Autumnal Eventide Aria

Twice (yesterday and today) this post wanted to be a morning poem

but by the time it was complete it is an autumn eventide poem/aria...

Enjoy! and forgive the 'stumbles'... 

Time’s trodden track of centuries bestows beneath our feet

Unbroken sod, uncharted seas, where man and morning meet...

Time’s trodden track of centuries bestows beneath our feet

Unbroken sod, uncharted seas, where man and morning meet

Life’s best and worst is blessed and cursed with universal need

Where pilgrims of hunger and thirst once more, by grace, proceed

Earth dons a burnished afterglow as woodland lamplight dims

As leaves, like freshly-fallen snow, lie silent ‘neath stark limbs

As day starts to unravel breath by breath its lathe unfurls

Thoroughfares left to travel, riddled with potholes and pearls

Life’s murmur of existence shimmers like a sun-tossed leaf

No measure of resistance can thwart Time’s four-season Chief

Where this day that the Lord has made, none can take credit for

Or blush beneath the accolades as dawn swings back its door

How reckless to suppose this speck of Being that we brave

Is nothing but a feckless trek from cradle to the grave

How reassuring to be held in love that knows no bounds

As centuries and seasons meld His changeless Word resounds

Time’s trodden track of centuries hinges to now and here

Where, like the banner of a breeze our footfalls disappear

Into autumnal eventide; a wafted wisp that weaves

Impressions of a countryside asleep beneath the leaves

© Janet Martin

Life’s murmur of existence shimmers like a sun-tossed leaf...

Into autumnal eventide; a wafted wisp that weaves

Impressions of a countryside asleep beneath the leaves...

Monumental Metamorphosis...

 

I'm photographing this tree prolifically right now

because I know I could wake up any morning to see it barren in one fell swoop...

Summer will always relinquish its roses

Each season precious because

Soon we look back on the scenes it composes

With,

‘Wasn’t it good while it was?’

Nothing can deter the blur of time’s tincture

Constant metamorphosis

Reminding us not to rush through Now’s picture

But

Cherish with kindness, what is

Summer will always precede autumn’s echoes

Winter will yield to spring’s breeze

Darling, right now we are forging mementos

From

Moments that make memories

Summer will always relinquish its flowers

But there is no cause for gloom

Behold the buds dangling from yonder bowers

Where

Joy is a four-season bloom

Let’s love as if this was our farewell chiseled

On marble headstones because

All we have left when life’s flower has fizzled

Is,

‘Wasn’t it good while it was?’

© Janet Martin

Psalm 23:6

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: 

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever."

While the Clock Is a Spinning Wheel...

 

Here's to today's stitches in time's tapestry...

While the clock is a spinning wheel that weaves future to past

With threads of what we think and feel as stitch to stitch is cast

We cannot keep heartstrings intact; they snag where seasons stream

Leaving behind matters of fact in spite of all we dream

...making us more determined with a less intense approach

To live moment by moment where morrow’s shadows encroach

*And touch time’s twill with hope, not dread, that tumbles from above

Then joy will fill Time’s ether thread with thankfulness and love

© Janet Martin

Today we are attending a memorial service for my mother's only brother.

Somehow time's threads spill more sacredly through our touch 

when Death reminds us of the Door to Forevermore

To touch time's thread with hope, not dread, means we need to find hope's anchor first!

Heb.6:16-20

People swear by someone greater than themselves,

 and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. 

17Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear

 to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 

18God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie,

 we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged.

 19We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

 It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,

 20where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. 

He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.

Petal-Poetry

 

A lot of people are picking up pieces/branches/trees/buildings

after storms that rolled through the region last night...

The poetry of life's season's brings high and lows

where ebbs and flows strew both laughter and tears

like the petals of a once lovely rose

that blooms and disappears...

September is the season of cherishing

 fast-fading flowers

and fast-growing children

(all the first day of school photos on Facebook remind us💗)

Tallest Little girl is eagerly counting down 

the last few day's at Janet's house before she is School Girl!

The poetry of summer’s rose

Composes wonder’s sighs

But like the day that comes and goes

Cannot escape demise

The loveliness of laughter’s lilt

Gilt-etches yester-years

A bud that blooms but soon is spilt

In sorrow’s silver tears

Do not stand long beside the urn

That cups the lifeless ash

Where soon the dust of live-love-learn

Settles, where bare feet dash

Where sparkling surf of summer-tide

Cannot evade Time’s score

Where, like waves, mighty in their stride

Cannot usurp the shore

…where aftermath of Eden’s woes

In turmoil’s throes, still pours

But cannot snuff Calvary’s rose

Which mortal hope restores

The poetry of summer’s plume

After its narrative

Is planted on an echo-tomb

Of moments we still live

...to give its glance our utter Most

Of thought and deed and speech

Each new day like a guest we host

Soon ushered out of reach

© Janet Martin

2 Pet.3:11

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, 

what kind of people ought you to be?

 You ought to live holy and godly lives...

Aware of What Does Not Disappear Into Thin Air

This morning there was definitely no denying it;

The cocoon of night takes a little longer to release its charge!

This morning is also the final 6:15 a.m. childcare starting time

(for a while at least!)

Because this mom is off on mat-leave 

as they anticipate Baby arriving soon!

So no matter where we are in life

one thing to remember is that everything

 (for better or worse) is but a season!

the flower in full bloom soon sheds its vibrant shades!

Time hoists its elemental plume...

Like a cocoon, dark night enfolds

The wing-span of the sky

Until morning soft sheds its hold

And frees dawn’s butterfly

Time hoists its elemental plume

Upon a transient wick

Where the hour, now in full bloom

Is soon cut to the quick

We should seek to spend carefully

Time's momentous parade

And redeem, ever prayerfully

Each day the Lord has made 

For what appears to disappear

Into vaults of thin air

Is being recorded, my dear

Beyond time's vapour flare

...where we will give detailed account 

For sparks that upward fly

Then, live today as if time's fount

Is about to run dry

© Janet Martin

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,

 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 

Eph.5:15-16

Moment-ous Measure, (Time's Good Treasure)

This poem, Like Sparkles on a Surging Swell, came up on my blog-dashboard

 this morning because someone clicked on it,

amplifying my annual August lament...

as summer's fading fringes become more apparent

Then my sister sent me this photo of a long-ago vacation.

 It fell out from behind a drawer as she cleaned out the cupboards to prepare for a kitchen-reno

(all these kids now dealing with the season of young adulthood with all its challenges and joys )

Emotion-ocean 

begged 

to be poured into 

poem

Moments murmur, full of summer flowing out of reach and sight

Sometimes seems like dreams-come-true slip through our bearing overnight

Laughter ripples, echoes stipple streams once rushing raw and rife

Where an ocean of emotion rolls across shorelines of life

Moment-measure spills in treasure that soon other moments steal

Such a touch-and-taste-good-pleasure, sparkling like a rhinestone-reel

Carousels of fare-thee-well twirl where hello’s fond friendships meld

With time’s tinctures painting pictures of seasons so briefly held

Momentum of here-they-come and there-they-go, oh, me-oh-my

Sparks a hunger for the younger afternoons of mid-July

Yet, soft-kindles, with what dwindles in the middle of lament

Awed awareness of the rareness of today’s precious present

Moments meter bitter, sweeter, who knows what they hold in store

Makes us cherish what will perish on dusk’s silhouette-scaped shore

While the Giver of this river full of Time’s momentous tow

Brightens duty with the beauty of what new moments bestow

Moments marble gold and purple with more muted shades of gray

Bygone's coffers brim with offers on breath-banners of new day

Longing wrangles with what tangles heart-strings into Wonder's Birth

Teaching us to treasure the good measure of a moment's worth

© Janet Martin

Bygone's coffers brim with offers on breath-banners of new day...

These Stairs We Climb (that look like Time)

This blur we call summer trembles with cricket-song

reminding us of words like 'was' and 'so-long'...

Now that's a 'hill of beans'  said Victoria

when she saw today's task on the table this morning😊

We are abundantly blessed with garden-treasure once again!

Thank-you, Lord

Life is offering almost more task than time these days!

By the grace of God and for His glory, 

off we go on another work-a-day adventure!

This thoroughfare of morrows where time’s seasons strew behind

Like harvest dust, rouses in us loss and gain intertwined

The give and take of dusk and daybreak’s easy ebb and flow

Falls through a fleet of hands and feet like little stars of snow

…where we are always learning, yearning, turning older, oh

Where wonder thunders in our veins as nature steals the show

Where we begin to feel the closing in of shadow-sighs

Yet feel like kings where simple things are life’s most treasured prize

The quiet grace of garden spaces soothes the wounds within

The rush of leaves before the sheaves are gleaned and gathered in

The cooing of the mourning dove, the cricket’s cheep-cheep-cheep

Like minstrels in a symphony that lulls the land to sleep

The tender tug as kiss and hug wears holes right through our hearts

Where planting and the granting of its fruit fills more than carts

Where holy is the toll that rolls from east to west until

The hours cease that lend the lease that numbered days fulfill

This more-than-meets-the-eye, hello, good-bye, this touch and taste

Runs through our forms in sparkle-storms of subtle season-haste

Where we will find sweet peace of mind through thick and thin of days

As we commit the whole of it to God in hymns of praise

As we delight in what is right and leave the rest to He

Who sees beyond the flower-frond of our mortality

Where hope and trust are more than dust that settles in the grave

Where stairs we climb that look like Time lead back to He who gave

© Janet Martin

  “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, 

or whatsoever ye do, 

do all to the glory of God.” 

1 Corinthians 10:31.

Remember when time seemed to crawl?

Little Girl is eagerly counting the days till she can be a school-girl!

Me? I want to cry 'slow down'

Let me linger over dinners and dreams!

Prime of Grace

As I opened my eyes after

bringing before the Lord my fears, cares, gratitude and hopes

the sun burst over the horizon to crown new day 

with the declaration of God's glory!

Psalm 5:3 BSB

In the morning, O LORD, You hear my voice;

 at daybreak I lay my plea before You and wait in expectation.

In The Morning When I Rise Give Me Jesus

 

The prime of time is blushing where Today is always new

The rhythm of Reason rushing its melodists through and through

Past’s phoenix taunts trust’s trial-run where oft we slip and slide

(So many wily ways to sun and preen feathers of pride)

The prime of life presents itself in Time’s most perfect form

Where, with crumbs brushed from yester-shelf a brand-new day is born

Soft-wafted pink and gold beguiles and fills our smiles with awe

While lofty ‘think’, oft bold, defiles, if thought rivals God’s law

The prime of hope and dream’s crescendo floods the earth with light

The clime/climb forged from bygone’s memento births morn’s maiden flight

Where all together we must weather what dawn’s spawn will bring

To test the leather of faith’s tether, oft with suffering

The prime of time is streaming through the Hand that gives and takes

Where live-and-learn is teeming with happiness and heartaches

As we proceed where want and need in fearless fathoms flow

But never can exceed God’s primal grace whereby we go

© Janet Martin

Lam.3:22-23

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.

How Lovely Flow The Hours of a Lakeside Afternoon

 

How lovely flow the hours of a lakeside afternoon

While bobbing on the tempo of an ebb and flowing tune

While bearing the awareness of a tugboat chugging where

A lovely lakeside afternoon soon dissolves to thin air

How utter run the moments that compose days into years

As smooth as butter, bittersweet each sparkle disappears

While granting an enchanting awe, because lo and behold

A day no one has ever seen breaks midnight’s darksome mold

How softly seep the seasons starred and scarred with joy and strife

While we learn who to lean on through the calm and storms of life

While wearing the un-baring, sacred-subtle, of the soul

That steals away the seasons until God reveals the whole

© Janet Martin

Of This

Love enjoys and endures life's utter contrasts;

 utter joy and wonder

utter chaos and care...

The end will come of This;

This gift and groan of prayer

Love’s laughter and the traitor’s kiss

Will fade into thin air

This leap of live and learn

This thud of high to low

This day-by-daily no-return

Of grace whereby we go

This cross of loss and gain

This toss twixt dust-to-dust

This awesome albatross of pain

And pleasure, fear and trust

This sacred metronome

Of ever-dwindling day

This happy-sad of home-sweet-home

This brunt of gold-blue-gray

This innocence soon lost

Where time does not stand still

As hope begins to count the cost

Of growing older till...

The end will come of This;

This on and upward climb

This test of love and faithfulness

Till God replaces Time

© Janet Martin

Be very careful, then, how you live—

not as unwise but as wise,

Eph.5:15

When Time No More Will Be

 

Due to a disappointing 'drop' I am back to using the phone camera for now...

Another day of grace

Rolls from dawn’s eastward shore

To each and every one of us

Till time will be no more

Till time will be no more

Not one of us can tell

When we will pass through Death’s dark door

Into Heaven or hell

Into Heaven or hell

There is no in between

Therefore, we ought to ponder well

What none on earth have seen

What none on earth have seen

Will fill eternity

How sacred is time’s go-between

God and humanity

God and humanity

Are never far apart

He grants each day of grace to we,

The darlings of his heart

The darlings of His heart

When Time No More will be

Will witness He who hangs His art

Where everyone can see

Where everyone can see

His sky-wide evidence

That the heaven's declare, so we

Cannot plead ignorance

© Janet Martin

After writing this I read this

today's Daily Bread Devotion!

Stunning.

Though you have not seen him, you love him; 

and even though you do not see him now, 

you believe in him.

 1 Peter 1:8

1 Peter 1:3-9

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! 

In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope

 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 

 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. 

This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 

who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation

 that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 

 In all this you greatly rejoice, 

though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 

 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—

of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—

may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 

 Though you have not seen him, you love him; 

and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him 

and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 

 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, 

the salvation of your souls.

Lyric About Life

 

Happy Birthday, Emily💗

Twenty-nine years ago you made your dad and I parents!

Thank-you for its journey of joy, 

however unconventional joy's footpaths may be!😉😊

Last week as I chatted with a young mom she asked how it was

to have our second daughter home for a while

(she moved back to the city a week ago)

'It's so great' I replied.

 'While they grow up the focus is on parenting, training, etc.

With adult children it's friendship/relationship.

They know what we believe and support and what we don't.

(of course, it will always be friendship

under a mother's watchful eye and words of caution etc.

and a ton of prayers; those seem to increase, not decrease with the years)

but what a precious privilege to relate to our children,

adult to adult and stand with them

through life's highs and lows

by the grace of God.

Dear Emily,

God bless you on your special day

even though your son wailed and wailed last night,

begging you to skip your birthday because he doesn't want you to change😂

Unfortunately he is wishing for the impossible!

I pray for you, God's guidance through 

all the challenges and changes life is bound to bring!

Life leads us by the hand sometimes

In flowered nooks it bids us sit

A gladsome thing that makes us sing

And dance for the sheer joy of it

Life grabs us by the scruff sometimes

And sets us firmly in God’s grace

A heavy hand of reprimand

To remind us of our place

Life takes us in its arms sometimes

In kind, parental sympathy

To dry our tears and calm our fears

As we rest in God's sovereignty

Life is a teacher all the time

We never grow too old to learn

As highs and lows and joys and woes

Fill Bygone’s sheaf of no return

Life makes us older day by day

Pray that it makes us kinder too

As we embrace the Hand of grace

That every moment-gem runs through

…to forge the weight of wisdom’s crown

Then pray as yester-years increase

Beauty unveils what never fails

Love’s holy, humble Masterpiece

Life takes us by surprise sometimes

In spite of its muddle and mess

It fills the heart with life’s best part

Wild, unorthodox *thankfulness

© Janet Martin

* I first used the word 'happiness' instead of thankfulness

but changed it because without genuine thankfulness

genuine happiness is impossible!

“this is my prayer: 

that your love may abound more and more 

in knowledge and depth of insight, 

so that you may be able to discern what is best 

and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 

filled with the fruit of righteousness 

that comes through Jesus Christ

—to the glory and praise of God.”

 Philippians 1:9-11 

Never Too Old to Cherish...

After a long laundry-line full on Saturday I thought I had a head-start today!

Still lots for tomorrow plus whatever is hatching in hampers!

Whether it's never-ending laundry or other such chore

Soon time leaves us gaping at what is no more

no matter what stage we are in, it is a bubble about to pop!

So cherish💗

In the middle of the muddle

of whatever we are in

Whether kiss and cuddle baby

or a more teen-aged chagrin

Or, perhaps the nest we feathered

with a mother’s heart and soul

Is weathered, like a heart-shaped box

where echoes lilt and toll

Wherever, and whatever season

we are passing through

Pray that we cherish dearly

what will soon bid us adieu

Whether uphill puff and pedal,

whether downhill coast and glide

Soon dusk dons its gleaming medal,

Soon love sings here-comes-the-bride

Whether its chug-chug and puff-puff,

or run-run, like a gazelle

Live, laugh, love and pray, for today

always fades into farewell

Whether past time’s precious prime

or feeling like a super-star

Pray that we learn to cherish life

exactly where we are

© Janet Martin

(Inspired by a little conversation with my sister)

Fringe-Hinge

 

Do you feel it;

The sense of Impending Infinity?

Do you hear it?

How dusk is the hinge on an unfathomable door

And This but the fringe of So Much More

Temporal, so temporary, Eternal, eternity

Yet the two are intertwined very, very intricately

Moments but breath-by-breath tokens preceding forevermore

Where final exhale flings open an unfathomable door

Such a blip of time to ponder what no one can comprehend

Life is no paperback novel; this is serious, my friend

Who knows when we will be ushered from the temporal to see

How what seemed so temporary will impact eternity

© Janet Martin

Still...

Life is like a box of Chocolates.

you never know what you're gonna get.

~ Forrest Gump

 

Sometimes that's how I feel about poetry before it is bitten/written!

SO much to taste; as fingers move you just never know what the end result will be!

Above photo from the book Through Irish Eyes

Do you ever look at history books and wonder at the photos, 

the fashions, the 'normal' of the time?!

Do you ever read a book from ages past,

and marvel at how much has changed

only to read the story of the people in the pictures

to realize that beneath façade 

humanity is as much the same as ever?!

People with souls pressing toward hope-and-dream goals

with many a bump along the way...

This poem took off in a totally different direction than I was expecting

when I first felt 'the niggle'...

That's the joy of poetry; you never know what you're gonna get!😄

Time does not change the way it pours four seasons round and round

It does not hasten or meander, ever tick-tock bound

Sunrise, sunset, now dry, now wet, now plant, now harvest, oh

Where it seems little stays the same as ages come and go

…but some things stay; life’s ilk of silk and steel still much the same

As on the day when Adam pointed at his wife with blame

The sweetness of indulgence of forbidden fruit is brief

Consequence still lasts so much longer borne with bitter grief

Yes, little stays the same but oh, the heart left to its rule

Is still desp’rately wicked as it caters to the fool

Pride still precedes destruction, arrogance authors the fall

And humble pie is still a most unpleasant victual

The youth that we try to preserve will still always fall prey

To Father Time who does not swerve or waver in his way

When man still loves a woman and a woman loves a man

Till death doth part, we still glimpse the heart of the Master's Plan

Innocence of a child is still the purest joy on earth

Mirth finds its dearest laughter and life finds its sweetest worth

Where man, still born to trouble will soon discover its rod

Push-pull, heave-ho, uphill we go, still by the grace of God

We still reap what we sow; God is not mocked, though some will dare

To think they can, spurning the love that didst their pardon bear

Man’s understanding still grapples with Lord God’s Sovereignty

The rebel still plucks ‘apples’ from the still forbidden tree

God's gift of grace is still free if we repent and believe

The sinner on one's own cannot redemption’s work achieve

We still all have only one life, death’s sickle sweeps the earth

And one by one we will return to He who authors birth

Time and humanity, while progress changes the façade

Are beneath the authority of Everlasting God

And while so little stays the same, some things will never change

Because of the Undying Soul no mortal can estrange

© Janet Martin

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Heb.13:8

Be still and know that I am God

Psalm 46:10

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;

 do not fret when people succeed in their ways, 

when they carry out their wicked schemes

Psalm 37:7

Still, Still With Thee