The Unknown

Image Source:  abstract.desktopnexus.com

The unknown; an inevitable strait

All voyages pass through

There is no one who can escape

This ethereal avenue

We stand upon life’s open deck

And sail the roving sea

Only our Captain can predict

What the Unknown will be

Fear not the waves beneath the calm

Fear not the stormy gale

The Captain holds within His palm

The ocean and the sail

© Janet Martin

Hi Sasha:) I told you so...

Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

3 You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

4 Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

5 You them me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is high; I cannot attain it.

Psalm 139: 1-6

Wild is the River Flowing...

Wild is the river flowing

Into an ageless sea

From and to where we’re going

...Eternity

Expanse beyond our vision

No mind can comprehend

This vast infinite ocean

Without end

A vapor on its surface

Are all man's days combined

We ought to live with purpose and

With this in mind

…that wild is the river flowing

Into an ageless sea

From and to where we’re going

...Eternity

 Janet Martin

I was just listening to this song and these thoughts came pouring out....

Two Points of View~ wordle #2

They saw a man

Staggering, bloody and torn

Bearing His own cross

He saw a Plan

Hope for slaves of addiction

The broken and the lost

They saw a body

And as dusk fell; death

For the man of sorrows

He saw a destiny

And in Love’s greatest story; grace

For all our tomorrows

They saw the marrow of horror

Unfolding in hate

At Calvary

He saw His perfect Bride

An eternal mate

He heard songs of victory

They saw Him dead and buried

And presumed

The end of a story

He saw death conquered

Redemption and resurrection

And eternal glory

Janet

The Sunday Whirl~

Watching the Sun Going Down

Come; appease my sweet addiction

Of dusk’s hand across the west

For my story of affliction

And of love must pause to rest…

Oh, do not judge my humble staggering

Or the dismal songs I hear

For the sorrows of dreams broken

Are not quickly buried, dear

Come and run your mystic fingers

Through the marrow of my soul

For its mate chooses to linger

Where flesh and blood cannot console

I fix my gaze on molten glory

Gateway to a destiny

Where the postlude of earth’s story

Is a glorious mystery

© Janet Martin

The Sunday Whirl

Shadow Poem-lets

I am content

In the shadow of your love

For your thought in mine

Fits like a glove

***

A shadow may lead

Or follow behind

But it never strays from

The discourse of the mind

***

A shadow sprawled towards the west

Means dawn is crawling from its nest

A shadow lengthened to the east

Means soon another day has ceased

***

A shadow is merely an echo

Of hard matter existence

When your shadow touches mine

I offer no resistance

***

Today the north wind

Jeers and laughs

Tussling tree-shadows

On the grass

***

You and I

Make beautiful shadows

Together

J~

Poetics Aside Prompt: Shadows

Searching for Happiness?

Our search for happiness

Is fruitless and vain

If it is inclined toward

Personal gain

But if we are thankful

And truly content

The search for happiness

Is non-existent 

Janet Martin

Other pastures are only greener

until we get there.

Clandestine Companion

You do not go before me

Or lag, attached behind

But you remain within me

A shadow on my mind

Someday perhaps love’s sunshine

Will melt away your shroud

You clandestine companion

You temperamental cloud

Vainly, I build defenses

Alas, your subtlety

Is woven through my senses

Deep to the heart of me

The shadow of a moment

Has power to remain

Its memory a constant

Reminder of love’s pain

J~

Poetics Aside prompt: Shadows

Of Green-leaf Joy

The still of noon will soon be brushed
With melody of sighs
Though now the park is haunted, hushed
Beneath the warming skies
It won’t be very long until
The oriole, lark and whippoorwill
Their crystal choruses will spill
From green-leaf paradise

…and then the stark and stringent air
And all the quiet cold
Will melt as limbs, budded and bare
Their petal-notes unfold
With rustling joy their hymns caress
The moan of wooded emptiness
In lacy, green-leaf happiness
And whispers fresh and bold

…then they will spread their shadow, glad
Upon the grassy slope
The naked skeleton re-clad
With songs of emerald hope
Beneath their flaunt of lacy limb
And earths refurbished diadem
We revel in the glorious hymn
Of green-leaf calliope

© Janet Martin

Poetics Aside Prompt: Shade/shady

Happy Easter

Come shout the news

His hope proclaim

He is alive

Oh, praise His name

He conquered death

Carried our shame

He is alive

Oh, praise His name

Yesterday, for aye

The same

Alive, Alive,

Oh, praise His name

Janet Martin~

Handel's Messiah: Hallelujah...

That's Not All...

 He came to earth

In lowly birth

Laid in a cattle stall

As shepherd’s came

To worship him

But that’s not all…

From door to door

He sought the poor

The weakest and the small

Healing, reaching

Touching, teaching

But that’s not all…

Throngs spoke His name

His unsought fame

Filled kings and scribes with gall

Gall turned to hate

And vile debate

But that’s not all

With plans well-laid

Judas betrayed

The One of tender call

Disciples fled

In fear and dread

But that’s not all

Beaten and torn

God’s only Son

Was led to Pilates hall

He was released

To human beasts

But that’s not all

Upon a tree

On Calvary

Midst jeers and angry call

They crucified

Love; and He died

But that’s not all

In tomb of stone

Lay Heaven’s own

But earth is far too small

To keep for long

God’s only Son

So that’s not all

And from the tomb

In glorious bloom

Arose our All in all

Jesus fulfilled

God’s perfect will

But that’s not all

His sacrifice

Has paid sin’s price

And saves man from The Fall

He is alive

His grace forgives 

But that’s not all

 

Each one must choose

Accept, refuse

When they hear His Voice call

His love is free

Eternally

That is all

© Janet Martin

John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--

Look at the Cross...(from my Front Porch Poetry Blog)

Look, look at the cross, no, no don’t look away
See love's sacred offering on gruesome display
See the thorns, wicked thorns so humbly worn
By the One who loved all; All the sick and forlorn,
The foolish, the wealthy, all those who would scorn
His dear name; so look at the cross on public display,
Not in some dark corner tucked dimly away
But up on a hill for the whole world to see
Perfect love, awesome love for you and me

Look, look at the cross, at the dear Lord’s face
Bearing the shame of public disgrace,
A face that was spat on, yet knew only love,
The face of a King from a kingdom above,
A face which has power earth and heaven to move
In a whisper; yet on it flow crimson tears
As He weeps, not in pain but in love so sincere
He calls out to His father from upon this tree
The symbol of hope for humanity

Look, look at the cross, at the hands that are bleeding,
Pierced through with nails and yet He is pleading
That man will find mercy in this holy flood,
Forgiveness and hope in a perfect Lamb's blood,
Redemption pouring from the Son of God
His hands stretch out for all to see
That this is He who sets men free
Hands that ministered to man’s most humble need
Have fulfilled their greatest work indeed

So look at the cross, behold the Lamb
The beginning, the end, the Great I AM
Look at his body, pierced and bleeding
Love flowing down for all who are needing
The hope of a Savior, as still He is pleading
Forgive them; and as darkness and thunder descend
His cry is heard through all the land
‘It is finished,” and now there is hope for the lost
If we look at the cross, if we look at the cross...

...and if we look at the cross, at the out-stretched limb,
Behold the blood and the suffering,
If we gaze on His love and the wonder of Him,
Will we think to be saved on that final Day
If we look, turn our backs and walk away?


Janet Martin

Shall I crucify your King? Pilate asked. John 19:15

Red

 

From Calvary’s cross

Redemption bled

And covered our dross

In rivers of red

“It is finished”

He bowed His head

As grace poured freely

In rivers of red

“Oh, look and live”

Hope is not dead

God forgives

In rivers of red

© Janet Martin

NaPoWriMo Prompt: Write a 'color' poem

 "For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven,
making peace by the blood of His cross. " - Colossians 1:19

Song: The Wonder of the Cross

Silver

Silver night

Casts silvery sigh

On the silver shadows

Where willow-limbs lie

Silver oceans

Cover the grass

Where silver moments

Stilly pass

Silver silence

Wrenches the sky

I didn’t know silver

Is the shade of good-bye

…as silver breezes

Offer silver cheer

In a silver world

Through my silver tears

J~

NaPoWriMo Prompt: A 'color' poem

Wordless Conversation Poem-lets

I have held an ocean stirred

in the absence of mere word

and I have melted in the wile

of your suggestive, faint half-smile

***

When Mother starts to look at you

You feel a presence in your pew

As suddenly you catch my stare

And quickly bow your head in prayer

***

He sets his mug down

And looks up

His wife pours

Another cup
Not in compulsion
Or stiff duty
But in the pleasure
Of love's simple beauty 

***

From across the room

Our eyes meet

And only heaven

Can compete

With the blissful

Thought we share

As love and longing

Keen the air

***

His smirk

Sparked her ire

And she saw red

He’s got

The couch now

And she’s got the bed

***

Janet~

Poetics Aside Prompt: Wordless Conversations

And the Winner Is...

Battling now

Two innate desires

To close my eyes now

Or to stoke the fires

While slumber is pleasing

It cannot compete

With the tender-sweet teasing

As word and thought meet

The trickling of moments

The ticking of time

Are the musical meter

Of rhythm and rhyme

So here is the quandary

To sleep or not

But I feel my Muse curving

Against my thought

And I have never

Had the will to resist

The luring endeavor

In a word’s cunning kiss

© Janet Martin

Of Unmarred Shores...

Each morning we step out
As never before
To an untouched day
On an unmarred shore.

The concave of past
Cannot leap for its prey
Or budge from its shadow
So live fully, today

God forgives
And never keeps score
So step out today
On an unmarred shore

Janet~

Authentically 'Us'

Everyone

in the whole

wide world,

can never replace

one you

or 

one I

and there 

will never be

in the whole 

wide world

another you

or

another I

therefore

we ought

never to pretend

to be anyone

in the whole 

wide world

but you

be you

and I 

will be I

Janet~

An 'Almost Nothing'

There is nothing now

But the whisper

Of moments

Slipping over

Blades of grass

And the expanding

Past

Everything

Surrenders

In moments

As Time reclaims

In like-measure

As it gave

-In moments

The power of

A moment

Is unrivaled

Yet it is almost nothing

But the perpetual increase

Of history

As futures decrease

From our first breath

We set sail

On a sea

Of moments

Pouring from

Eternity

To eternity

Janet~

Disillussioned

In the hollow yawn of darkness

Swallowing the dim-lit moon

You lean closer, through the spaces

That are gold and blue at noon

When each vain and visual fragment

Slumbers in the hidden known

Suddenly a keen enchantment

Stirs the midnight’s moody tone

As the lips of recollection

Stir the wanting and the must

But there is no resurrection

For the hour turned to dust

And within imagined having

There is no fulfillment, dear

Or a memory worth saving

In the mercy of a tear

In the hollow yawn of darkness

I can hear the past beseech

Though I lean, I cannot touch you

Over moments out of reach

J~

Interlude...

 (As the moon rose, the fiery ocean in the western sky tinted the east creating a pink-blush moon-rise simultaneously with a flaming sunset; breath-taking, with silence so intense you could hear it!)


Winter has gathered its garments and fled

Gone is its frigid sugar-coated bed

The earth waits in limbo now, caught between

The glamor of crystal and verdant green

In muted stillness the dull landscape waits

While promise trembles beneath earthen gates

Its corridor primed for spring’s grand rebirth

Its lips parted wide to drink heavens mirth

Do you hear a prelude teasing the air?

Tickling the bud and earth's leathery stare

Do you hear the laughter of wee lads and lasses?

Splashing like raindrops on emerald grasses

Solemn beauty weaves a brief interlude

Of spring-tide restrained and winter subdued

Before nature's tiptoe breaks into full run

In showers of flowers and golden sun

© Janet Martin

Hidden Facts~

Hidden by bricks

And shingles and stone

A glimpse of Heaven exists

We call it home

***

Beneath flesh and blood and bone

Is a work of priceless art

Where I keep my precious memories

In the gallery of my heart

***

Beneath the woman

And her pensive gaze

Is the girl and the passion

Of yester’s days

***

It flows forever

Mile upon mile

An ethereal river

Of love, in my smile

***

Hidden in whispers

And words unstrung

Are infinite glimmers

Of poems unsung

***

Beneath life’s heartache

Is a higher hand

Holding the reasons

We do not understand

***

Below the struggles and stumbles

Behind the tear in our eyes

Beneath life’s little troubles

Are the moments that make us wise

***

All you could see

as you walked away

Was the distance

keeping us apart

If you had looked twice

you would have noticed

In your hands you held

My heart

***

Hidden beneath our choices

And the action following thence

Is a single, sure-fire guarantee

Simply called consequence

***

Beneath downy pink and blue blankets
and tiny booties and diapers
and purest innocence 
and laughter
and sorrow
is this...
...hope for tomorrow
 

Janet~

Creator Crucified...for Us

It's been an AWESOME first week of April sky-watch! I took my camera with me every night on my run to capture only a glimpse of His wonder! This is HE who died for you and I. This is the One who loved us so He sent His Only Son, to die in our stead. This is He who sets us Free!

 "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18

Life- Elvis Presley

He's Alive- Dolly Parton

The Power of the Cross 

Our Pet Monkey

She has been known to swing

From limb to limb

But generally

She is somewhere

In

Blue-eyed

Piggy-tailed

Joy,

Cheeks

Bulging blissfully

with

B

A

N

A

N

A

S

© Janet

The girl in the produce section at the super-market

raised her eye-brows at the amount of bananas in my shopping cart.

I quickly re-assured her that we have a pet monkey and her name is Victoria,

and I smiled at Victoria, who was with me…

‘Oh!’ said the girl…and I knew then that she didn’t realize the little girl with me was Victoria.

And I couldn't help but giggle a little, wondering what she was visualizing…

NaPoWriMo asks us to write about an animal today;)

Hidden Hope

The meaning is hidden now…

I know

But you do not long remain

A child

…and our hope

Is to raise

Not a child

But honorable,

Independent

Willing

Hard-working

Contributing

Adults

My dear,

The present is always

Vapor on our fingers

But the future depends

On it

The meaning is hidden now

But what you are learning

Is not for today

But for an eternity of

Tomorrows

Janet Martin

Dad, Mom, the future is in our hands...ever so briefly!

Hidden Art

Poetics Aside Prompt: hidden

Mom, why do we need to learn this? they wail
To learn the art of learning, her reply

God, why do I need to learn this, she wails
To learn the art of trusting, His reply

Janet~

Hidden Ocean

Sometimes I keep hidden

Those thoughts I should let show

The pride I have in my children

And the gift of watching them grow

Oh, they all know that I love them

And often I tell them so

But the depth of it is hidden

In life’s constant ebb and flow

Beneath the holding and scolding

The trial and error of youth

I see the future unfolding

And past’s undaunted truth

Time’s swift tumble is hidden

In a volley of laughter and tears

It comes and leaves, unbidden

From moments to hours to years

…passing through my fumbling fingers

Its eagerness I cannot quell

But oft in the evening lingers

A low and bleeding knell

…because sometimes I keep hidden

Those things that I should not

While time speeds by unbidden

On the heels of second-thought

© Janet Martin

…I remember my dad telling me,

‘there is so much I want to say in too short a time’

Often he spoke by the way he lived and I am learning

as I watch my children grow, that what I thought at times was ‘hidden’

was there all along…and suddenly I hear him, not by what he said, but by what he did.

The photo was taken the other night when I insisted that Matt and Tori come with me on my run/walk. The protested vehemently and then ended up having a blast! 
This could be the beginning of a beautiful...habit;)

Poetics Aside Prompt. hidden

Inside the Bud

Under those freckles

And under your blush

Beneath your ‘caught-between’ voice

Of adolescent rush

Inside this bud

Of ruddy tan

I see the stirring

Of a man

© Janet Martin

Poetics Aside Prompt: hidden

Easter/Hope Sonnet

Come; lay your sin-stained burden at His feet

Oh, do not try to carry it alone

He bids us come to heaven’s mercy-seat

Forgiveness pours in oceans from His throne

The way of man is doomed to fear and need

The vile deceiver taunts with poisoned fruit

Brushing his vulgar lies against our greed

Desiring to draw us from Saving Truth

But hark, what rings across earth’s weary field?

“Come;” it is by His stripes that we are healed

When will this endless war and fighting cease?

When will we lay down hate and embrace love?

Oh, look upon love's glorious Prince of Peace

Did He not leave His holy throne above?

To suffer in the place of wretched men

And give His life for all humanity

A ransom for our awful debt of sin

He died; a perfect Lamb, to set us free

How long will we resist Hope's grand appeal?

Come; it is by His stripes that we are healed

The wages of our sinful lust is death

The gift of God is everlasting life

He sealed redemption's plan with His last breath

As ‘it is finished’ lifts us from this strife

Dare we to scoff at such a work as this?

Or break his heart and turn away our eyes?

Dare we to face Him then without His gift

And thus reject eternal paradise?

The day of grace is now; oh will we yield?

Come; it is by His stripes that we are healed

© Janet Martin

Inspired as I listened to Alas, and did My Savior bleed (link in previous post)

³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
   a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
   he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

 ⁴ Surely he took up our pain
   and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
   stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.  Isa. 53:3-5

For the wages of sin is death,

but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

I Don't Understand...

Just As I Am... 

Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed...

I don’t understand

As I look upon

His nail-scarred hands

and thorny crown…

…and as I think how He

put on flesh

so we may obtain

His righteousness…

…or how the perfect

Lamb of God

Left heaven

For this sin-cursed sod…

…or how, when He knelt

In Gethsemane

His thoughts were for

Humanity…

…and how, as He hung

Upon that tree

His cries were still

For you and me…

…or as the spear

Thrust deep, His side

It was still for us

He cried…

…or how, by

Jesus' dying breath

We receive life

Through His death…

No, I don’t understand

Why I receive...

...but this I know

I believe

© Janet Martin

 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith

—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 

 not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, 

that whoever believes in him shall not perish 

but have eternal life. 

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, 

but to save the world through him.

John 3 :16-17

Cause and Effect...

Song: Jesus paid it all

Dear God,

Our hatred causes us to do the unthinkable

But oh, God

Your love causes us to believe the impossible!

Janet Martin

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, 

so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Cor. 5:21

No 'Free' in Freedom...repost

Somberly, up the quiet tree-lined street
The steady stream of solemn ranks are led,
As sun-beams dance to the drummer’s beat
Filtering through the branches overhead
Beyond the tears and past the trees
The music of a small child’s laughter swells
Stark contrast to the infantry
Bowing ‘neath the tolling of the bells

Then, as the bag-pipe sound exalts
The melody of sweet Amazing Grace
The banner-covered coffin halts
For it has reached its final resting place
The last note fades, the cannon flies
Echoing across a distant shore
But none as stirring as the mother’s cries
“There’s no ‘free’ in freedom anymore

Put down your banners, lay down your guns
My sweet baby boy has died
Tributes, salutes, many battles won
Won’t bring him back” she cried
“Take away all the roses for nothing will be
Like it ever was before
The price of freedom is too hard for me
There’s no ‘free’ in freedom anymore”

Freedom (part two)

Up the rocky skull-strewn trail
A teaming, screaming throng of hatred surged
Swarming ‘round a form so pale
Upon a place called Calvary they converged
Beyond the tumult, wild and raging
Not a solitary friend is found
Stark contrast to the shouts and praising
As the palm-tree branches decked the ground

Then as the sound of steel on steel
Rings beyond the horror on the hill
As they drive in each cruel nail
‘Gainst the cries of ‘Father, not My will’
And as they raise the blood-stained cross
In victory the maddened thousands roar
As Mary weeps her deepest loss
“There’s no ‘free’ in freedom anymore

Take away your hammers, lay down your swords
My dear precious son has died”
As the lightning flashed and the thunder roared
There at His feet she cried
“Take away all your hatred, your jeers and chanting
For you have slain my Lord
Take away all your weapons, your raging and ranting
There’s no ‘free’ in freedom anymore”

There’s no ‘free’ in freedom, oh what a price
So that we may be set free
There’s no ‘free’ in freedom, love's sacrifice
Is beyond understanding for me
There’s no ‘free’ in freedom, let us value each day
And cherish each living breath
Oh, what a price someone needs to pay
For the cost of freedom is death

Janet~

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross...Fernando Ortega

Before My Time

I've heard tell

Before my time

Poets revered 

Rhythm and rhyme

Janet~

Poetics Aside Prompt: before our time...
I just couldn't resist this;)

Before Micro-mentality

Before micro-waves, dishwashers

Riding mowers, computers, cell-phones

Before instant potatoes, rice, oatmeal or pizza

Before instant anything

Before gyms to de-stress

Or talk of fitness

 

Before X-box, i-pod, Nintendo

You-tube, game-boy and  500 TV channels

There were twenty-four hour days

Of hard-work…and play

…and front-porches in the evening

With families on them

© Janet Martin

Poetics Aside Prompt:  write a poem about something before your time.