Mother to Mother

Tis a universal bond

We share with each other

A non-scripted empathy

Mother to mother

This bond is tempered

With blood, prayer and tears

It threads across oceans

And borders and years

It clutches our pulses

We know each other

Through the beautiful angst

Of being a mother

Mutual devotion

Bent on love’s greater good

As we share the bond

Of motherhood

Tis a common bond

We understand each other

In a universal kinship

Mother to mother

© Janet Martin

To June

You,

of seamless azure awning

and clover-dappled field

Of wild-flower spawning

in copious yield

You,

of ravishing verdance

in opulent jade

sprawled on a landscape

of sunlight and shade

You,

who rolls out summer’s carpet

in splendor supreme

and ten-thousand textures

And palettes of green

You,

Stage to the a capella

mourning dove minuet

Maestro to the sparrow

and meadow-lark duet

You,

of strawberry indulgence

and bronze, barefoot bliss

Of back-wood rendezvous

and lingering kiss

You,

who flings open

the coveted door

to earth’s glorious garden  

and summer-sweet shore
...we love you

© Janet Martin

Labor-pains

When they tell us it’s over

It’s a girl; it’s a boy

We are about to discover

As virgin joy

Washes our faces

Our new daughter or son

That it will never be over

It has just begun

The labor of love

The ebb and flow

Of white-knuckle clinging

And letting go

Is a sacred experience

Simple word cannot grasp

We teach them to fly

While we cradle and clasp

I close my eyes now

As I strain to recall

The curve of your face

When you were so small

And all those thought pictures

I sealed in my heart

Have somehow grown blurry

In love’s ceaseless art

I trace you again; hungrily

Time is a foe

Pulling you from me

But I’ll never let go

For holding is not

A physical grip

I hold you even

As from my arms you slip

The call of life

Is like no other

It tugs love’s off-spring

From the arms of a mother

And this is the way

It surely must be

We cannot remain

On our mother’s knee

Yes, when they tell us it’s over

Childbirth’s groaning and pain

We are about to discover

It never will be again

For this travail of agony

And heart-wrenching bliss

Is a life-long embrace

Of love’s farewell kiss

© Janet Martin

Elusive Attribute

Image Source:  quotespicture.org
 

If we try to possess it

It is instantly gone

This special attribute

God’s grace shines upon

Those who achieve it

Kindly, gently show it

But the reason they have it

Is because they do not know it

Most beautiful, are they

Of all humanity

Because God’s grace shines upon

Humility

© Janet Martin

But he gives more grace. Therefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble. James 4:6

Thursday Thoughts on Prayer

Through valleys

Over mountains

And oceans of air

I reach out

To touch you

With my prayer

Wherever you go

My dear daughter and son

I want you to know

You can never outrun

My prayers for you~

Chase your dream

If you must

Place your will

And your trust

In a prayer

My thoughts keep returning to you today

So I fold you against my heart and I pray

A prayer is more than wishful thinking

More than a fretting tear

A prayer is the stair to the doorway of heaven

Straight to our Father’s ear

These are not just words I say

When I lift my thoughts and pray

These are petitions of trust

Rising from a shell of dust

But in this shell He placed His worth

When I received my second birth

Boldly yet humbly we commune

With He who graces earth with June

How fearful would be

This thing called Day

If God did not hear

Us when we pray

There is no such thing

if we earnestly groan

as a prayer too unworthy

to touch His throne

Yes, no, wait

God’s answers to prayer

Are never late

J~

If you read this...I prayed for you today.

Often I whisper a prayer for you

-those who pause here; and I pray

that whoever and wherever

in life you may be

that God will bless you today

 God bless~

 You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you: because he trusts in you. Isa. 26:3

Life's Journey Sonnets

When failure grips the hearts ragged edges

When murderous words have mangled their mark

When grievance builds adamantine hedges

And snuffs from life’s glimmer its lusty spark

When sorrow, heartbreak, and disappointment

Plague with discouragement each in-drawn breath

When temptation threatens discontentment

And we grow weary to the point of death

Still, there is simply one thing we can do

Trust God, step by step to carry us through

***

It is not ours to give up and quit

Life’s moments come from God’s grace, not from man

We cannot escape what He has deemed fit

Nor can a man reconstruct Master-plans

But it is ours to forgive and forget

Though oft yet we err and stumble and fall

Wisdom is gleaned from the hand of regret

Grace without patience is no grace at all

It is God who gives and who takes away

It is ours to live, love, to watch and pray

***

When heart-linings bleed with love’s agony

When distance is mapped by unspoken thought

When faith is the mile that we cannot see

As all the things hoped for seem endlessly sought

Still, even then we cannot lay it down

This weight that besets us with torment and grief

Tis he who endures that will win the crown

And so we cry, ‘God, help my unbelief’

This is life’s journey, to be strong in the Lord

Rich is the inheritance of reward

 © Janet Martin

 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 2 Tim. 2:3 KJV

It was so much fun to watch the Stanley Cup celebration's and rejoice with them after all the hard work, set-backs, etc.

It makes me think of life...to win we cannot quit.

Permanent Luggage

When children leave home
They leave most of their 'stuff' behind
But what they carry with them
They carry in their mind

And no matter where life takes them
Or where on earth they roam
The luggage they will carry
Are their memories of home

Janet~

Memories...luggage we cannot easily discard.
Make today a good one.
J~

The Journey of a Moment

From moments
to memories...
God, remind us of this
so it will be a pleasure
to reminisce

From moments
to memories
God, open our eyes
to the value of moments
so we may be wise

From moments
to memories
Both joy and regret
God help us remember
But teach us to forget...

Janet Martin~

If we refuse to redeem time wisely
It is possible
for breadth of thistledown
to crush us...

Memories

They adorn phantom stages

They breathe on night’s breeze

Turning invisible pages

Into memories

 

As we weep on a coffin

I thank God for these

For they comfort us often

They are memories

Parting can be heart-rending

But through grief’s agonies

We have the tender blessing

Of memories

Now we hold a moment

How precious are these

Seeds; for they grow into

Memories

© Janet Martin

Let's make today
a good memory!

Counting Lessons

We could count our sorrows

But tell me, what would we gain?

For the blessing of tomorrow

Often sprouts within the rain

So we should count our blessings

For we cannot really know

The depth of their conception

Or the Stream from whence they flow

© Janet Martin

The sun smiles in puddle-mirrors

After a Rainy Night in June...

The woods, veiled  in the distance

Crowns the border of the land

The earth; refreshed and glistening

‘Neath the Giver’s gracious hand

Where pastures, parched and pleading

Longed for nectar, pure, divine

Emerald fields ripple with promise

Replenished by heaven’s wine

The heart, veiled with the body

And the body, fresh from sleep

Have relinquished yester’ sorrow

For it is not ours to keep

But the hour pleads with Promise

And we dare not dance in vain

So we drink the Spirit’s nectar

Replenished by holy rain

The border of the hour

Is a phantom consciousness

Yet we recognize the Power

Whereby it is lent to us

The known, veiled in the distance

By a mist of vast unknown

Draws our hearts from fear’s resistance

To the footstool of His throne

© Janet Martin

His Word to the believer

Is what rain is to the earth

This is the day the Lord has made,

Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Ps. 118:24  

Rainy Night in June

Tonight the screen is heavy
with  warm,silver tears of June
The wind weeps; melancholy
a low and mournful tune
over the darkened pasture
and through my rain-swept heart
where I hold you to me, darling
while we are far apart

Tonight the sky is a hollow
without border, base or breadth
Its blackness seems to swallow
The wee, winsome drop of earth
Tonight I cannot hold back
the tears that fall like rain
And so I hold you closer
Until we will meet again

I feel your soothing whisper
Cool the longing on my skin
I hear our tumbled music
Soothe the aching deep within
I taste our salty teardrops
As they sweep thought's vague rampart
Oh, who knew that an ocean
Could be held within a heart?

J~

Thank-you for Calvary

Jesus said, “It is finished.” John 19:30

When I think of my weakness

And how lost I would be

I cry thank-you Jesus

For Calvary

When I think of my wretchedness

And my vast need

I cry thank-you Jesus

For Calvary

When doubt and despair

Seek to over-whelm me

I cry thank-you Jesus

For Calvary

When I see myself

Bound for eternity

I cry thank-you Jesus

For Calvary

© Janet Martin

 When He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” ²⁵ In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. 1 Cor. 11: 24-26

Right on Time

You guide the seed on the wind, Lord

You see the place where it rests

Give us discernment of mind, Lord

Help us to plant our best

You teach the seed how to grow, Lord

We simply water and wait

There is much we do not know, Lord

But we know you are never late

© Janet Martin

Perfect Order

The vibrant bloom is drooping

And my pulse is charged with grief

As I see the quiet workings

Of a stealthy, subtle thief

As sure as spring turns into summer

And the summer turns to fall

Is the fair and fleeting favor

Of life’s youthful madrigal

Soon its eager glow is ravaged

By the pilferage of time

Soon the bud of blossomed beauty

Succumbs to the season’s rhyme

And the flower weeps its petals

Back to earth from whence it came

Leaving nothing but its memory

And the whisper of its name

Yes, the vibrant bloom is drooping

Man cannot dissuade the course

Or design of nature’s order

Nor the Hand beneath its force

To everything there is a season

And a time for every plan

We cannot thwart God’s perfect reason

For we are simply…man

© Janet Martin

I noticed that the peonies are beginning to die and something akin to grief stirred in me to realize another year of peonies is quickly passing...

Eccles. 3:1-8

Isa.55:8-13 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.
¹⁰ As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire

  and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
¹² You will go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
    will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
    will clap their hands.
¹³ Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
    and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
    for an everlasting sign,
    that will endure forever.”

Equality's Behoovement

All flesh and blood is equal

In the eyes of its Creator

There is no person lesser

Nor is anybody greater

The filament by which we’re formed

From Adam has not varied

Dust we are; to dust returned

As lifeless shrouds are buried

And if all flesh is equal then

Does it not thus behoove us

To love fully our fellowmen

Before Time’s Hand removes us

Dust we are; to dust returned

A humble proclamation

Befitting us for but one thing

Love, without reservation

© Janet Martin

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Romans 12:3 NAS

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Phil. 2:3 KJV

Flesh and Blood Compassion

When flesh and blood lies bleeding

Farewell thoughts against the sky

Away, away from loved ones

They weep out their last good-bye

When freedom’s price is blood-bought

With a brother, daughter, son

Our grief is universal

And our teardrops flow as one

When freedom’s charge is gathered

Again…again… again

We see, not nation or color

But simply women, men

With flesh and blood compassion

We plead out to God above

To comfort those who sorrow

For the ones they dearly love

When freedom’s price is blood-bought

Charted ramparts disappear

For in death we all are kindred

And our sorrow is a tear

© Janet Martin

Written in memory of four French soldiers killed yesterday in Afghanistan

My tears and prayers are for civilian victims as well.

Hello Megan. First, sorry for my english, I'm French. I often come to your blog because I like so much your tags and stationery (thank you so much for sharing them with us), and tonight I happened to see that post for Memorial Day. Yesterday, 4 french soldiers died in Afghanistan (I hope your poem is also for other countries fighting for freedom and not only the US). My brother, who is in the military, will be there in a few weeks, so thank you for that post. Thank you for sharing this also.
Louise

Thank you for sharing with us all ~ and impacting lives around the world...

How We Love Thee

Where wild phlox crawls in purple rivers

And azure seas of noon-tide gleam

On green fields rolling to forever

Beneath the sun’s coronal beam

Where butter-cups gold-vessel splendor

Pools on bluffs, on banks and hills

And our shadows, long and slender

On the twilight hour spills

Where the willow’s wanton weeping

Tunes the midnight’s moody moan

Where December’s stream lay sleeping

Now it laughs on mud and stones

Where the strain of sunset vesper

Lingers on the trembled hush

As the stain of heaven’s grandeur

Falls in mercy from its brush

Where the nail-hook says ‘gone fishing’

For these drawn-out days are small

Soon the summer heart is wishing

For the hours preceding fall

Where the heart is humbly happy

As the bumbling, tumbling bee

Imbibed with heady lupine-nectar

Fairest June, how we love thee

© Janet Martin

Sunday Whirl

Like Water...

The truth is

A little like

Water

We cannot

Dilute

Dissolve

Or drown it 

Janet~

Poetic Bloomings Prompt: Water

The Intangible Corrosion

There are finger-tips

Not of skin

But oh…the touch

There are kisses

Not of lips

But oh…the desire

There are wanderings

Not of footprints

But oh…the destinies

There are oceans

Not of water

But oh…the drowning

J~ 

 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 1 Cor. 10:12

Of What Remains

Sometimes when the sky is full of night

and the wind slumbers

high in the poplar trees

where the song of soft summer rain

haggles the leaves by day…

Sometimes, when the moon is swallowed in blackness

as earth and sky coalesce

in inky nothingness

save for the thickening quiet

blanketing the hour…

Sometimes, when longing could swallow an ocean

and emptiness is full of aching

and aching is full of emptiness

save for a the echo

of what could have been...

Sometimes, then I weep for gladness

and the love of double-edges

for surely fulfillment and need

are the enduring offerings

of what remains

I remember

J~

Days of Grass

As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.Ps. 103:15

Man’s days are as grass

Soon its labor and lust

Returns once more

To coffers of dust

Man’s days are as grass

How fickle the bloom

Soon it decays

In earth’s vast tomb

Man’s days are as grass

But not the soul

It never dies

Though eternities roll

Of Water...

It fills the tear that stings the eye

In raw, unkempt emotion

It weeps in mercy from the sky

And forms the turquoise ocean

It cheers dull nooks in laughing brooks

It crushes as it rushes

Its nectar drips on parted lips

On twilight ponds it blushes

It drenches parched, drought-stricken lands

It floods, it flows and gurgles

It mirrors heaven’s vast expanse

And cools the sluggish turtles

It trickles, seeps, it drowns, it pools

Baptizes re-born sinners

It lures young lads from woes like school

To fish and dream till dinner

It gleams like silver, polished glass

On winter’s frozen shallows

It sparkles on dew-dazzled grass

And tames the dusty fallows

From cups it spills, in rip-tides kills

Too much or none; disaster

In midnight rain its soft refrain

Evokes passion's grandmaster

How cold the grave beneath its wave

But as the sun gets hotter

We tip the jug to fill our mug

And thank the Lord for water, water, water...

© Janet Martin

Written for Poetic Bloomings Prompt: Water, water everywhere

A Few Sunday Morning Thoughts

Who can tally

The measure of a moment

The fool sees nothing

The wise man,

Everything

It is hard to love

On paper

I laid my thought against the air

Soon it was swallowed by the hour

I laid my thought into a prayer

It rests now in God’s perfect power

It is hard to wait

Without faith

No path is so bitter

As the one of resentment

No lap is sweeter

Than that of contentment 

It is hard to

swallow longing

He who envies

Forgets to live

He who is happy

Learns to forgive

It is hard

To hold fast to the right

But it is possible

With His Word as our Light

Are you weary and weighed down with care?

Jesus says, ‘Come,’ do you hear Him?

He may not remove the burdens we bear

But He gives us strength to endure them

 Patience is a hard-fought virtue

it's battle can only be won

as we learn to become second

and make others number one

Beware of Things

They help us forget

The Living Truth

And a crossed stained red

He IS

The Way, the Truth, the Life

Why do we seek to compromise?

A fleeting gasp

Is earth's pleasure and strife

Eternity swallows ten-thousand skies

Janet~

Seize Yours

Seize this Moment

Squeeze it

Twist it

Wring it

Taste it

No, savor

Every vapor

Before it fades away

Wasted

Un-tasted

A shovel of naught

But what could have been

Had action met thought

So seize this moment

It is all we can clasp

Not past

Nor future

But one transient gasp

Threaded to the next

Of valor

Or victory

Or passion perplexed

Of present to history

Weaving a lifetime

From cradle to grave

Oh, seize this moment

It is all that we have

© Janet Martin

Moment of Potential

When all my numbered days have fled

Beyond the sweeping sky

And I awake

Not in my bed

But in the by and by

Then it will be too late for me

To love my fellowman

Now is life’s lone opportunity

To do the best I can

We do not live in ages spent

Nor in the mystic morrow

Now is the moment God has lent

To bear life’s joy and sorrow

We dare not pine, with backward glance

To past’s resolute span

Now is love’s rare, redeeming chance

To do the best we can

© Janet Martin

Seize this moment...it is all we have

Easy Street

It would have been easy

To let despair steal

The rest of the dream not taken

It’s hard sometimes

To know what is real

And where we are sadly mistaken

It would have been easy

To let doubt creep in

Subtle as night on the roses

And miss the sound

Of a door opening

As another behind us closes

It would have been easy

To let defeat fall

Not daring to challenge its candor

It would have been easy

To do nothing at all

But look back and forever wonder...

© Janet Martin  

These Past Twenty Years...

Emily asked me the other day what I think about motherhood and can I believe I've been one for almost twenty years...It got me to thinking...

I ponder them slowly, these past twenty years

For they have been like no other

They warned me back then, how fast time disappears

…the day I became a mother

I ponder them tenderly, these past twenty years

Of fulfillment as deep as my yearning

Of mustard-seed faith to combat mammoth fears

Of teaching midst all of my learning

I ponder them deeply, these past twenty years

The paradox of love’s mystic measure

The beautiful agony of laughter and tears

The wonder of life’s painful pleasure

I ponder them thankfully, these past twenty years

So glad that God never forgot me

Gently admonished, through my own scolding and cheers

At how much my children have taught me

© Janet Martin

I Saw Heaven Smile Today...

 Emily, first Birthday.

Emily, 20th Birthday

I saw Heaven smile today

As angels breathed upon my way

For Heaven’s smiles are sent, I think

In little bundles, soft and pink

Perfection, lent to trembling arms

From holy hands above

Yes, Heaven sends its wondrous charms

In babies dear to love

Today I held her tiny hand

And I began to understand

A strange new love, so rare and strong

As I held hands that knew no wrong

Nothing else on this old earth

Could touch it by a mile

For at the moment of her birth

I saw Heaven smile

Yes, I saw Heaven smile today

As pain and anguish fell away

And I know what perfection is

As I caress it with a kiss

For clasped against my awe-struck heart

In form of new-born child

The windows up above me parted

And I saw Heaven smile

© Janet Martin

Written for Emily when she was a baby....20 years ago (did a bit of editing)

Passion and the Fruits Thereof

Image Source: clytie-randomtrash.blogspot.com

Tis a plethora of passions that makes people tick

Be they words or numbers or a hook on a stick

Be it fallow acres waiting to be plowed

Or studying the whims in the mind of a cloud

Someone invented those dear alarm clocks

The curve on the base of a chair so it rocks

A toilet that flushes, better winter tires

And for the technician, multi-colored wires

Whatever we touch in an ocean of things

Is the fruit of a thought that’s been given its wings

Of nuts and bolts, metal, fabric, or wood

Someone declared, ah yes, this is good….(yes, even plastic)

God bless the seeker who chases his dream

Teach us to regard it with thankful esteem

And preserve the pleasure of its delight

Not by addiction, but healthy appetite

Tis a plethora of passions that stirs creature souls

The seed of fulfillment, the setting of goals

Born of inner thirst, need or desperation

The whisper of Passion is the bud of creation

© Janet Martin

This poem was inspired by a number of moments…

Wandering though the mall looking at all the ‘stuff’ and wondering …why?

Mulling over a comment someone made yesterday about an up-coming generation of stupidity because kids are ‘glued to some gadget and they don’t read anymore’…not true for all but WAY too many!

And this morning I suddenly wondered who invented the ANNOYING sound of an alarm clock!

By the way, I love you, you dear person who invented the coffee-perk.

Twilight Soliloquy

I love the way the evening lies

Contented ‘neath the folding skies

And all the memories we have made

Slumber now in history’s shade

I love the cerulean sweep

Luring the eye to lofty deep

And how my thought’s soliloquy

Is amplified on twilight’s knee

I love the roll of evergreen

Meeting the soul of heaven’s gleam

How tugs of love and longing clench

That aching void Time cannot quench

I love eve’s lofty out-stretched palm

Urging our bustling haste to calm

And listen to the vespers sigh

In anthems falling from the sky

I love the way the evening lies

Beneath celestial lullabies

As twilight's tucks night’s edges down

Against the landscapes silver gown

© Janet Martin