Hope's Wonder

Do not despair

As petals fall

Returning to the earth

For this is not

Hope’s curtain-call

But its humble re-birth

As sullen soil

Reclaims its fruit

And dust returns to dust

The seed of hope

Remains secure

Beneath this transient crust

For in the bloom

Abides the Source

Although we cannot see

He imbues

In Time’s discourse

Hope’s wonders yet to be

© Janet Martin

 Psalms 103:15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

To Walt and Marie...

Their kind words fall

Soft, whispered seeds

Into a fallow plot

They sprout

Creating poetry

From gathering of thought

Kind words are seeds

They strip the weeds

That fain would choke the flower

They nurture where

Bleak, dark despair

Would seek to over-power

Translucent seeds

Kind words inspire

A universal garden

Where poetry

Blooms rampantly

Beneath love’s tender pardon

© Janet Martin

Congratulations to one year in bloom!

A Young Man's Awakening...

One day it is basketball

The next day its guns

Or hockey or baseball

In the name of ‘fun’

I worried as I hugged him

And bid him goodnight

That somehow we were missing

Getting priorities right

But as I turned out the light

He asked, ‘Mom, can you pray?

and mom, do you know what I thought of today?

I thought of how pointless

Everything is

No matter what we get

Because everything changes

And nothing stays

It all disappears…’

I feel a lump in my throat

And the sparkle of tears

as he continued…

‘Yeah, I just suddenly thought

of how useless life is

if we don’t have God…’

 

Mom. Otherwise known as Janet~

Matthew turns 14 today.

Willing...

I would be willing to drink for a while

The warm mellow, yellow

Of May’s genteel smile

And I would be willing to let the hour pass

Lounging on pillows

Of earth-scented grass

Beneath budding tresses of willow-tree sigh

The back-drop an azure

And cloud-coddled sky

Where nothing would wander from this perfect spot

But the pleasures I ponder

In the garden of thought

© Janet Martin

Temple or God?

  

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Cor. 4: 19-20

I flip through a myriad

Of glossy facade

And I wonder if our bodies

Are a temple

Or god

No mention made

Of the heaven-breathed dust

As air-brushed perfection

Arouses our lust

Look ten years younger!

Feel like twenty-four

Eat all you want

And lose inches galore

Laser to rob us

From the laugh-lines of life

There is Botox to numb

Or transformation of knife

Because looking your age

Is becoming a crime

None should surrender

To the soft touch of time

Cosmetics to paint

What cannot be ‘helped’

A vitamin drink

Is a miracle, gulped

Bleach, dye, remove

We are commodities

In the world’s most thriving

Of industries

As photo-shop images

Seduce the mind

In a quest that is hopeless

For we cannot find

Life’s rich contentment

In this transient facade

If our body becomes

Not the temple, but

A god…

© Janet Martin

Yes, I totally believe in taking care of our bodies…

because they are ‘a temple…’

God, let me not be so consumed by it that it becomes a god…

Thank-you Glynis...

Without the encouragement and editing
of a friend, kind and dear
The article I attempted
would not be here...

Janet Martin

Greatest

We shall overcome

Not by the merit

Of what we have done

But because of He

Who abides within

As He sets us free

From the power of sin

Thus by His Grace

He fills us with worth

For greater is He

Than any on this earth

Who ever were

Or yet will be

Greater

Oh, greater

Much greater is He

© Janet Martin

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 1 John 4:4

Hallowed Might

Over the foot-path of time-weathered sod
Onward and upward and homeward we plod
Many a danger and many a care
And many an angel attending our prayer

Into Your hands oh God, we place our trust
We are frail creatures of longing and dust
But You promise mercy that never shall cease
Your tender assurances whispering peace

Take our fear, God, remove our doubt
Be our Vision within and without
For You never leave us; we never escape
Your tender visage in each breath we take

Kind, tender shepherd, may each precious sheep
Heed to your Voice and the watch that You keep
May it bring us comfort; in life's darkest night
As we feel the Presence of hallowed might

Janet

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil,
for Thou art with me.
Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me. Ps. 23:4