Ah, Winter's Day...

Winter day played a

 muted melody of perfection on yonder hills today...

Ah, winter day,

thy artist’s tray

Though sparser than in mid-July

Still steals our gaze

with nature’s way

while heaven plays earth’s lullaby

with stars that waft

silver and soft

to settle on the slum’bring sills

of barren trees

and memories

of lusher leas and greener hills

until the dark

snuffs daylight’s spark

and drapes a velvet navy spread

across the world

with stars unfurled

beneath our feet and overhead

© Janet Martin 

A Soft Snowfall Poem

This poem was started on the back of an envelope

I found in Jim's truck after church on Sunday

while I waited for him to look after a few work details

It was inspired by the scenes

where it felt like God shook the snow-globe we are living in😊

Teasels topped in frosty toques...

Branches brushed in stencil-art

Wild grass bent like white-washed stooks...

Brook banks plush and snowflake-starred 

Every sprig, white pom-pom crowned

Every twig cotton-ball bowed

Teasels topped in frosty toques

Branches brushed in stencil-art

Wild grass bent like white-washed stooks

Brook banks plush and snowflake-starred

Every sprig, white pom-pom crowned

Every twig, cotton-ball bowed

Every footstep, snuffed of sound

Everybody white-world wowed (well, almost:)

Earth and heavens interfuse

Where the meadow meets the sky

Beauty exceeds duty’s dues

Rousing worship’s perfect sigh

Windsong is a whisper, oh

Birdsong is muffled in white

Woodlands wear wool scarves of snow

Dreamlands waken pure delight

Earth is like a snow-globe shook

Where the countryside and town

Look like pictures in a book

Tucked beneath white eiderdown

© Janet Martin

Whisper-Soft

 We woke to a whisper-soft world!

Happy One-month-till-spring-Saturday!!

The sun has a lot of gold beaming to do this year to get rid of white whispers...😊

White whispers cling to everything 

Like featherdown from angel-wings 

White whispers blanket barren limbs 

Like notes composing argent hymns 

White whispers deck hill, rill and dell 

Like stars that lost their grip and fell 

White whispers muffle sound, like feet 

A-dancing, down a downy street 

White whispers sparkle like a sweep 

Of diamond-dazzle-streams, knee-deep 

White whispers tumble, twirl and waft 

Until the world is whisper-soft 

© Janet Martin 

Ravished, Raptured, Dazzled...

Another stunner!!

How much more wonder we are lavished with

than we ever deserve!

Thank-you, Lord!

After taking these photos I took the truck to the mechanic just up the road

and walked a long, loveliest way home!

Ravished and raptured by sun up and down 

Lavished with laughter at nature’s renown 

Wonderstruck by weightless shadows, blue-bent 

Dazzled by diamonds that don’t cost a cent 

Wooed by a woodland begging to be trekked 

Stunned by its branches and bloom-hulls, star-flecked 

Awed by God’s goodness that reckons no bounds 

Resolute mercy beckons and confounds 

Ravishing, rapturing, lavishing oh 

Dazzling and wooing and stunning us so 

© Janet Martin 

I had just returned home, brewed a fresh pot of coffee

when the door was flung open

and 'what to my wondering eyes should appear

but my darling daughter and two grandchildren dear!'

With camera still in hand I said wait and let me get a picture,

because, in spite of all the beauty I've seen so far today,

this tops it all!

Needless to say, my heart over-floweth with wonder and gratitude!

Psalm 24:1
The earth is the LORD's, and the fullness thereof, 

the world and all who dwell therein.

Storm-stoked...

 When I started writing this poem the snow was still held at bay,

but the winds have escalated and begin to add substance 

to the forecast of a big storm today.

The sky hangs low with unshed snow

The wailing wind begins to blow

Into each crevice, crease and nook

The vines that drape the boist’rous brook

Rattle; summer’s skeletal trace

Like scattered spools of tangled lace

Or ink-stains from a stoppered sea

That spilled vague strains of poetry

Still waiting to be recognized

By brittle frond and sprig disguised

The grumbling gale bullies the bush

And rakes the woodland’s solemn hush

A hoodlum looking for a fight

Harassing everything in sight

It storms the streets and marketplace

A hunter eager to give chase

To any unsuspecting prey

Not battened down or tucked away

So hang onto your hat, my friend

Or you may not see it again

The wind-chill seeps through walls it seems

And wakens simple fireside dreams

It makes the courtier of books

Content in modest, nested nooks

Where wanderlust’s tug is assuaged

Twixt sips of tea and turn of page

And everywhere we wish to roam

Does not compare to home, sweet home

Where paper ships on paper seas

Transport us anywhere we please

So, let the weight of lowered height

Burst through barred gates in white o’er white

White petals and white butterflies

White diamond-studded stars and sighs

White whispers on a white-washed path

White garnish on white aftermath

Unbroken save the curlicue

That spirals from the chimney flue

Or here and there a little bird

By ruffled feathers undeterred

© Janet Martin

Wonder Upon Wonder

 I eyed a fog-enshrouded woodlot this morning, wondering what wonders I was missing 

as I scrubbed dishes left from a belated family Christmas dinner on Saturday night
that were piled out of sight quickly so we don't waste
precious little all-together time scrubbing pots and pans.

It motivated me to get a move-on with the day's Musts then carve out a bit of a nature-soak!

The handiwork of Nature is a phenomenal glimpse of its Creator!
Sometimes a person just needs to get a closer-up look rather than a longing-distant stare!

Come, stoke the embers waiting to burst into wonder’s flame

Make the most of Today ere it returns from whence it came

Don’t wait but seek out mercy’s extra-ordinary gifts

Before the day like silver thistle seed on echoes drifts

Don’t pine for summertime while winter spills its glory-hours

While wood and fallow beams and gleams with strange, exotic flow’rs

Too soon these ties that cannot bind us long right where we are

Will flutter like an oriflamme of mist or falling star

Then let the loving kindness from the Giver of Today

Fill us with so much wonder that it steals our breath away

Because we feel like honoured guests invited to a ball

Where God rolled out a welcome mat across a worldwide hall

How happy is the heart that leaves to God matters of trust

And bears in mind how brief the wick that winks with dust-to-dust

Humbled to find amidst the grind of duty’s grand employ

Sweet wonder upon wonder until want thunders with joy

© Janet Martin

Psalm 40:4-5

 Blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, 

who has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.

 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.

... who does great and unsearchable things, 

wonders without number.

Job 5:9