Empty and Cold

Poetic Bloomings Prompt: Betrayed!

Tonight you are a cantankerous rapscallion

Elusively haunting the fringe of my thought

You seem to delight in playing the villain

Antagonizing me by your formless naught

Last night a soul-mate, tonight you betray me

Vexing, perplexing aloofness of thine

Come darling, come and lay down against me

Feed me the choicest delights from your vine

I must learn not to trust you; but I am your victim

Ever returning to gobble your crumbs

Always forgiving your mindless betrayal

I’ll drink the wine from your vine till I’m numb

Muse, oh Muse,  crass tormentor of poets

What is this lure, this endowment you hold?

Last night we danced, making beautiful poems

Tonight the dance-floor is empty and cold

© Janet Martin

Only the Temporal Betrays...

Poetic Bloomings  Prompt; betrayal

We may be betrayed by our strongest desires

Our wants may lure us to hellish heartaches

So-called friends may gather like vultures

To feast on the carcass of our mistakes

Oh, tis a wretched and raw, ruthless scalpel

As we moan ‘neath the knife of bitter betrayal

We may be betrayed by the words we have spoken

Or by the vows of a trusted friend

I’ve stood at both points of a promise broken

There is no honor at either end

Betrayal is galling spittle in our face

But oh, we are never betrayed by grace

We are not creatures of casual coincidence

Though faith-leaps may mock us from ash-heaps of trust

We are not bound by cold, calloused consequence

Pain, horror, grief are the torments of dust

Oh, blessed truth we reach to embrace

For we will never be betrayed by grace

By grace we are saved; betrayal’s damnation

Can never reach into the arms of the One

Who gave His Only for our salvation

His One and Only belov-ed Son

Betrayal tests faith as it points to a place

Where we grasp the assurance of His steadfast grace

© Janet Martin

My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the Colorado shootings (which hopefully is all of us on some level)…as they struggle to cope with the shock of massive betrayal.

Universal Want

Some say they simply cannot tell

The words to spell their wants

From voids within they claw the air

While desperate yearning taunts

And while they scan the mindless sea

Or search the stars above

The hunger in their bosom weeps

For this; we all want love

A hand to hold at eventide

Whilst sunset splendor bleeds

A soul-mate in which to confide

Our tender ‘wants, and needs

There is no man too rich or poor

Or unworthy enough

To be fulfilled without its pow’r

…oh, we all need love

The new-born babe, the little child

The adolescent; youth

Young woman, man, we all desire

The essence of this truth

In middle age or silver-crowned

To ‘be’ is not enough

We are not soulless reeds windblown

Therefore, we all need love

Oh love, essential mystery

Its well-spring not of men

Intangible, this entity

A spurring to the end

Of gold and blood-stained filament

Creator-breathed to us

An innate ‘want’ with which we’re born

Oh, we all need love

© Janet Martin

But For This...

 Image Source: kirtastrophesblahg.blogspot.com

The rushing, pushing moments

Roaring, pouring soundlessly

Plunging over a precipice

Toward eternity

If I should find the fulcrum

Balance on Time’s middle swell

To view the sea from Eden forth

That lies twixt Heav’n and hell

…ah, surely I would tremble

To see these fathoms vast

And know tis but a vapor

In the future of the past

Yes, I know I would tremble

To behold Time’s sweeping space

To realize the microscopic

Breadth of human race

But then, oh blessed assurance

Wondrous hope that I embrace

We all would be eternally

Doomed; but for saving grace

© Janet Martin

Today's Friday Thoughts~

I wish to know when I am old

My legacy is not fool’s gold

Treasure stored each day I live

Is not in what I keep, but give

***

How hard it is to pry clenched fists

But harder still to see

The blessing they have surely missed

By clenching vanity

***

‘Speak Lord, your servant is listening’

Came Samuel’s firm reply

I wonder what we say to Him

When He calls you and I

***

With i-phones and cell-phones

And head-phones and such

I wonder if we still hear

God very much

***

Moments are the ripples

On life's rising, falling sea

One over takes another 

And is never-more to be

Janet Martin

Authentic Treasure

 

And now we wake

Gladly partake

With no brief hesitation

The good of life

Even its strife

Is not without elation

If we have food enough to eat

And shoes to wear upon our feet

And strength enough with which to meet

Toil’s present expectation

But oh, the bloom

Of grief and gloom

Where laughter turns to crying

Dare we to think

We ought not drink

The gall of anguished sighing

Will we take good but not the rest?

And for ourselves heap up life’s best

While others flounder in its test

Alone, starving and dying?

This is the day

The Lord has made

Not for our passive pleasure

But that we might

His heart delight

By loving without measure

To cast our bread upon the sea

To serve in kind humility

To store in fathomless degree

Love’s everlasting treasure

© Janet Martin

 He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. Job 2:10

Trusting Completely

Fully, wholly, utterly

Without one reservation

This is how you came to me

Oh, God of all creation

Completely You poured out Your love

The debt of sinners bearing

Lord, teach me then how I may trust

Completely without fearing

© Janet Martin

 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

Why do we doubt the one who made

the earth and all therein

Why do we doubt the one who gave

His life-blood for our sin?

Why do we doubt the one who vowed

His grace is all-sufficient 

Why do we doubt Thee, Holy God

Jehovah, all-omniscient  

Teach me HOW to trust you, oh God

Teach us how to give in complete trust!

Almost Eighteen

It isn’t easy being almost-eighteen

When other pastures are fairer and greener

Than the row that you were given to hoe

It isn’t easy

Being almost-eighteen…

I know

It isn’t easy being almost-eighteen

So many unknowns remaining to be seen

So many doors all seemly barred

So many decisions

And all of them

Hard

It isn’t easy being almost-eighteen

Uncertain of how far or how fearless to dream

As fantasy and reality

Wage debate

Each hovering beyond

The garden gate

It isn’t easy being almost-eighteen

Realizing that life is not ‘but a dream’

And rowing your boat against life’s stiff tide

Is anything but

A ‘merrily, merrily’

Ride

But darling, I’m not sure if any of us really ‘knows’

One foot then the other, that’s the way life goes

No one can see

The next line, the next page

And life is a faith-leap

No matter our age

…and darling, it isn’t easy being forty-six

Swiftly, so swiftly life’s impatient clock ticks

I hold and I reach, I trust and I pray

I learn while I teach

and feel you slipping

away

It isn’t easy, so all we can do

Is ask God day by day to gently lead us through

Whether we are eighteen

Or forty-five

Time is a hungry foe that licks

Away our lives

© Janet Martin