Sonnet on Vexations of Love

Love probes the deepest recess of intent

It dis-annuls the foibles of the flesh

As hunger and humility enmesh

In poignant intricacies heaven-sent

Where all the laws of rigidness are bent

To adhere to its utter selflessness

Defying longing’s wretched emptiness

It fills the vexing void of discontent

Indwelling and outpouring synchronized

Mortality and Mystery ally

To sear, perplex, in passion undisguised

A joyous grief of wounds to satisfy

Love’s subliminal conquest recognized

By sanguine sorrow silvering the eye

***

Love; it denudes our vulnerability

And strips the barriers of self-defense

With nothing more than whispers, wild, intense

We dare to bear its stunning misery

In spite of what we can or cannot see

Willing to risk its ruthless recompense

Susceptible, our soul-blood we dispense

Forgiving shortfalls of humanity

Dismantling the bulwarks of the heart

We plunge into a volatile unknown

To taste its utterance, for no rampart

Can exile hope; love’s obscure stepping-stone

No common logic augments to outsmart

The need to feed on crumbs from heaven’s throne

***

We wrestle with the pain of pleasure’s kiss

And revel in its keen, incumbent grief

Thriving within its ruthless un-relief

As we return to drink its suffering bliss

For everything is nothing without this

Of our inmost yearning, love is chief

The anchor in emotion trite and brief

Its bittersweet, the air we reminisce

A filament of ecstasy and woe

Laughing, it weeps; tempestuous embrace

A tug-of-war in holding; letting go

The climax of insanity and grace

We let the tenure of its torment flow

In tears of joy and sorrow on our face

© Janet Martin

Hey...it's back-to-school day and mothers are NEVER too old to cry...
...so I'm going to cry if I want to:)

Love's overflow is tears

Rebel With a Hope...

A rebel by inborn nature

A servant by God’s tender grace

Employed by a Master-Savior

Who humbly took our place

As Perfection, Power and Glory

Put on meek flesh and blood

To write redemption’s story

In love’s pure, crimson flood

And now we, rebels by nature

Can be vanquished of our guilt

As mercy weeps on our behalf

In heaven’s Life-blood spilt

He signs our plea for pardon

With holy nail-scarred hand

As once for all, His offering

Fulfills redemption’s plan

Rebels we are by nature

Heirs we are, by grace

Because He sent His beloved Own

To die in our place

© Janet Martin

Hallelujah, what a Savior.

 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—Col. 1:21-22

I Come Out Here to Listen...

I come out here to listen

To the sky-line lullaby

To hear its vesper glisten

On the deep end of good-by

The Maestro of this orchestra

The Hand that tunes its choir

Composes twilight’s masterpiece

In chords of holy fire

Above this troubled clod of dirt

With all its torn devotion

He calms our visages of hurt

With heaven’s flaming ocean

I come out here to listen

To love’s soulful solitude

As it melts upon the evening

In a tender-whelming flood

The bumps and scrapes of living

Are predictable and plain

But the overtures of heaven

Who can imitate its strain?

I come out here to listen

To His hallowed vespers swell

As I hear Him softly whisper,

It is well, it is well

© Janet Martin

The Birth of a New Day

Morning melts its silver river

Over the cobblestone

Holy hush preceding the rush

Of life’s unknown

Daybreak spills its molten grail

To shaded bow’r

Grace flings her golden veil

Across the hour

Dawn tiptoes above the horizon

In yellow-gray

But as she reaches for the heavens

She fades away

© Janet Martin

Across the Bridge...

Image Source:  wired.com

Someday across the Bridge I know, it's hard to believe

We will sing to Jesus with the likes of Jim Reeves

and other faithful greats who have crossed on to Heaven

As we praise the Power and the Glory forever. Amen

Janet~

Across the Bridge  Jim Reeves

The Vexation of the Unknown...

We cannot write away longing or desire

Nor diminish space by the hex of poetry

But we can languish in a syllable’s fire

And revel in the vexing of what still might be

J~

Deftly the Daylight Disappears...

Deftly, the daylight disappears

A picture of time’s hastening years

The gushing of a still-life sea

Rushing toward eternity

We are the vessel on its swell

Where is the shore? No one can tell

But someday we shall plainly see

What now remains a mystery

‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard’

This is the promise in God’s word

As twilight spills across earth’s lea

But only until eternity…

Janet~

The Beautiful Bittersweet

The wind reclines hazily on the blue hill

Autumn pines restlessly beyond the dark rill

Shadows sprawl languidly, laden with musk

While August scrawls farewell tears into the dusk

I ponder the fulcrum of time’s forward flow

Wondering what to cling to; what to let go

Summer’s retreating stirs corn-tassel seas

Daylight's depleting stirs soft memories

Passion and pleasure and pain coalesce

As gossamer measure dispels Augusts’ tress

Where whispers of umber and bronze-gilded brush

Serenade summer’s unrelenting rush

Tomorrow is a memory waiting to be born

Ripe opportunity wakens with the morn

Weep not for the flower that falls wilted; wasted

But savor the hour spilling to be tasted

What once was is over; what will be a-waits

Like an impatient lover beyond shuttered gates

Cherish each moment but then let it go

This is love’s tormenting triumph and woe

August relinquishes its final embrace

As September steps eagerly into its place

Bravely we reach while still waving so-long

This is love’s bittersweet, beautiful song

© Janet Martin