Willing Winter Away...

Come on winter, we're weary of your fresh over-flowing bowl of Snowflakes for breakfast! 

Can we have golden, honeyed sunny-ohs, pl-e-e-e-ease?

The hierarchy of winter wanes

But will not seal its boreal gate

It dallies on the hungry lanes

Where barren courts of April wait

…for buds to break wide, starry-eyed

And toll the gong of spring-song tide

For hills to don youth’s vernal hue

For hearts to hope with awe anew

For brooks to babble, ripple, run

Freed from ice-grip by kiss of sun

Where by its silver lilt we sit

To watch worlds waken, wonder-lit

And grace the skin of earth with bloom

Birth wells from Nature’s umbral tomb

It swells the limb with green and gold

Where winter-long it wore white cold

Now each tree, like a troubadour

Laughs, full of poetry once more

As hierarchy of Shiver fell

Prey to the brogue of flower-bell

And yellow-zephyr pirouette

...but winter is not willing yet 

© Janet Martin

Disdaining Solid Ground

It seemed so harmless then

The softening of moral ground

Preserved with careful prayer for years

…strange, how with adding a little sand

The secure footing disappears

It seemed so harmless when

Progress replaced Tradition’s ken

Forgetting what ‘they’ built upon

Were more than ideas by men

Now ways once revered are gone

It seemed so harmless when

We misconstrued vast history

And vexed the laws of love

And liberty, and simply being sorry

Is far from being enough

© Janet Martin

To the Trailblazers...That Were and Are

Here is where we live

Where brave hearts fought to free the land

Where we lie and count stars and night

Or dare to dream dreams big and grand

Here is where we live

Their hardship, happiness and need

Cultivated Inheritance

They cleared the fields where we plant seed

Here is where we live

Homes dot the counterpane of years

In towns and countryside, commerce

Conceived by their blood-sweat-prayers-tears

Here is where we live

And place our foot and fingerprints

To circumstance with our response

That soon becomes Inheritance

© Janet Martin

Who, What, Why

The ‘what’ we do is serious, yes

It commands our best try

But even more important than

The ‘what’ is this; the ‘why’

The ‘why’ with which we do the ‘what’

Is at the very core

Of ‘who’ we prove we love and serve

Through ‘why’ we do ‘what’ for

© Janet Martin

Romans 12:1 (KJV) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 12:10-11(KJV) Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Of Love's Humble Joys

I pour ‘more ketchup please’

And pick up toys and toys

And wonder at the common cloth

Of love’s humble joys

I wipe noses and messes

To the music of noise

And ponder the simplicity

Of love’s humble joys

I sing a song and read a book

To little girls and boys

And marvel at the preciousness

Of love’s humble joys

Lord, fit me for the Calling

That each task employs

Fill my days with grateful praise

For love’s humble joys

© Janet Martin