A Love Song to God

 

Who is a God like You? To pierce infinity

And breathe into its darkened void unnumbered galaxies

The eons of Your Arm mere mind cannot contain

Nor ever fully comprehend the fathoms of Your reign

Who is a God like You? Teacher of nature’s law

Of tempest wild and tender bloom; we gaze in stuttered awe

Your mercies manifold, our diligence demands

For who can dare to disregard the touch of nail-scarred hands

Who is a God like You? Becoming sacrifice  

Choosing to leave Your glorious throne to pay sin’s awful price

Your guiltless deity suffered wrath’s vilest ill

Perfection became ransom-blood to satisfy Love’s will

Who is a God like You? Delighting to erase

And blot out our transgression with the mercies of Your grace

No record do You keep of our guilt and shame

Oh God, no other God redeems or absolves our blame

Who is a God like You? That You should seek; approve

Our stumbling, fumbling offering transforming it with love

Oh, there is none like You; before Your mercy-seat

We bow in humble gratitude to wash a brother's feet

© Janet Martin

   

This 'Love Thing'

 

I do not know much of love but this

‘Tis bittersweet

Its images of glory

Tarnished, broken

At my feet

I do not know much of love and yet

With my stumbling dust

To learn

The little that I can

I must

I do not know much of love, but oh

To give up

Would be to fling back to God

An overflowing

Cup

I do not know much of love, its true

But one thing I do

I cannot explain it

But to say

‘I love you’

© Janet Martin

"sometimes I think I just do not get this love thing" said hubby in frustration, today at lunch:)

The more I thought about it the more I began to believe its a constant re-learning. 1 Cor. 13 love is hard to learn all at once, isn't it?

Of Enlightenments

Maybe someday they will understand

And forgive me for all those words

I tried to say right, but somehow came out wrong

Maybe someday they will agree

That happiness is something

That we cannot touch or see

Maybe someday they will know

It is enough to love

And to be loved

And maybe someday they will touch

On the reasons their mother

Loved them so much

…but didn’t always have the perfect way

To spill from her lips

What she wanted to say

© Janet (Mom)

I Love Blue

I love blue

Cerulean sky

Noon-day sea

The light in your eye

When you think of me

Janet~

Suddenly winter feels a whole LOT like...winter:)

Suddenly thought drifts to things like the song of surf sweeping sand.

I Love Pink

I love pink

The glow of winter

Kissing the cheeks

Of a little girl

All carefree and giddy

As we splash and play

In a white-washed winter-world

Janet~

She lasted longer than I did out in the cold. Suddenly from the door I heard her call 'Mom, help! I''m literally frozen!' Her ponytail had frozen to her scarf and hat, a tangled mess! She screeched and howled as I tried to separate hair from snow and yarn:)

I Love Mornings

I love mornings

You just can’t get that feeling

Any other time of day

The newness of God’s grace-gift

In sun-sparkles, slips away

Janet~ 

'I love mornings' I said to Melissa while we enjoyed being the only two up for a little while.

Before the Poems...

Already then, I knew

That there was something more

To life than what we see on skin

Of moments as they pour

How else could walnut-leaf

Etched bold on cobalt sky

Kissed gold in late-day sultry sun

Hurt me so perfectly?

And how could babbling brook

Evoke, without a word

Irrevocable bliss-song

Within its silver splurge

Or how could jaunty breeze

Drunk on clover-pink bloom

Invite this little me to dance

In nature’s grand ball-room

…or this; weeping of wind

Drifting lost; aimlessly

Through winter’s stricken woodlot

Where a leaf-song used to be

…soft purple-misted dawn

Heady with dazzling dreams

Of summer-splashing recklessly

Through merry moment-streams

Already then I knew

When I was but a child

Something unwritten beckoned

In the air, driving me wild

© Janet Martin

When I was a child, on Saturday mornings before we were old enough to help, we were 'shooed' from the kitchen so Mother could give it it's weekly floor-scrub and wax. Those mornings sometimes seemed to last eternally, esp. in the cold winter when I didn't feel like waiting in the barn. But then I would 'traipse' all over the place. Some of those memories are etched in my mind. This morning suddenly I recalled standing in a woodlot, wondering what made it so different in the winter...ah, yes! the silence. This woodlot is mostly cleared away now, but it was there I fell in love; with violets, lilacs, apple-blossoms, forget-me-not and sun-dappled green. At our creek I discovered the thrill of brook-song; I can hear it still. Thank-you Mom:) and God.

The Way Life Goes

Sunlight-sparkle on the snow

That’s the way a life can go

Little ripple in a brook

Paragraph in time’s vast book

Little kiss and little love

Soon we fly to arms above

Like a petal on the breeze

Life; a wisp of memories

Half-breath whisper in our ear

So a life can disappear

Fragments slipping through our clasp

Gossamer we cannot grasp

Little you and little me

Pause before eternity

God is great and God is good

Help us live life as we should

© Janet Martin

Daydream Defiance

Here I will sit to revel a bit

In stubborn defiance

My lavender dream

Will fill the chill in a purple-blue thrill

Drenching my thought

With sweet summer-requiem

Here on this bench fond memories drench

Winter’s bold bluff

With sunflower guile

While ice-petal wrath sweeps my garden path

I hear the echo

Of bare feet and I smile

© Janet Martin

Only Love

What conquers evil, quenches hate?

What pales infinity above,

Beneath us, all around

Only one thing

Only love

What fights and wins with tenderness

And never fails in spite of us?

What exceeds thoughts circumference?

Only one thing

Only love

What is this thing of blood and dirt?

Unglamorous, its splattered glove

Yet yields a precious, perfect hurt?

Only one thing,

Only love

What fills lust’s futile wantonness

With promises of pain and grief?

What melts the cold and calloused heart

Dissolving chains of unbelief?

What is this thing whereby we die

Suffering its cross to prove

We cannot ever fully live

Without it; one thing

Only love

© Janet Martin

 What spurs the gardener to prune the rose

Or the farmer to till his field?

Love bears the pain because it shows

Not then, but in the yield

Image Source

Of Storm-song and Promise

Darkness relents; day’s argent surf rolls mute

Out to the melded fringe of land and sky

Where none its austere anthem can refute

As gales shiver our summer dreams awry

Beyond the window, frigid fathoms seethe

Parting ice lips in cold and cheerless mirth

Yet none restrains the potent pulse beneath

Of life held in the womb of mother earth

Where delicate wild anemone still sleeps

Forget-me-not and violet whisper quenched

Before the fragrant, purple river sweeps

Across the emerald vale of spring unclenched

Earth’s frozen scrim of winter-white is kissed

With visions of frothed pink and amethyst

Beyond the dappled pane we hunch to brace

The tides lashing our pallid skiff of skin

Clinging to promises of golden grace

Clad in a dashing zephyr’s welcome grin

Then, watch the screaming, scowling felon wilt

His rival threatens not with bully roar

But challenges with bits of sunshine spilt

In puddles warm against earth’s south-faced shore

Before it spreads, virile and ravishing

Across the plain, over hollow and hill

Melting beneath its lovely lavishing

Winter’s tenacity and waning will

And soon the still and sterile snowbound lane

Will smell of dust beneath a summer rain

The skeleton of naked apple tree

The maple and the willow, silent, strong

Suffer the span twixt snow and honey-bee

And bud-pods bursting with summer night-song

Outside the wind moans, searching for the choir

Of quivering aspen, poplar, elm and birch

He rakes the stark and unrelenting spire

The woodlot hushed like Monday-morning church

And so he wails across unfettered field

As sleet-tears sting our cheeks, our lips and eyes

His grief exchanged; raw, raging tempests wield

Their utmost in longing’s stormy disguise

A soloist; his passion amplifies

As a cappella storm-song fills the skies

© Janet Martin

Our thoughts are with those on the eastern sea-board once again. Be warm, Be safe.

We are snow-bound in a very broad region in Ontario today.

Thursday Thoughts on Things Re-discovered

Most people cannot resist

Freshly-baked cookies

Or love

***

If you ignore people long enough

Eventually they leave

If you ignore laundry hampers long enough

They don’t

***

Nothing warms the heart

Like a bowl of soup

Enjoyed with gusto

By a hungry lad

***

Sing a song of diligence

The fire will not die

If it is tended carefully

By love’s vigilant eye

***

When nothing else will do

But your voice

I pick up the phone

***

Ah yes, the garden glistens

Beneath a sheaf of snow

Yet perfect is the vision

Of dream-blooms as they grow

***

The Lord is my Shepherd

I shall not want

Unless I take my eyes from Him

Janet~

Double-edged Storm

On nights like tonight, when what was is not

When will does not thwart Wants’ vain, vexing guile

Then I succumb to your touch and I smile

A beggar for moments preserved in my thought

On nights like tonight its mutinous air

Cuts like the talons of a hungry beast

And there is no north, south, west or east

Beneath the hollow of thought’s sable stare

On nights like tonight, I cannot eclipse

The oceans that surge in the cup of my heart

Merging with waves that keen night-winds impart

In insolent kisses on thought’s vagrant lips

On nights like tonight as its rage is unfurled

An icy, white vengeance, a double-edged storm

I pull you against me; your whisper is warm

As thought against thought we wander the world

© Janet Martin

True Worship

We worship you Lord

Not only in song

Or verbal fluency

But Lord,

We worship as we serve

In love’s humility

© Janet Martin

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. John 4:23

Storm-watch

You glower; a gray-blue moody glare

And I reciprocate your stare

The skyline fades between our touch

A dance of glances, thoughts and such

An aura of intimacy

Of passion’s vulnerability

Trembles, taunting mind-citadel  

In all those wants you do not tell

You pause; are you a friend or foe?

Your inclinations ebb and flow

Longing and hunger plead and moan

A starving warrior coming home

No hint of your intention bleeds

In mention of your nameless needs

The night is cold, the fireside warm

I sense the prelude to a storm

© Janet Martin

Right now all is calm, but we are under a storm-watch;))

   

Beyond This Plateau

Someday

These places we touch

Will be wiped clean

Of our traces

Forever

Someday

The things we hold dear

Will be sorted,

Passed on

Or discarded

Someday

Our voices

Will be silent

Save for the echo

Of memories

Someday

These lips that smile and kiss,

These hands that hold and let go

These eyes that brim with joy and sorrow

Will be still

Someday

The stairs will not sound

The pause of our feet

While we listen to see

If everyone is asleep

But now we are here

Momentarily

On the plateau twixt

‘Before and

After

Me’.

© Janet Martin

Last night I had a friend over and we watched
You've Got Mail (Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks)
The inspiration for this poem came from various scenes in the movie, plus life in general:)

It is not Dead

It is not dead…

Beneath the hush

Of powdered brush

Beneath the shield

Of glistening field

Beneath the shroud

Of flurried cloud

Beneath the dark

Of frost-clenched bark

Beneath the plume

Of snowflake-bloom

Beneath the sheaf

Of fallen leaf

Beneath the shrine

Of argent pine

Beneath the glow

Of virgin snow

Beneath the gleam

Of frigid stream

Beneath the knell

Of gilded dell

...It is not dead

Beneath the white-washed winter slope

Waits the resurgence of  Spring’s Hope

Janet~

Of Allotments and Accounting

We are given its allotment

In a measure preordained

And we ought to treasure ardently

Each twinkle unrestrained

For its moment-spun oblation

Is a bidding from above

To embrace its obligation

In an offering of love

This sphere on which we tally

Life's tick of hour and year

Shapes time’s small dilly-dally

Which at death will disappear

So we ought to employ wisely

Time’s delicate amount

For the Giver of its gifting

Will require an account

© Janet Martin

  

Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. Ps. 90:12 NLT

 (photos taken at Home Furniture, St. Jacobs Ontario, Canada)

Ah, Yes! (re-posted)

 I feel this poem in moments like this... Yesterday we ('mom' in middle, Emily, our oldest daughter on right and Melissa, middle daughter on left) had a day out pretending we were tourists. Rarely do they both have the same day off!

I cannot name it

But I must

This sense of loss

And complete trust

Sadness, gladness

Healing, hurt

Longing filled

With humble worth

Asking, answering

With our eyes

Joy and sorrow

Synchronized

Dancing, drowning

Jubilee

Wanting, haunting

Pondering plea

Urging, surging

Ebb and flow

Of having, holding

Letting go

Rushing, raging

Raw release

Pouring into

Perfect peace

Passion-pure

Beneath, above

I must name it…

…ah, yes,

Love

© Janet Martin

(because it's 'love poem month' there will be a few extra re-posts)

Irrefutable Proof of Love...a re-post

Love speaks

A universal language

And though hugs and kisses are nice

It declares

Its truest passion

In one word;

  Sacrifice

© Janet Martin

What we make and take time for proves where our loves lie…

Aren’t you glad He took time for us?

 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. 

 After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.

Isa. 53:10-11

One of my all-time favorite songs ever!

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Because Love is all there really is

of any worth

Should we all not try

to take more time

to love?

  

Hope In Full Glory

Coral caress fans the cold crest

Of midnight’s star-frothed slumber

Daylight that faded in the west

Is rising over yonder

Blue-silver sweep of winter-deep

Kisses blushing horizon

The remnant-blue tenders its hue

Into the pastel sky-line

Plateau of unknown beckons us

To seek life’s moment-myst’ry

Before dusk’s periwinkle cusp

Absorbs this day to hist’ry

Lift up your cup and fill it up

God’s mercy over-flowing

Renders love’s grace to human-race

In a new dawn’s bestowing

© Janet Martin

 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.They are new every morning;
    Great is your faithfulness. 

 Lam. 3:22-23

Hallelujah!

It is nothing now

Yesterday's trial and error

has slipped away

to its vaulted tomb

yet, Grace fills our wanton gaze

with the glory of 

a new day

spilling across 

earth's living-room.

Hope in full glory
Turns the page  with the rising sun
We are writing a story
By God's grace, let's make it a good one

Price of Love...re-post

I cannot be

Carefree

Anymore

Because

I love you

…but oh,

What a beautiful care

to bear

J~