The Bending of Time

It dissipates soundlessly

Into the clutch

Of history’s broadening palm

Splendor of heaven

That man cannot touch

Glorious, infinite calm

In the manner of centuries

Like never before

It bleeds on the edge of earth’s scape

Our humble gaze riveted

To the matador

Flinging o’er day's end a red cape

And moments of present

Dissolve on the lips

Of twilight dissolving the stage

Where purple-blue deepens

On time’s finger-tips

Bent on the turning of page

© Janet Martin

Above is a small taste of moody March, thus far. Actually, I quite like her mood this week! This poem was inspired tonight...the last # of photos on the slide-show.

Instruction Book

Teach me how to teach them, Lord

In this brief hour of holding

To weave a firm and kind regard

In moments smiling, scolding

Teach me what to teach them Lord

For there is no deliverance

So much have I to learn; yet now

They look to me for guidance

Teach me how to instruct them Lord

Oh where do I find wisdom?

You point me to your sacred Word

The beacon of instruction

© Janet Martin

 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Cor. 12:9-11

Listening to the Silence...

She listens to the silence now

The darkness seems enlarged somehow

Above the tiny feet of rain

Dancing upon the windowpane

And almost she can hear the knell

Of moments bidding swift farewell

And almost she can feel the touch

Of whispered memories and such

She listens to the silence now

The rise and fall, the ebb and flow

A cadence of forgotten years

Caught suddenly in one small tear

J~

The Cursed Thirst

She cried for him then
For the dear little lad
who loved the drunk
because the drunk was
his dad...

She wept for the lashes
on a back so young
because daddy crashes
when the whiskey is gone...
and then staggers away
crying
as he listen to his child
defending him,
lying
as a thirst drives him wild...

Some say *you cannot make a silk purse
from a sow's ear
But they've never known the curse
of a drunkard's tear

J~

Inspired in part by tonight's episode of Little House on the Prairie.

* A quote from the show

Strangers

Although you never tell me

I know your secret hurts

I study your reflection now

Without offering of words

For you know what I’m going to say

Before the air is broken

We share a world no one can see

In trysts, raw and unspoken

We sit together, you and I

In silences unhurried

I know your thoughts and you know mine

It’s always been this way, dear

I trace the outline of your stare

You crazy, sudden stranger

Who are you? I am unprepared

To attempt any answer

For I am you and you are me

And yet, I’ve never seen you

Get up and walk across the street

Or even to the next room

I’ve known you all my life and yet

I lean to see you clearer

For I feel like I’ve never met

That woman in the mirror

© Janet Martin

Most Holy God

You were not made holy

Oh God

But you were holy before time

And thus, I am stilled and humbly awed

That You,

All Holy, Sublime

Loved mankind so

That You sent your Son

Offering blood-bought freedom

To everyone

From thrones of Heaven

You heard our cry

And You beheld

With holy eye

The rivers

Of red futility

From goats and bulls

In an endless sea

Yet still sin remained

Victorious on earth

And man was chained

To its guilty curse

So in holy love

Lamb without blame

The Son of God

To men, You came

Not counting the cost

But knowing the gain

You loved the lost

Unto death

You testified

With your last breath

Our hope

Then died

But death, oh death

Could never keep

His Holy Love

In lifeless sleep

But once for all

His sacrifice

Has sealed our pardon

Paid sin’s price

And from the earth

He rose

Most glorious

His Holy reign

Supreme

Victorious 

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.  2Cor. 5:21

 Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy. Psalms 99:5

Color Me Spring

Color me spring

The enchanted fling

Of tulip and daffodil

With laughing lips

Tenderly kiss

To naught gray winter’s ill

Color me spring

Lavender, green

Silver teardrop in your eyes

Wash to the blue

The moody hue

Of winter’s sure demise

Color me spring

Weeping, dancing

Gather me close in your arms

As you brush away

Deep winter’s day

With crocus and violet charms

Color me spring

With an offering

Of grand re-birth and hope

In sun-kissed breeze

Through jeweled trees

I hear spring’s calliope

© Janet Martin

Evening's Dawning

When evening dawns, the harsher shades

Of toil are dimmed and muted

Staccato rhythms of noon-parades

Recoil, in history rooted

And from the cusp of earthen tongue

A somnolent caressing

Draws shadowed dusk o'er old and young

In heaven’s twilight blessing

The azure grin of laughing day

The tumbled cloud of sorrow

Are gathered in and tucked away

Lord willing, till tomorrow

And from the wall of hill and tree

Of sky-scraper horizon

A deepening shawl of symmetry

Expands from heaven's ocean

Across the girth of misery

And lust’s incessant fretting

  Behold the earth, a velvet sea

Beneath dusk’s dew-drop netting

Come; cast to naught your meager wants

Beneath an eye immortal

For evening dawns in mystic haunts

From heaven’s lowered portal

© Janet Martin