My 'Every-day Heaven'

It waits for tender touches

Of loving care

The begging of Duty

Hangs on the air

I gaze at the mountains

Of mundane spoil

Shaping my moments

Of prayer and of toil

As I thank God above

For all He has given

In the clutter of love

My every-day ‘heaven’

© Janet Martin

…trying to ‘spruce up’ the place a little and get some major cleaning done for some up-coming events we are hosting…the question... How much, how soon? Cleaning can be un-done very quickly here!

Imminent Mystery

Gazing toward the sky-line

I wonder what lies beyond…

…beyond the curve, the dip, the bend

That everlasting yawn

Yet, though I push toward it

I never reach its crest

But remain in the epicenter

Of north, south, east and west

So I’ll drink in the green and the purple

Of spring’s temporal diadem

Embracing the imminent mystery

Of the moment I am in

© Janet Martin

His Glory Days

Poetics Aside Prompt: Write about a sport

He recalls his glory days

Bleachers packed with cheering fans

He could do no wrong

Five is a great age

Janet~

 (the little guy I baby-sit is five, a little timid
but he knows when he is playing hockey,
HE IS A STAR in all the eyes that matter;)

Love Poemlets

Image Source:  http://worlldinformation.blogspot.ca/2012/04/love-quotes.html

Love makes beautiful

The drab and the plain

It makes worthwhile

The thankless and mundane

***

As deep as the longing in the Groom
to lift His Bride's veil
may our love ever be
then it cannot fail

***

It is impossible
to love the Lord
yet live in disobedience
to His Word

***

We love, yet we stumble
but this truth remains
God's love through forgiveness
removes every stain

***

Love can be strongest

In the frailest beings

As they accept and receive

All they are unable to give…

***

The Future
Our dreams
Never quite turn out
How we envisioned
But love, oh love
Teaches us how to adapt

***

Love:

A seed

A stem

A bud

A bloom

A forever flower…if watered

***

Love does not pick and choose

It reaches to all

For love loves every creature

Whether great or small

***

If you have been touched by love

Then you have been touched by God

For God is love

***

Love took dust

And formed a man

Love gave it living breath

Love bled in red

Conquering

The curse of sin and death

***

For the love of poetry
Sometimes I ignore Duty
For the love of family
Sometimes I ignore
The poetry of ink
To taste the poetry
Of love~

**

Love is patient

Love is kind

It does not envy

Nor does it remind

Others of how they have failed

Love does not seek

In others, perfection

But true love mirrors

Perfection’s reflection

Of hands to timber nailed

***

Love is a bloom

It must be nourished

With tender and watchful eyes

If disregarded

Then, what once flourished

Withers and shrivels and dies

***

Love, oh love

Life’s beautiful lament

Perplexing in its pleasure and pain

Love, oh love

Bittersweet torment

But never, oh never in vain

***

I have been blessed

To taste life’s best

A beautiful good-bye

***

Is love a noun 

or a verb 

to you?
Love must first be a verb
to become a noun
no...love cannot be a verb
until it is a noun...
...HUH?

***

Love: its resources are never depleted
An infinite well that never runs dry
It grows in the giving, it cannot be hoarded
and only when kept, will it shrivel and die

***

Sometimes its easy to confuse the depth of love
By the measure of our comfort
when most often its measure is proven
through discomfort

***

The fullness of love
will never be known
until we bow before
God on His throne

***

Wipe those teardrops from your eye

Embrace life's richest pain

For in love there is never good-bye

Only, 'until we meet again'

© Janet Martin

Image Source: http://worlldinformation.blogspot.ca/2012/04/love-quotes.html

I Do Not Know...

Poetics Aside Prompt: Write a love poem or an anti-love poem.

I do not know

How to write of love…

…this double-edged thought

Of wonderment and faith

Oh love, the fulfillment

Of mortal torment

Yet ever the longing

and thirst beneath

our holding on

And our release

A gripping storm

Yet, rock-solid peace

In the ‘going beyond’

When nobody knows

But One

As we suffer long

Love’s highs and its lows

Leaving the heart ragged

With disbelief

Of humble gratitude

And earth-shattering grief

© Janet Martin

Forever Hope

Tonight we had the closing Mother-daughter night for this season of Gem's. 
 It was a fabulous evening with a Roman/Greek era theme spawning from thoughts of the Olympics and how in life we also need to never quit trying and to give it our best.Their motto this year ....Get wisdom; go beyond the gold.... The MC for the evening did a spectacular job and it brought tears to my eyes as she encouraged a room FULL of girls (and moms) to keep their eyes on Jesus, because life tries to throw in all kinds of distractions. She encouraged them, that in spite of what life may bring to remember who they are! ...who we all are because of grace!

There will be obstacles

And distractions

Disappointment

And infractions

There will be days

Of carelessness

Of shocking failure

And more shocking…success

There will be neglect

Busyness, despair

There will be worry

Where there ought to be prayer

There will be apathy

Where there should be concern

…yet, there will be patience

We have so much to learn

And there will be One

Who will never replace

With lesser hope

His amazing grace

And there will reside

Though often we fail

A steadfast Guide

Within the vale

And there will be forever

Forgiveness of sin

In a blood-red river

That cleanses within

Yes, there will be enemies

To lure us from His Word

Yet, through it all there will be

Jesus Christ, the Lord
Our Alpha, our Omega
Our beginning and end
Our precious Savior
Everlasting Friend

© Janet Martin

Song: What a Friend we Have in Jesus

Song: Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

She read this verse among others:

 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
   and lean not on your own understanding;
 in all your ways submit to him,
   and he will make your paths straight. Prov.3:5-6

Yanked from a Dream...(re-post)

 Poetics aside prompt: Morning poem

The morning’s verdict comes too soon
On night’s like this
But dawn is fading out the moon
With silent kiss
Her curves align intricately
Against the dark
As day becomes a silver sea
And night the spark

I close my eyes willing night’s spell
To linger on
It is no use; for I can tell
That you are gone
The warmth of you against my skin
Is hard to bear
Ten-thousand wishes hovering
On stringent air

The morning’s verdict will not sway
Its fingertips
Methodically brushing away
Your sleep-warm lips
Smoothly the smiling morn invades
The dreamer’s bliss
And with the dawn you slip away...
...no farewell kiss

J~

Morning Miracles Haiku

Liquid miracle

Colombian pleasure melts

Early morning fog

 ***

Satin edges trim

Unyielding shrouds of darkness

Revealing its breadth

***

Keen ambivalence

Tunes emerging awareness

Slumber dissipates

Janet~