Thursday Thoughts on Love

With love

Not much else is needed

Without love

Everything isn’t enough

***

With love the smallest task is noble

Each humble home fit for a king

Without love the grandest castle

Is a sham of cold nothing

***

With love

We do not tally

Its effort or its cost

With love

We simply give and give

Leaving the rest to God

***

When all else fails

Trust love

***

When I think of God’s love for me

And what He gave on Calvary

My heart is touched with tender peace

Misgivings fade in sweet release

***

When I think of God’s love for me

And how He died to set me free

It seems foolish to think somehow

That He would overlook us now

***

With love we count our blessings

Without love we count our loss

True love begins with forgiveness of sins

As we behold the cross

***

If we love we have known God

***

Sometimes the weight of this old world

Would get the best of me

But when I hug my little girl

Love wins and sets me free

***

Sometimes life’s disappointments

Seems to come in ten-fold

But it is not so hard to bear

With love’s warm hand to hold

***

It is hard to simply trust

As faith is put to test

But if God so fully loved us

Then He knows what is best

For He did not, without a thought

Give His dear Son to die

But saw past Jesus' Suffering

Even to you and I

So when temptation bids us doubt

Or causes us to grieve

Remember what His promise is

To all who will believe

Janet~  

On Comfort and True Fasting

 

“Come” says the high and lofty One

Who lives forever, holy King

Yet also dwells, not with the proud

But with the contrite suffering

“Come, I will guide and comfort you

From mourning lips I will draw praise

Peace, peace”, He whispers, “I will heal

Your sinful greed and evil ways”

“There is no peace” Holy God says

“For wicked hearts consumed with lust

They cast up mire from the waves

And revel in earth’s stricken dust

Is this the fast that I enforce?

One day for mankind to submit

And lie in ashes of remorse

Then return to his vile vomit?

Is not this the purer fast I chose?

To set the bound and oppressed free

To clothe the poor and share with those

Who hunger in their poverty?”

“Come” says the high and lofty one

Then I will satisfy your needs

As your night shines like noon-day’s sun

Hope’s garden watered with love’s deeds

© Janet Martin

Hope

How dark and vast would be the rift

Twixt Holy God and man

But for His saving grace: Love’s gift

Sin’s void of doom to span

How immeasurable, our debt

How utter death’s last loss

But for the oath in His last breath

And victory through the cross

How base would be this toil and strife

Where evil’s ploys deceive

But for the everlasting life

To all who will believe

© Janet Martin

Amazing Grace

Are there any words really, to capture the wonder of His love?

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son

that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

Moment-mien

The mien that smoothly, softly crept

Across our childhood while we slept

Is the same tenure that still binds

Life’s timbre deep within our minds

And sometimes when the night is still

Or when dawn spreads across the hill

I sense a tug intense, obscure

I cannot bear yet must endure

With a brave smile upon my face

As I gaze on the resting place

Of moments as they gently swirl

The gossamer of laughing girl

And where she danced on springtime’s green

A woman stands where she had been

Janet~

I have not heard this song in years but this morning it popped in my head as I awoke!

Neither Beggar Nor Thief

 

 Image Source:

Oh, it would be unfair to tear

Frail fabric gently mended

But here, tonight upon the air

The music has not ended

And though Time delves into its depths

And flings upon the tresses

Another year of life and death

Of farewell song-caresses

They linger where the heart must bear

Life’s raw un-chosen sorrow

We bravely touch the suture where

Time cannot steal nor borrow

J~

Hints of Spring

Fresh chives have sprouted and the lilac stem

Is jeweled with chartreuse and cinnabar gem

The sap from the maple tree trickles and sings  

The snowline recedes as the sun softly grins

The crocus is nudging, edging through the soil

With warm breeze suggesting a sweet garden-toil

The pasture of winter and frozen respite

Sheds its dazzling garment of glistening white

The farmer is whistling and watching each slope

Refurbished with passion of earth-scented hope

For this is the pleasure that overrides pain

Earth’s hard-earned treasure in gold-rippling grain

Plush pussy-willow, soft rose full-moon dusk

The air teased with whispers of sun-beam and musk

Sassy robin canticle drifts on the air

Spring hints its arrival but is detained somewhere…

© Janet Martin

March Garden

 (March garden today)

As I look at you now

With eyes half-closed

Every plant is a prize-winning rose

No sickly stems

Or dormant seeds

No gaps, no drought, no sassy weeds

Each row is extra-robust
Lush and bright

I revel in its florid hush tonight

For nothing blooms quite as perfectly

In late March, it seems

As the garden that grows in straight rows in my dreams

© Janet Martin

Celebration Poems

From Poetic Bloomings; Over the course of time, we have stretched the muses and minds of our extremely talented family of poets, with our prompts and forms, interviews and projects. So for this venture, Marie and I ask you to write a “Celebration” poem.   Celebrate your life, an anniversary, a birthday, an event… but do it in the form of a 10 X 10 poem (Ten lines times Ten words per line = 100 words – a century). Thus, we want you to write a Celebration in a Century (Celebration of the Century).

My Life-wish Celebration

I want to live so that when my Hour comes

I will not lie on a deathbed of sad regret

But peacefully then I will relinquish my final, farewell breath

Content to know that in life’s brief, mystic moment flow

I fully danced and freely dreamed and laughed and wept

Daring to fly with faith buoying me above fear’s crypt

So that when the last everlasting sleep steals over me

And sets me free from demons of doubt and want

I will surrender, reaching to Him with weary, ready arms

Satisfied to let go, surrendering softly to heaven’s eternal embrace

© Janet Martin

Celebrating US

We are a band driven by a common, luring thirst

Battling through highs and lows of feeling blessed and cursed

As we suffer blissfully the divine endowment of word vexation

Knowing at any moment we may be perplexed by temptation

In the curves of consonants joined perfectly with certain vowels

Dangling and taunting they whisper, falling from thought’s dripping jowls

As we stir soup or wander among children, women, men

Suddenly, the searing surge to grasp the frond of pen

Consumes our bearing and we cannot substitute or coldly mediate

With anything but written word; we are poets; we celebrate

© Janet Martin

 

Keeper...Line Messaging Poetry

Poetic Bloomings invites us to attempt;   LINE MESSAGING poetry, the final line of each stanza may be compiled to create an entirely new poem with its own independent message (a poem within a poem).  It appears there are no rules for number of stanzas, or rhyme scheme.   This form was created by Angel Favazza.

Dusk flowers gently over field and hill

Blush pink washes the patch-work quilt of spring

A surge akin to prayer ignites within

The Keeper of each hour tunes the rill

Each season sheds its purpose on the earth

The seed will grow; the chaff be blown away

Love’s Hand sifts through our humbly offered fray

And fills our wanton efforts with His worth

We cannot know the reason of His will

But like each season, joy and sorrow pass

We strain to see beyond this darkened glass

Where mortal imperfections keenly spill

Spring is the season of hope and re-birth

With hand upon the plow we till the sod

Trusting its harvest to a loving God

His faithful eye is over all the earth

(Independent Message)

The Keeper of each hour tunes the rill

And fills our wanton efforts with His worth

Where mortal imperfections keenly spill

His faithful eye is over all the earth

© Janet Martin

The Price of Anonymity

Sometimes it would be easier

To hide behind a quiet veil

Of anonymity,

Longing and inhibition

Than touch the pen

To ink

In signatures

Of admission

The sacred joy of love

Is a hard-fought, vexatious

Bliss

And to bear it anonymously

Would be

To never fully taste

The pleasure of

Its kiss

Janet~

To Love...and Be Loved

To love

Then be loved in return

Is all I humbly ask

But God, You know my heart

So God,

Please fit me for this task

To love

And be loved in return

Is more than I deserve

But oh, it is life’s sweetest joy

Upon

This troubled earth

To love

And be loved in return

Is such a kind reward

Yet all that I can think

To say

Is thank-you, thank-you Lord

© Janet Martin

Thank-you Sherry

Some folk fight for personal gain
Whether for glory or money or fame
Others are warriors of kind words and cheer
And you will find one of those warriors here.

Thank-you Sherry for all you do in the world of poetry.

Congratulations Jennifer. You also are one of those warriors and I am humbly honored to share this stage together:)
Love you(())

Of Sky and Relevance

The sky unfolds and folds again

The dark and light declares

Today’s beginning and its end

On century-woven stairs

Where sun and moon’s circuits attune

To Eden’s grand design

As year on year tallies this sphere

In ether-span of Time

Look up; the cloud, tumbled, serene

The vault of azure sweep

By day a cerulean sheen

By night an onyx deep

Throne of the moon and star-froth swoon

Of unnamed galaxies

Where ‘neath its sun we laugh and run

Shaping Time’s centuries

Look up; someday this boundless scope

Will fill with trumpet sound

As we behold man’s Living Hope

From temporal, trembling ground

For now its spreads above our heads

But then, a mighty roar

As we behold the God of old

And Time will be no more

© Janet Martin

It is nigh impossible to imagine the sky on That Day. 

Glorious Day

On Offerings

He gave Himself to please God’s will

He faced Golgotha cruel and grim

He poured His life out on that hill

Oh, what will we give back to Him?

He broke the curse of hell and death
Immortal God wore mortal limb
Shedding His life-blood for our debt
Oh, what will we give back to Him?

© Janet Martin

Love Song to the One True God

Holy, Holy, Holy

The love of our God

Spreads out before man’s ruptured gaze

His glory on earth’s sod

The ordinance of seasons

Unfolds His evidence

We cannot haste His reason

Or toss His purpose thence

Holy, holy, holy

He holds the stars in space

And flings from muted canopy

Another day of grace

In spite of our transgression

And passive platitude

He binds us with compassion

As darkness is subdued

Holy, holy, holy

This is the love of He

Who bathes us in redemption

Where our guilt ought to be

With holy tears of pardon

And holy drops of blood

With holiest submission

He bore the will of God

Holy, holy, holy

We cannot pick and choose

Which part of Him we will adore

Or which part to refuse

His power transcends perception

His Deity our trust

Ruler of earth and Heaven

With judgment pure and just

Holy, holy, holy

We cannot disunite

His glory from His goodness

His Lordship from His Light

He will not be defeated

Nor held behind a stone

And none but He is seated

In Heaven on His throne

Holy, holy, holy

His praise will never end

The Alpha and Omega God

Our Savior, Father, Friend

For He IS holy, holy

…our hope, alive and well

And this is He who sets us free

From fear of death and hell

© Janet Martin

Unchained Ramparts

How is it that you press against her sigh

Invisible as spring’s buoyant caress

And yet, with rampant, unchained recklessness

You toss the bulwark of her guarded thought awry

How is it that with door and window barred

You slip between the tresses of intent

To soothe and tease, to succor and torment

Where midnight splays across the silver yard

How is it that lost moments she held near

Return to whisper when the night is still

Pushing against the ramparts of her will

And spilling in one solitary tear?

J~

Unchained Melody

Dawn-song

Dawn drips its radiant runway from the deep

Returning color to the silhouettes

Etched in still-life above the gleaming sweep

Of opportunity over regrets

And from the ridge above earth’s minute trace

Where galaxies unfathomed coalesce

Beneath the visage of a Father’s grace

Dawn’s lends its kind, compassionate caress

Then cast aside those mantles of despair

And close the lips of cold, thankless complaint

The God who tends to sparrows of the air

Surely cares for the feeble and the faint

The diadem of morning’s gladdened mirth

Breaks through the veil of darkened somnolence

To clothe the ramparts of heaven and earth

In shadows of divine-breathed radiance

The dawning of a virgin day unfolds

Pray what will be the bloom in its embrace

Before west-seraphim of gilded gold

Will tuck its scattered petals into place

The dawning of a new day gently spills

Against the girth of somber, slumb’ring sod

Rosy resplendent ripples ‘cross the hills

In mercy-beams to us from gracious God

© Janet Martin

Of Everything We Cannot Change

The weight of everything we cannot change

May press against the levee of the heart

And though we yearn to shift or rearrange

The filament of its woven rampart

We cannot touch past’s immutable stage

Its frozen landscapes to obliterate

Nor crumple like an error-splattered page

The flawed, fragmented pictures we create

But look, upon the east from God’s embrace

He renders to earth’s offspring new-dawn grace

The imperfections of another day

Will soon unfold their mortal mystery

Its path of burnished evidence will splay

Fresh-footprint miles in frames of history

For we cannot thwart Time’s persistent breath

From night to day and back to night once more

Its astral clock will not succumb to death

Until the declaration of the Lord

As on the cusp of earth’s four-season dust

We spill the follies of our love and lust

…and thus, we bear its subtle aftermath

For what we sow is what we stoop to reap

Yet, grace aligns itself against the path

Where joy and sorrow tune the tears we weep

And mercy washes guilty stains away

The weight of everything we cannot change

Will not be held against us on that Day

For none redemption’s flood can rearrange

Or reinstate the debt that Love forgave

To break the curse that bound us to the grave

The bulwark of His promises abide

We are not doomed in spite of our dross

Look; listen to the words before He died

Sealing eternal pardon; from the cross

Where His blood poured in Passion’s agonies

As life ebbed from the limbs of perfect love

And “it is finished” rent the galaxies

Now hope fixes our gaze on courts above

Where Time can never shift or rearrange

The joy of everything we cannot change

© Janet Martin

Of Patience and Moment-flows

 

Image Source

Dearest child, clothed in blissful innocence

And dancing on life’s placid moment-flow

Like everyone, you too must learn patience

For soon you’ll see how swift the hours go

We smile and envy cautiously the restless gleam

Spurring you on to greener pastures sweet

The pure delight of youth’s unhindered dream

Is hampered only by Time’s sluggish feet

…and though we murmur ‘patience, child’ we nod

And urge you on in spite of what we know

For patience is a thing learned as we trod

The hastening of living’s moment-flow

© Janet Martin

Victoria began sewing her rag quilt today. She just asked if it will be done by tonight?! We are both having patience lessons as she is still learning all the little 'tricks' of the sewing machine, but she is doing great!
p-s-s-s-t! I am glad its the sewing machine though and not a car;)) v-r-o-o-o-o-o-m! Sc-r-e-e-e-e-e-c-h!repeat.

Glad Song...an Opposite Poem

A smooth calm sweeps

The warm-waking world

Come hither, glad day

With new joys unfurled

For lo; soon twilight creeps

Over the western steeps

And blue shadows of dusk

The heavens salute

Lo! From the depths

Of woven dirt

With joyful thought

Its lays assert

To softly tease the Day;

And smooth the night awry

They make glad the slumb’ring breeze

And with its mirth ally

Comrade from the deep

Laughing in bliss-pink

Before dawn we tiptoe

Toward earth’s brink

Embracing the mystic east

We drink its celestial feast

Brimming with dark heart-sorrow

And yesterday's tomorrow

Janet~

An opposite poem to

Mad Song by William Blake

THE wild winds weep,

And the night is a-cold;

Come hither, Sleep,

And my griefs enfold! . . .

But lo! the morning peeps

Over the eastern steeps,

And the rustling beds of dawn

The earth do scorn.

 

Lo! to the vault

Of pavèd heaven,

With sorrow fraught,

My notes are driven:

They strike the ear of Night,

Make weak the eyes of Day;

They make mad the roaring winds,

And with the tempests play,

 

Like a fiend in a cloud,

With howling woe

After night I do crowd

And with night will go;

I turn my back to the east

From whence comforts have increased;

For light doth seize my brain

With frantic pain.

Evening Epitaph

Here lie the gathered moments of her day

A rendering to every man the same

Of hours, burnished gold or sullen gray  

Resting within past’s immortal acclaim

Here the deceased forevermore will rest

No horse-drawn procession draws her along

But crimson dirge upon the molten west

Consoles the bystander in vesper-song

Here lies mercy’s allotment of the dawn

Asleep within Time’s chimeral embrace

While trembling hope spurs us to journey on

To our repose; faith’s final resting place

© Janet Martin

Last night, Matthew tells me (as he leans on my chair reading the epitaph) he had a dream that he wishes he could paint; he and I popped out of the water in the Arctic where we saw the most amazing sunset, glaciers and strange, beautiful birds!

Of Footprints and Sun-sparkles

The dawn has stretched its panoramic veil

In wordless rhapsody from east to west

While yesterday, a footprint in life’s trail

Points one day nearer to our ageless rest

But now the beckoning of hope and love

Rolls out its moment-carpet from above

We tread its thoroughfare, oft thoughtlessly

The miles that draw us up then down again

Are transient as sun-sparkles on a sea

Where dusk begins to lean from ether-plain

To brush another foot-print to a shore

Where we can never tread it anymore

Darling, love is a whisper intertwined

In fingertips, in lips and heart and mind

Though Time may steal flesh bodies from our touch

It cannot rob love’s essence from our clutch

A gossamer and silken undertow

Of echoes where the flaxen lilies blow

Today a corridor of fresh unknowns

Invites us to live, love and laugh once more

Across its shimmered breadth of sticks and stones

We dream and dance, life’s homely joys implore

Beseeching and admonishing, for we

Draw ever closer to eternity

© Janet Martin

Nine years ago my Grandma Martin passed away but her voice and her laughter remain. We ALL miss you, Lizzie.

The Love of God...a Praise sonnet

His gentle finger frustrate man’s design

For we see only fringes of His thought

Where nature’s petal-miracles align

With tempest tossing our dreams to naught

The schemes of our feigned humility

The crass rebellion of our stubborn pride

Can never alter His Supremacy

Or dis-annul the rivers from His side

Pouring to set the captive sinner free

He drank the gall of death for you and me

Look, look; redemption’s Lamb the Father chose

Is His own Darling; oh, how can it be

That He who formed the trillium and the rose

Offers Himself to die on Calvary?

Where mobs assault with ignorance, the grace

Of sin-chains loosed; death crushed beneath the flood

Of scarlet hope; they spit upon the face

Veiled red with teardrops from the Son of God

“Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani”

He died; the Savior of humanity

What greater thing than this can any boast?

The King of kings clothed in meekness dust-wrought

Suffered even to death love’s uttermost

His Mystery frustrates our groping thought

That He who breathed to being galaxies

Did not keep His Beloved at His side

But saw beyond the cross’s agonies

The intercession of the justified

Oh Lord, no greater love will ever be

Than Jesus Christ who sets the sinner free

© Janet Martin   

Jesus, Savior- Alison Krauss