Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Go to Sleep, Sonny


What is that sound on the ground, oh Mama?
What is that sound on the breeze?
What is that sound crying outside my window
Weeping through stark, barren trees?
What is that sound underneath my bed, Mama
Tiptoeing over the floor
What is that sound on the roof, oh Mama
And knocking on our back door?

What is the sound on the ground, dear Sonny?
What is the sound on the breeze?
What is the sound that you hear, dear Sonny
Weeping through winter’s bare trees?
I’ve heard the sound that you hear, dear Sonny
I’ve heard its soft, muffled rhyme
It’s nothing at all to fear, precious honey
It is simply the tiptoe of time

© Janet Martin~

Red Footprint Legacy


We are leaving footprints
Though their trace we cannot see
They will take their place upon
The tracks of history

If our soles were painted
In ink, permanent and red
What would be the legacy
Of moments that we tread?

Janet~

 (optional third stanza, a personal journey)

I followed red footprints once
They changed life’s course for me
Because these footprints led me to
A place called Calvary

© Janet Martin

Hey There, Sad Woman...


Hey there, sad woman
Of drawn, pale face
Were you once a maiden
Of youthful grace?

Why has life painted
Beneath your gray eyes
The proof of its sorrow
Without disguise?

What is the history
Sealed into your gaze
That drops as you see me
Study your face?

Hey there, sad woman
I think I know
I was a girl once
Not so long ago…

© Janet Martin

I Choose Words~

There is nothing romantic about numbers
Their equations, correct, concise
Austere and unwavering digits
Tallying the madness of life

This is why I choose words
There is no right or wrong
On how to weave these lines and curves
In poesy or song

Words transform an empty page
To wisdom, humor, sonnet
Fact, fantasy;  an open stage
To pour love's soul-blood on it

Its nuances original
Silk, satin, ragged, rough
Its messages subliminal
Or random ‘off-the-cuff’

They transport us from wooden chairs
To portals unexpected
Words are the glorious medium where
The dead are resurrected…

…and as we ponder o’er old ink
The bleeding of the ages
Pours into our hearts the drink
Of vagabonds and sages

This is why I choose words
For I am completely astounded
At how twenty-six letters leave hearts stirred
And utterly dumb-founded

© Janet Martin

...so YES! Go ahead, pick up a pen
and make something beautiful.

The only time numbers have the power
to steal my breath or stop my heart
is in unexpected bills...






Temporary...

These things never last very long
A delicious moment melting on our tongue
Sticky hand-prints on polished window pane
Perfunctory tasks performed again and again

These things never last very long
The melody of our favorite song
The ache of missing you lodged in my throat
The chill of the fall, winter’s supine overcoat

These things never last very long
Soon frailty overtakes the strong
And the only surety we have
Is death; and what exceeds its grave

These things never last very long
How brief the faring of the young
But death, oh death, infinite sea
A wee breath, then eternity

Eternity goes on and on
Who can escape it; there are none
But God's great love, opens the way
Beyond the closure of that day

© Janet Martin

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!
How often would I have gathered your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
and you would not! Matt. 23:37


 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! 
How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! Romans 11:33








The Spell of Midnight Sonnets

When dull and dreary fetters of broad day
Relinquish their command in blue-tongued sighs
When rudiments of failure slip away
Dissolving in vast, velvet-throated skies
Where present-tense in brief, laconic gasp
Expands the ageless crease of history
And this small day is clenched within the grasp
Of what is done and never more will be
I bow my head; for lessons still unlearned
In open-handed chances I have spurned

***

The spell of midnight holds a fearless mirror
And yet I’m drawn to gaze into its glass
Although reflected folly is much clearer
In the dark; than on noon-tides sun-kissed grass
I am inclined to crumble in despair
Repeated follies are a bitter lot
And in the judgment of night’s onyx air
I cower ‘neath the gavel of my thought
But then I bow my head; tears cleanse my face
I have no need to dread, because of grace

***

Of grand and glorious offering, I have none
And to disguise my empty-handed shame
Is but to multiply and thus condone
My heedlessness for which I bear all blame
The accusations which distress the dark
Would rule in favor of the plaintiff’s cry
But wait; the spell of midnight light’s a spark
A glimpse of hope pierces the dark-robed sky
I bow my head in trite, penitent prayer
God’s grace revokes my sentence of despair

© Janet Martin

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

How Does a Mother Say, 'I Love You'



...and how does a mother say I love you
in a language they understand?
Why, with cookies, of course!

Symbols of Love


We choose red wine, dark chocolate, a rose
Candle-light dinner, music, new clothes
We choose things of comfort and sweetness too
Gifts from the heart to say, ‘I love you’

He chose a crown made of thorns, not the rose
Some nails and a cross are the symbols He chose
Rough blood-stained timber on a darkened hill-side
Crying, “Father, forgive them,” He loved as He died

Janet Martin

I Love You~


For all the things you never say…
…and could
I love you

For all the times you simply smile
Instead of argue
I love you

For all the reasons I can’t think of
For you to love me
I love you

Janet~

If I Should Love You...


If I should love you
In any way at all
It would be
To satisfy
Your discontent
And should a sigh
From your lips fall
It would simply be
A wordless sentiment
Of thoughts that have
No syllables
But spells
In tender smiles
Fulfillment

© Janet~


Love is patient.
Love is kind.
It is not self-seeking…1 Cor. 13


A Lesson in Love

If love has taught me
Anything at all
It is patience.

I do not know
If all things come
To those who wait…

Perhaps, we merely
Exchange what we are
Waiting for

In hope’s that it will
Arrive before
It is too late.

Janet~

Who Can Explain Love? a re-post

Who can explain love?
This thing we give and give
Yet can never give too much of
Or get enough…..

It is not a mere emotion
For emotions rise and fall
While love serves with devotion
Standing faithful through it all

Who can explain this four-letter word?
Leaving us most intensely stirred
Evoking within us life’s greatest pleasure
And deepest pain
Yet, it seems we love without measure
And it is impossible to love in vain
Though we may love and lose….
We love again

There is none so rich that he does not need it
And none so poor that he cannot have it
Love’s stores are never depleted
Yet useless if we try to save it

In love we hold, kiss and embrace
In love we let go as tears cover our face
In love we leap, in love we fly
In love we live, in love we die

Who can explain love?
This many-splendored desire
Mild as a cooing dove
Wild as a raging fire
Solid as a rock in the ocean
Yet soft as the mist on the sea
Is there any who can explain it?
This splendid mystery

Janet~

A Sonnet of Barred Shutters and Storms


Pale whispers sweep the dark to hidden shores,
Staid expectation murmurs on its lips,
but we have drawn the shutters, locked the doors,
Time will not dictate our fingertips,
for I must make a study of your eyes,
tracing the future of unfettered bliss
While yearning resonates in muted sighs,
I hunger for the flavor of your kiss.
Too long the regimental tick of clocks
has orchestrated the release of locks

Longing shatters the dam of rigidness;
The beauty of familiarity
enriches passion’s unrestrained caress,
Outside the day assumes normality…
…here oceans swell in unrequited fire
of flesh and blood; white horses of the sea
spawn unbridled indulgence and desire
We crown the pinnacle of ecstasy
while merchants, bound by meagerness of dust
redeem their petty dollars for its lust

Pale whispers escalate, intensify,
A quickened urgency ignites the calm
in raging rivers crashing from the sky
as heaven spills its timbre on earth’s palm.
Outside the servant treads toil’s beaten path
and dreams of recompense with glist’ning brow,
while here, we revel in the aftermath
of foaming tides receding from earth’s prow
The sky resumes a sleek, unwav’ring blue
We kiss away its salty residue

© Janet Martin

Happy Valentine's Day

Today's prompt: write a love poem or sonnet without using any terms of endearment or the word 'love'.







Monday, February 13, 2012

Reasons Enough

If He who spoke Light into being
And set Time’s wheels in motion
If He, who broke the curse of sin
And filled the cup of oceans
If He who gives for all we take
His mercy in each hour
If He who lives beyond the grave
And stirs from bud, the flower
If He who knows our inner heart
And every thought that passes
Yet still bestows celestial art
And seasons on earth’s grasses
If He who IS and ever was
Loves us with timeless wonder
Is this not reason then enough
To love thus, one another?

© Janet Martin

God Loves Us...


God loves us
This is reason enough for living
And it is thus
That we have any love at all worth giving

God loves us
No because we are naughty or nice
But because
We are His children bought with a price

God loves us
In spite of ourselves and what we do
And it is thus
We ought to love one another too

© Janet Martin

No Leap of Serendipity...


It is not by some leap of fortune or fate
That we become who we will be
But moment by moment our conduct creates
Character, personality

Think well, my dear child on the words that you speak
Habits are formed unaware
A person is born neither mighty nor weak
Life turns us to faith or despair

Think well, father, mother, as we live, laugh, love
It is in brief moments we teach
A small child is watching, the fruit of our thought
And action is stronger than speech

Life is not a leap of serendipity
We become who we are when we’re old
Thus we ought to consider more earnestly
The worth of each moment we hold


© Janet Martin

A needful reminder this morning prompted these thoughts...
We are becoming who we will be...so be carefully.




Sunday, February 12, 2012

On Valleys

To remain in the valley is simply to see
Suggestions of sun-rise or set
Put one foot in front of the other, my dear
Past all of the pain and regret

Life is too short to miss what is seen
As we climb up, above its dirt wall
Valleys are simply the downs in between
The ups making life worth it all

© Janet Martin




Lost... Teddy-bear

She has the heart of a mother
to love every child the best
and if one of them has wandered away
Her heart simply cannot rest

Janet~

All she wanted for Christmas that year was
a 'pople teddy-bea' ' and so we hunted until we found one
and she named him 'Purple'. That was nine years ago...
Purple is missing!
How does someone who has twenty bears miss one?
Why, the same way a mother misses a child, I am sure!
The house is plastered with 'lost' posters.
But he has not been found....yet.
We are eager to find him to see what the reward is:))

p.s. Tomorrow I must find Purple...tonight there were reals tears! she is going to be 11 in a couple of weeks but I don't think she is going to outgrow Purple for a long time!

Where Does Lost Love Go?


Where does lost love go?
Is there a resting place
For all those tender words of love
I spoke against your face?

Where does lost love go?
I have not wandered where
The tombstones read ‘here lies love lost’
In graveyards of despair

Where does lost love go?
Perhaps it tunes the moan
Of midnight’s February wind
As I listen, alone

© Janet

Sunday Whirl #2


I hover between yes and no
like customers contemplating a
supposed bargain.
An interview with you
is an alluring thought
but the vulnerability it suggests
arouses visions
of complete defenselessness.
Ransacked emotions
are no small matter
and to trade confidential details
while staring into eyes of beguiling charm
is sure to blur my better judgment.
Through the fog of latent desire
I hear the wind weeping in the belt
of walnut and birch trees, leaves shimmering,
silver-green stickers against shadowy back-drop
of a voice, not unlike my own whispering yes, yes, yes.

J~

Apartment for Rent



Searching customers
Hooked on its charm
Visions of escape
With a shot in the arm...

...a weeping school-girl
An interview with hate
A confidential suggestion
A desperate trade

Ransacked apartment
Belt round her throat
Fog blurs her vision
And her last hope

‘Say-no-to-drugs’ bumper sticker
On the landlord’s mini-van
Sign in the window says
‘Apartment for rent’

© Janet Martin




Saturday, February 11, 2012

Death


When we exhale our final breath
Where will we waken in our death?
Young or old, rich or poor
All must pass through the same door

***

If God should open up our eyes
Revealing where our treasure lies
Would we find gems that cannot rust?
Or simply trophies made of dust

***

We pass this way but once
Unalterable truths remain
Grace is free; and we will never
Pass this way again

© Janet Martin

We have a plot of grave-stones next to our property ...
Wow, I wonder at the life stories buried there. It is from the era of the Civil War and a decade or two after.
Did you notice how young they are?
Death is no respecter of persons~

Intoxication of Moonlight

Yes, yes, she whispers
Deep beneath amber moon
Alas, the cold morning
Arises too soon

Limelight is not green
And to bask in its glow
Is like building a dream
On a sparse flake of snow

The intoxication
Of moonlight on your sigh
Is almost as powerful
As the tear in your eye

Wants and wishes
Are two shades of gray
I wish the moonlight
Would last through the day

J~

Painful Satisfaction



I could feign indifference
But what good would it do
To reconcile my mind to breathe
Without the thought of you

The shallow end of living
Lies among the puddles where
No sudden gales of longing
Sweep the heart from moonlit air

I could feign emotions
Walk the stringent law of word
But I prefer the oceans
That the thought of you has stirred

J~

Friday, February 10, 2012

Ark of Safety


Upon the shores of grace we stand
Where Time and Mercy plead
Before wrath’s flood will wash earth’s sand
Into eternity

The ark is built; the door ajar
And whosoever will
May come into its sure stronghold
Before Time’s clock stands still

As in the days of Noah; now
Because of unbelief
The Master waits; lengthens the hour
Before sin’s final grief

Today He pleads and suffers long
He beckons to each mortal
Eternity lays in His palm
Trembling on heaven’s portal

As in the days of Noah, He
Implores, yearns and beseeches
For this last Ark will not return
When He closes its reaches

Upon the shores of grace we kneel
Oh, how long will He tarry?
Before the door of Mercy seals
The seeker from its safety

© Janet Martin

This morning the little guy I babysit and I were looking at view-master reels. One reel was Noah’s Ark. One picture caught my breath…the last two animals…turtles,(cute:) were through the door and it was closing, never to open on this side of the flood.

Now we see another door, still open. When it will close, not even the angels know. Only the One True God…I AM knows the day and the hour...


Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,” behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION” 2 Cor.6:2

Because It Is Friday


Because it’s Friday
I will be seduced
By the long moment stretching
Beyond the window-pane
Where somewhere
Your feet
Are finding the trails
Ever leading
Home

Because it is Friday
I allow your whisper
To draw me from rigid details
Just to languish frivolously
In the rushing thought
Of your fingers
Rousing possibility
As unpolished stutters
Murmur a wanton
Reply

Because it is Friday
I will not dissuade
Tattered intentions
From washing up on unseen shores
Because it is Friday
And somewhere
In life’s trampled grasses
Hearts soar
Because it is Friday
Once more

© Janet Martin

Contemplating Moments from the Bank of a Brook


They hover momentarily
Infinite breaths of possibility
Before slipping over the edge
Joining the rush of weightless centuries
Past

Inexperience begins its lessons
In a fresh generation
Of eager-eyed adolescence
Greedy with desire to experience
Life

…and all I am able to do
Is marvel at our ability
To repeat its bitter mistakes
Even with history’s mirror of
Consequence

© Janet Martin

Manifold Mystery


What is the loveliness
You keep on your lips?
What scenes lay behind your closed eyes?
What do you ache for
In clenched finger-tips
What tunes your unspoken cries?
What draws your laughter?
What stirs your soul?
What weeps from inclines above?
What spawns the longing
That curses this world
Oh, do you think it is love?

***

What causes Him
To grant one more day
To a thankless and erring race?
What shapes His patience
Toward rebel-slaves
Addicted to sin’s vile disgrace
What tunes the mercy
That wakens the dawn?
What stirs His might from above?
What fills the vastness
Of centuries gone?
Oh, do you think it is love?

***

What forms desire?
Or then what fulfills it?
What is this double-edged sword?
What inflicts a wound?
But oh, then what heals it?
What is both race and reward?
What rends the heart
Like a lightning bolt
And yet is gentle as a dove?
What is this
Manifold mystery?
Oh, do you think it is love?

© Janet Martin



What is the loveliness
You keep on your lips?
What scenes lay behind your closed eyes?
What do you ache for
In clenched finger-tips
What tunes your unspoken cries?
What draws your laughter?
What stirs your soul?
What weeps from inclines above?
Beyond the longing
That curses this world
Oh, do you think it is love?

***

What causes Him
To grant one more day
To a thankless and erring race?
What shapes His patience
Toward rebel-slaves
Addicted to sin’s vile disgrace
What tunes the mercy
That wakens the dawn?
What stirs His might from above?
What fills the vastness
Of centuries gone?
Oh, do you think it is love?




But You Stayed...


…but you stayed
All soft and warm against me
In the promises we made
While Time and distance
Spread their ware
you stayed
against me in a prayer

J~

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Beneath Winter's Flaxen Moon


We walk the frost-tipped eventide
On aisles of snow-bent grass
And crooked trees stretch shameless; wide
Their naked wantonness
The low moon falls against the lawn
Where frozen puddles lie
As twilight deepens its blue yawn
Inhaling remnant sky
It fans its thoughts on deadened air
And bends the earth into a prayer

Your breath is summer on my skin
Your fingertips, a hearth
Your lips, shaped in a soft half-grin
Bring heaven-thoughts to earth
The disrobed trees in clumsy truth
Our hidden wants descry
You take my longing in your mouth
And peel away the sky
The moon its subtle vesture spills
In silver blankets on the hills

The wind, a drifting troubadour
Croons a slow melody
It sweeps across night’s gleaming floor
In gallant chivalry
The little breadth of toil and tears
That stole away the noon
Dissolves like hazy yester-years
Beneath the flaxen moon
But we are not aware of things
As beggars taste the wine of kings

J~






Sun-down...



All day it hung
A polished orb
In heights of azure mirth
Til swiftly
and so silently
it fell beneath the earth
A fire-ball
of burnished orange
yet without much ado
it simply slipped
behind the woods
soundlessly out of view
All that it forgot to take
was a pink and purple lake...

Janet~

I intentionally waited to go for my run until sun-down.
I'm glad I did. The sun fell away in minutes
leaving a pink and gold wash in the atmosphere
before the blue twilight stole it away.

Best Day Ever


Let’s live our best day ever
It’s the only one we’ve got
Let’s give it back to the Giver
In every deed and thought
Let’s rejoice in each little moment
And not let it fritter away
With pining and fretting and torment
Over fear of ‘come what may’

Let’s live our best day ever
Drink in the morning sun
Or if the sky is a river
Let’s thank God for mercy shown
Without debating and doubt

Let’s live our best day ever
Yesterday cannot return
To undo those things we’d rather
But oh, from it we can learn
And live the best day ever
For tomorrow holds no guarantee
Let’s rejoice and live it thankfully 

The above link will take you to the source of my inspiration;)

© Janet Martin



Tick-tock


Time...

What is it?
This ethereal surface
on which we spill
spectacular failure
and humble triumph

Tick-tock...

Time,
a sequence of heartbeats
and thoughts
and impulse
 
Tick-tock

It whispers its passage
down transient corridors
to the unknown...

Tick-tock...

...until infinite eternity
unshod by half-breaths
and stolen moments
and the ticking
of forever

© Janet Martin

We Are Beautiful


There is a wondrous beauty
Clothing us from deep within
Beneath the shallow proof of Time
Caressed upon our skin

The mirror does not show the man
Only our mortal face
It graciously conceals the span
Of our vast disgrace

Yet, God in tender love and grace
To all who trust His name
Clothes us with His pure righteousness
In garments without shame

The world may judge our clothes and frown
But they cannot behold
The beauty of a royal gown
Clothing a blood-bought soul

© Janet Martin

I read this verse this morning and was glad.


I delight greatly in the LORD;
   my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
   and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
   and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

 Isa. 61:10

Miracles

He stirs the sod and wooden limb
With miracles uncommon
As earth's four-season diadem
Exalts the God of Heaven

Our willing hands, our humble hearts
He fills with power glorious
And by the wisdom He imparts
We will return victorious

Within the acorn; oak trees wait
Within a drop; a fountain
Within a mustard seed of faith
The strength to move a mountain

Celestial ramparts shout His praise
And cause our minds to wonder
At mysteries beyond those gates
In portals over yonder

Janet Martin

Last night on the way home from my son's hockey game it struck me...
the days are getting longer once again...and Time is getting shorter.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Work-out


On some days
Life requires us to
Push harder
Reach higher
Stretch farther
Bend lower
Run faster
…or much slower
And sometimes
It asks us to
Stand perfectly still
And listen

© Janet

Be still and know that I AM God. Ps.46:10

To all of you who wonder Is She Insane?!

I do not expect anyone to read
every drop of ink I bleed
but each drop falls with a little prayer
that it will find the right heart
somehow
somewhere...

Janet~
  Every emotion we feel is not uncommon. J~

A few more reasons...

“It was when I was happiest that I longed most...The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing...to find the place where all the beauty came from.”
C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold 


 “If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.”
Martin Luther

 “You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”
William W. Purkey

 “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”
C.S. Lewis

 “Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein


and last but not least...

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
Ernest Hemingway

...and so I write.








Regarding Gifts...

How I admire the artwork of others
Whether formed of paint or string
Tapestries, canvasses, pottery, sweaters
Each answers their own calling

I love to knit and paint and weave
But not with acrylic or thread
Each works with gifts that they receive
So I choose words instead

I sift through adjectives and phrases  
Searching for the perfect shade
Blending consonants and vowels
Until a little thought is made

And by the power of ink-swirled letters
Little poems and pictures form
It’s fun to gather them together
Painting solace or a storm

Some words are like cozy sweaters
Knit in a hug to the heart
Words paint all manner of pictures
Vivid airbrushed works of art

I’m glad God gifted His children
Each in their own special way
Whether with cook-books or palettes
or string or clay
With music or camera,
surf-board or pen
He gives, as befits
His gifts to men...
May we give Him our best each day

© Janet Martin



Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 1 Cor. 12:4

God Forbid...


God forbid that I should worship
Temporal gods of clay and rust
Gathering in my groping visage
Treasure-chests of painted dust

God forbid that I should journey
From the cradle to the grave
Only then to find in horror
They are powerless to save

God forbid that I should hunger
In the wantonness of things
Choosing never to discover
Heaven’s sacred offerings

God forbid, as centuries trickle
Through the clouds above a stone
That I should thus remain forever
Bound by gods without a throne

© Janet Martin

Testing one, two, three...


Testing, testing, one, two, three
If all others forsook
Would you still love Me?
And if they would turn
With rocks in their grip
Would you stand firm
As Stephen did?

Janet~


A few years ago I read this poem and saved it.
and never forgot it's challenge...

Perhaps the hands that held the stone
If the truth were really known
That Stephens thought of hope that day
Heaven is just a stones throw away.
(I wonder if I could be such a man) 

anonymous~



Homemaker's Prayer


Lord, bless these walls that we call home
And may it be a place
Where love forgives what others judge
And covers it with grace
Lord, bless the feet that come and go
And if you should see fit
Oh, bring them home at eventide
To gather here a bit
Lord, keep this home within Thy care
And may it ever be
A mirrored hope of portals where
We’ll dwell eternally

© Janet Martin~

I am a stay-at-home mom...
sometimes it feels like I'm always waving to someone
or telling them not to get home too late, or 'be careful'
and always a little breath-prayer to lead them home.

Thank-you God for Your mercies.

Purposed Peace


For all the thoughts we cannot tell
For all the loves we cannot hold
For all the dreams that softly fell
Beneath the sod where death lies cold
For all the grief that loving brings
For all life’s comfort and despair
These are the dear and temporal things
We lift to Father God, in prayer

© Janet Martin

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Room for Me?


Darling, will you always
Make room for me there?
If I should come knocking
Will you pull out a chair?
And if the long night
Is too silent and still
Could I squeeze in against you
And rest there until
The dew on the garden
Or the gold sunlight seeps
Through half-open shutters
Where we lie asleep?
Or should the spark die
On the cold midnight hearth
Will the spark in your eyes
Twinkle softly with mirth?
Will you push aside gladly
Those things that you touch
To make room for somebody
You love so much?
Oh darling, I think
I should die of despair
If I knocked on your heart
And you no longer cared…

© Janet Martin