Towards the Unveiling...

 

Image source: deesbbboutique.blogspot.com

Life’s fortune of transient bestowal

Is fragile; joy and grief align

In a never-ceasing turmoil

Oft bereft of clear design

The dividend of trial and trouble

Shrouded in a tear-spun veil

Spurs us on to Hope Eternal

And a Love that will not fail

Who but One can see tomorrow?

Who but One can know the why?

As life’s tears of joy and sorrow

Shape our journey to the sky

Grace sufficient; glorious promise

While we groan beneath the weight

Of love’s cross; pilgrims and soldiers

Bound for heaven’s gleaming gate

…so we hope, not in the offerings

Of this world; no, our sight

Is fixed beyond earth’s meager off-spring

And this battle we must fight

Where someday love’s greatest mystery

Will its grand reason unveil

In the arms of precious Jesus

And His love that did not fail

© Janet Martin

The friends who I have requested prayer for previously need them now like never before. Pray for their safety, for wisdom and trust…

The Wonderment of You, My Love

The wonderment of you, my love

Evokes a glimmer in my eye

And in the dead of winter-dread

I hear a love-song drifting by

Where melody of green-leaf tree

Seduces me as dreams implore

While imminence of bitter winds

Threaten bold outside my door

The wonderment of you, my love

While show-men brag and weak men boast

This flesh-blood veil conceals a grail

Cupping the vaunt that matter most

Intangible, its ecstasy

Indelible its hard-fought gain

Alloy of love’s great mystery

We do not flaunt its sacred pain

The wonderment of you, my love

Though blood of pen may seek to spell

Its fantasy in poetry

It cannot its full fortune tell

For how can word shape oceans stirred

Or speak of things too rare for script

Where rushing tides cannot be heard

Beneath the brush of finger-tips

The wonderment of you, my love

In declarations barely breathed

From depths beneath to heights above

Its utterances are bequeathed

In soft-sigh kiss, in whispered bliss

And in the trembling touch of thought

The wonderment of you, my love

Perfects the void of what is not

 

Janet~

Wonderment

Image Source: http://healthierchoices4u.blogspot.ca/2012/08/kids-and-milk.html

Oh, for a little while

You nurture us,

Dear darling child

With pure lips and dimpled smile

With innocence

In blue-sky eyes

And wonderment

In each new day

Exuberant,

Your wee milk-cup

Holds the world

While we drink up

The wonderment

Of untainted joy

In milk-mustache grins

From girl and boy

Before they fly away

© Janet Martin

 

This New Day...

When nighttime’s clutch yields to the touch

Of soft chartreuse and silver-gray

When ebony tranquility

Unveils the shades of a new day

When morning spills across the hills

We grasp the tools of our trade

As we rejoice with grateful voice

In this new day the Lord has made

When onyx space brims with new grace

And darkness-drenched horizons gleam

As morning light dispels the night

Beneath hope’s benevolent beam

When errors of our tainted love

Into history’s crypt are laid

We raise our voice, praise and rejoice

In this new day the Lord has made

© Janet Martin

No Small Thing

Tis no small thing

To bow before God’s holy throne of grace

Relinquishing our pleas and cares

Into Love’s kind embrace

Tis no small thing

To realize that all we cannot know

Is held in tender nail-scarred hands

By One who loves us so

J~

This week I was reminded on more than one occasion of the miraculous power of prayer.

No, His ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts; His answers are not always visible to our groping understanding, but when they are we humbly cry, thank-you.

Last night, as I knelt to pray before going to sleep I was suddenly, in the middle of something else, struck by an immediate urge to pray for my children’s safety as they come home from their youth-group event. Approx. 5 min. later Emily bursts into my room breathlessly shouting ‘Mom! We could be DEAD! Someone just pulled out in front of me and I screamed and slammed on the brakes! Oh Mom, if it would have been icy somebody would be badly hurt or worse” I asked her where it happened and then I told them how suddenly at that time-frame I was compelled to pray for their safety…!

Today Lord, I pray

For healing to those who hurt,

For comfort to the sorrowing,

For strength to the weak,

Lord, I pray that we may learn

to love one another

as You first loved us,

Lord, touch the lonely

with Your Presence

and be our guide today

I pray

In Jesus' name

Amen

p.s. Emily just came into the kitchen and asked me if by any chance I just wrote a poem about answered prayer:) I tried to read it to her and ended up blubbering, so she read it:)

Walk in the Winter-woods

Maybe it’s the hush as it traces dappled spaces

Dripping from lofty and bare-naked limb

Or the meekness of nonchalant hemlock fingers

Strumming the hour in a reverent hymn

Maybe it’s the absence of mortal creation

In this sanctuary, not made with hands

Where winnowing winds murmur kind, tender mercies

Softening duty’s despotic demands

The nuthatch flits from its tree-hole safe-haven

The language of leaf-song has slipped to the earth

Yet the breeze slides through the turrets of summer

Teasing the silence with evergreen mirth

Maybe it’s the absence of primal persuasion

Here, in the off-spring of Eden’s paradise

There is no clamoring intimidation

Where century-shaped pillars reach to the skies

What is it about a walk in the woodlands?

This beautiful garden bereft of cruel strife

Where shoulders, care-weighted upon our arrival

Are no longer bent beneath burdens of life

Time charts its discourse of four-season struggle

The woods are a glorious four-season reprieve

And perhaps we all would remain carefree children

If we wandered through the woodlands every eve

© Janet Martin

When We Begin to Count our Blessings...

When we least feel like

Giving thanks or

Singing or

Praying or

Rejoicing or

Loving or

Hoping or

Trusting or

Waiting or

Keeping on

We ought to anyhow...

...for when we begin

to count our blessings

we begin to give thanks

to sing and 

pray and

rejoice and

love and

hope and

trust and

wait and

keep on 

keeping on

Janet~

Tug-of-war Tango

Oh, quell this eager, effervescent surge

Kissing my mouth while subtly it steals

Rending my heart while tenderly it heals

Author of love song, lullaby and dirge

Oh still the rampage of this ruthless stream

Luring the child from mother’s pleading eye

Yet, she has prayed her young-ling learns to fly

She will not snuff the splendor of a dream

Oh, quench the fount of moment-melody

May I have one more dance; curve melding curve?

Yet, one half-step is more than I deserve

Passion and pain align intricately

Oh, hold me close, for I cannot resist

The imminence of what is yet to be

And love is such a precious agony

Twixt farewell tears and waiting to be kissed

Oh tease me, tease me not, hold me, let go

I cannot bear, yet must endure its ploy

Of bitter-sweetest misery and joy

Wrought by the tempo of life's moment-flow

© Janet Martin

Waterfall- Jon Schmidt

Most Wonderful Wonder

I wonder

What is my most wonderful wonder

For surely each day reveals wonders anew

But in the end, I am certain, my friend

That my most wonderful wonder

Is loving you

Janet~

Simple Request

 

Oh, do not judge me then

When

I’m still in the middle

Of who

I will be

But

In the meantime

Would you be so kind

As to,

Instead of judging

Simply love me?

© Janet~

Mercy's Bestowal

 Strange, how within an hour the sky can wear so many moods. It rose in bold attire then slipped into nondescript gray.

While dawn is deep

And zephyrs sleep

I sense the waning of its will

Beyond the globe

Night's rigid robe

Begins to melt from eastern rill

The cobalt hue

Of slumb’ring blue

Softens beneath the silent urge

Of amethyst

And lilac mist

Darkness dissolves within its surge

The heaviness

Of midnight’s tress

In wordless wonder slips away

From mercy’s Source

Love’s unseen Force

Bestows to us another day

© Janet Martin

While I was trying to capture the sunrise from my kitchen-window Victoria called to me from the end of the driveway as she waited for the bus 'if you really want to see the sun rise you need to come out to the road' She was right!

It's funny how the view changes when we change our view-point:)

 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. 1 Cor. 4:5

Of Today...Thursday Thoughts

It does no good to hold them fast

…those faded frenzies of the past

For soon the moment in our hand

Will join those monuments of sand

And soon time’s wave will wash away

The offering we call Today

***

…I do not want to short-change the present

By living in the past or fearing what may yet wait

So God, help me to embrace moment-offerings

Lest they fall unnoticed until its too late

***

…then, when the sun leans heavy on the edge of the day

Pink pool on earth’s levee before it slips sway

We will not covet its immutable pull

If we live, laugh and love this day to the full

***

This is a sacred and holy space

Compassionate  offering of mercy and grace

Lavished on us from our Father’s embrace

This is Today

This is not merely a pounding of sod

Or suffering beneath love’s mysterious rod

These are rare moments framed by God

This is Today

This is heaven-tenured opportunity

Intangible torrent sliding to a sea

Fulcrum twixt history and eternity

This is Today

***

No matter what the past has claimed in its clutch

No matter what tomorrow shrouds in folds of gray

We hold everything worth having beneath our touch

In a beautiful present we call Today

© Janet Martin

How will we use His gift?

This holy place where we dash with soiled feet

in shameless disregard to its Giver…

Lord teach me to live

As you would have me to be

Lord, teach me to serve

With humility

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8

Echoes...

I ask him if he played there

Where the cattails drink the pond

His blue eyes gleam, gazing fondly

To an echoing bygone

With tender smile he sees them

...jolly good times that they had

And I smile, because for a moment

The old man became a lad

© Janet Martin

He told me of the camp-outs, parties, bonfires...
...and how nobody comes here anymore.

 ...once he hung a bird-house,
planted daffodils by the cottage,
listening to the trill of the wood-thrush
Now the air is still, there is a sacred hush
where memories keep
vigil over the grave where the woods-man sleeps

 

Transient Kisses...(sequel to Mon. post; Heaven's Disguised Kisses)

What is will pass
Transient as dew
On a blade of grass
But...
What is will be
The song that tunes
Our memory

Janet~

What is messy today
Might be tidy tomorrow
Life is a duet
Of both joy and sorrow

***
 

About the pics...a few days ago I post some very unglamorous 'kisses in disguise' . This is the messes and their flip-side, because that's the way it is; one moment tidy, the next- a mess...

Melissa, 18 and Victoria 11, share a room. This leads to great conflict when it comes to decorating, so they each have 'their side'...

Matt is a lover of all sports. He LOVES to play any sport, (soccer may be the one he cares for least) His first word was 'ba' (ball). I would put a toy truck in his hand and he would drop it and pick up a ball. Before he was a year old I knew his love. I would pile toys around him and he ignored all of them as he stretched and reached for a ball!! It was so funny.

Emily's room was spared. She does make her bed and sort of puts most of her stuff away. She is also 20:) 

Triumphs of a Moment

Image Source: pinterest

Can our arms embrace a memory?

Can they reach into the past

And retrieve a tender moment

Where its shadow long is cast?

Can lips whisper into being

What has slipped beyond the blue

Where the murmur of the night-wind

Rouses tear-framed thoughts of you?

Can we have within our holding

More than half-breaths as they slip

In vexation, melting softly

Like a snowflake on the lip?

There's no fulfillment in a shadow

Misery and mercy ache

In the vanquishment of moments

And the memories they make

Can our arms embrace the echo

As it drifts from down-cast skies?

...oh, it’s almost like we’re dancing

But I cannot find your eyes

© Janet Martin~

A Little Morning Prayer

© Janet Martin

Of Darkness and Light

( Image Source:http://wallpaperswide.com/let_there_be_light-wallpapers.html)

There is day

And there is night

There is dark

And there is light

From Eden forth

Night-time and day

Chart the discourse

Of mortal fray

…but not so in eternity

For at its boundless destiny

There are two gates; one leads to Light

The other to eternal night

© Janet Martin

This Way...

I cannot walk this way alone

It passes through life’s vast Unknown

Then, beyond its unyielding sea

Lies immortal eternity

I dare not walk this way alone

In life and death I need Someone

To gently guide and comfort me

And know those things I cannot see

I need not walk this way alone

Through suffering of thorn and stone

Through searing sun and howling gale

I need a Hand that will not fail

I will not walk this way alone

Though the Unknown is still unknown

And I cannot foretell its ways

It never passes from His gaze

© Janet Martin

 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deut. 31:8

Of Heart-Holding

When having and holding

Are oceans apart

I feel you whispering

Deep in my heart

Miles are the oceans

Of land, sea and air

Traversed in moments

By one little prayer

J~

The Twinkling Tide

Waves surge, sweeping the sandy shore

Before they wash back out to sea

To break across the coast once more

This is the song of century

On century,

On century

But this is not

Eternity

Ocean's perpetual ebb and flow

Rises and falls incessantly 

As generations come and go

Still plays its haunting melody

From century

To century

But this is not

Eternity

© Janet Martin

Heaven's Kisses

Beyond her kitchen sink

The skies turn pink

Night lifts sable skirts

And slips away

From ethereal space

Long-suffering grace

Succors our hurts

It is a new day

Beyond her reach

Mercies beseech

Rendering hope

Amidst the fight

Out on the east

Dawn spills a feast

Across earth’s slope

It is no longer night

Beyond her window

Out past the meadow

Daylight rends

The muted deep

Gold-gilded kiss

Melts the dark tress

She prays the Lord

His watch to keep

© Janet Martin

Psalms 90:14 - O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Soul-Song

The silence holds an orchestra; its Maestro is our thought

And oh, the tender beauty of its soft, soulful requiem

Fills with an earnest solace the vast void of what is not

And lights the wick that once burned wildly with a daring dream

The sinister employment of our dubious tendencies

Dissolves upon the lilting notes of effervescent cheer

Be gone regret, and all its suffocating memories

The music of this silence weeps a sweeter sort of tear

…it will not pause to flounder in the dismal darkness where

We grapple with the conflict of desire and despair

This Maestro does not paint its smile with pretense or disguise

The measure of its tempo wraps us in love’s true embrace

No digital enhancements, no lip-syncing and no lies

For Thought is the discerner of the man behind the face

And oh, the sweet redemption that we seek for being us

And oh, the fervent longing to be heard and understood

At last spills free into a silence filled with what once was

But is no more; for Thought convicts where no man would or could

My failure and regret would be far more than I could bear

Forgiveness not for others, but for self ignites a tear

…the silence is not shattered as it falls upon my cheek

The Maestro gently nods but does not seek to quell its flow

A melody of grace-proportion fills unfathomed deeps

Its cadence fills the vault from whence the timeless night-winds blow

As mercy not ordained by what mortality deems fit

But from the One that tunes the Maestro in its rendering

Absolves me from a reckoning that flesh cannot acquit

And only in the utterance of full surrendering

Can I at last descry the melody that tunes the soul

As Maestro yields its baton to the One that makes us whole

© Janet Martin

Heaven's Disguised Kisses

Sometimes this...

Does not feel
like heaven's kiss...
...but it is.

'I found myself restraining a great big Monday morning sigh

As its relentless repetition at first glance, held no appeal

But as I studied it more fully suddenly I realize

Heaven-glimpses on earth are real

Mom; aka Janet

A few minutes ago...

Mom: Melissa, please go and tidy your room.

Melissa: Didn't I just do that?

Mom: I wouldn't know...

Sweet, Sweet New Day...

 Today she is modestly clad in frigid gray...

Sweet, sweet new day, what have we done

That you should thus return

With offerings of patient love

Which far too oft we spurn?

Sweet, sweet new day, what do you hold

Within your mystery?

What waits concealed within the folds

Soon shaping history?

Sweet, sweet new day, pure, pristine path

Soon your robe will be rent

Its hem stained with the aftermath

Of pride and passion spent

Sweet, sweet new day, we don’t deserve

Your kind, gracious embrace

Your predecessors bear witness

Of our sad disgrace

…yet with compassion you entrust

Your moments to our care

While we, pilgrim’s of humble dust

Your joy and sorrow bear

Sweet, sweet new day, humbly I pray

You do not come in vain

Sweet, sweet new day, for you will never

Pass this way again

© Janet Martin

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Ps.118:24