy bouquet

Lark singing with all the might it can muster

While the dark arc of night turns to today

Stars fall, violet-strewn like noon’s Milky Way

Seeds fuel furrows, faith-jewels soft falling

Where sallow fallow will soon brim with hymns

Where Nature is like a kind mother calling

Where blithe breeze somersaults, where cobalt whims

Hum and strum yellow willow-cello limbs

The things that don’t change never lose their wonder

The Hand that authors them will never fail

To birth the beauty that feeds the soul’s hunger

Heaven and earth like a glorious grail

Tipped to wow us with creation’s regale

© Janet Martin

Wonder is the gem in life’s crown of troubles

Thrill of the hill decked with daffodil-frills

Joy of a child chasing rainbow-gilt bubbles...

Wealth of the bud as its treasure-trove spills

Over the edges of hedges and rills...

Psalm 136:1-9

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
2Oh, give thanks to the God of gods!
For His mercy endures forever.
3Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!
For His mercy endures forever:
4To Him who alone does great wonders,
For His mercy endures forever;
5To Him who by wisdom made the heavens,
For His mercy endures forever;
6To Him who laid out the earth above the waters,
For His mercy endures forever;
7To Him who made great lights,
For His mercy endures forever—
8The sun to rule by day,
For His mercy endures forever;
9The moon and stars to rule by night,
For His mercy endures forever...

click here to read the whole glorious chapter!

Exodus 15:11
Who among the gods is like You, O LORD? 

Who is like You--majestic in holiness, 

revered with praises, 

performing wonders?

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.

A Spring Song

This morning's sunbeams

after yesterday's snowfall

sets spring songs a-ringing!

(in bird and bard!)

The sparkle of frost-brickle

The finch in golden plume

*(or the finch-tree in full plume)

The twinkle in Father Time’s grin

As earth trembles with bloom

Good morning’s hearty handshake

The sky, a big blue bowl

Tipped upside down to grandly crown

The laughter of the soul

The giggle of the garden

The robin’s tiralee

Green sheen unfurled across a world

Wild with expectancy

Where we attuned to anthems

Not written in a book

Join in the hymn of throbbing limb

And chuckle of the brook

How long we wished and waited

For daffodils to glow

For violet stars to deck the bars

Long kissed with flecks of snow

Come, let’s dance on the tarmac

No longer brown and gray

And celebrate the welkin gate

Where winter lost its way (hopefully)😑

© Janet Martin

The sparkle of frost-brickle...

*The finch-tree in full plume/bloom

Good morning’s hearty handshake

The sky, a big blue bowl

Tipped upside down to grandly crown

The laughter of the soul...

How long we wished and waited

For daffodils to glow

...in the words from my two-yr.-old little gal in my childcare-

'I saw dappydils!'

For violet stars to deck the bars

Long kissed with flecks of snow...

The giggle of the garden

The robin’s tiralee

Green sheen unfurled across a world

Wild with expectancy...