November Wind (edited re-post)

Tonight with sullen scowl it strips

The ragged, rusty leaf

From limbs; and curl its sullen lips

Across our summer grief

Tonight the ragged moon is dull

And teardrops lash the dark

Where every hedge and ditch is full

Of autumn’s waning spark

Tonight it preys outside the door

And creeps beneath the sash

Tonight, across an empty shore

Its yearning billows crash

In sulks of sobbing mutiny

Across earth’s barren form

A sorrowful soliloquy

A brusque and brazen storm

Tonight the landscape is a floor

The wind a ruthless broom

Crashing through burnished corridor

And nature’s living room

It sweeps in vile abandonment

The orchards; tattered vines

In gusts of violent discontent

It rages and resigns

Tonight we tuck the little child

Between warm quilts of down

And though the restless dark is wild

And every leaf far-blown

It cannot chill the firelight

Where precious memories glow

We hold their pleasure close tonight

And let November blow

Janet Martin

 Two weeks ago the wind raged mightily; it is attempting a re-play today.

Because She Understands

When I am brave

I peer into the mirror

And look straight into the eyes that I cannot gyp

Because I know her better

Than anyone else

How she aches at the touch of the moments that slip

And how her face

Is a misleading veneer

To the passion and folly and wonder that throbs

In misconstrued messages

Floundering clumsily

In sighs or silence, in laughter, in sobs

For there are no words

To accurately spell

Her deepest fulfillment or daring demands

But when I am brave

I look in the mirror

Straight into her eyes because she understands

© Janet Martin

Because of His Richness in Mercy and Love

Because of His exceedingly great love

And because of His richness in mercy

He has prepared heaven’s kingdom above

For those who believe; the ransomed and free

Because of His merciful, patient embrace

He has extended Time’s tender caress

So all may believe and be saved by His grace

Not of our works; but through His Righteousness

Because of His kind and compassionate ALL

He could not bear to condemn His beloved

But suffered for us, dark Calvary’s gall

His infinite love and mercy He proved

And because of His richness in mercy and love

We have hope not of this world, but above

Our vile and inherited seed of sin

Could not atone guilt with guilt-tainted dust

But God gave instead His Beloved Son

And now in the name of Jesus we trust

As we become heirs, not of earth’s transient scope

But heirs and joint-heirs of a heavenly King

And this is our glorious, eternal hope

Through His precious blood and gifted offering

By grace we are saved, not of works lest we boast

Death could not contain Jesus Christ the Lord

For He is Life; and our Uttermost

Through Him we inherit Heaven’s reward

And still His abundant mercy implores

To the lost before Grace and Time seals its doors

Lord Jesus, rich is His mercy and grace

Oh, what a love that He does not condemn

But has gone away to prepare a place

For us, in a holy and heavenly realm

Jesus did not come in flesh and blood

To condemn the world, but that we may be saved

And hallelujah, in Calvary’s flood

Death has been conquered; our hope is engraved

In the scars of His hands, His feet, His brow

Surely we cannot fathom the height

The depth, the breadth of His love and how

He willingly bore our Death for our Life

Because God, rich in mercy, grace and good-will

Loved us so, and oh how He loves us still

© Janet Martin

Over and over I read this verse this morning

‘But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy…’ Eph. 2: 4

A Good Read;  Eph. 2: 1-10

John 3: 16-17

Romans 8: 38-39

New Invention for Patience

Poetics Aside Prompt; Write about a piece of technology or engineering that does not exist but that should.  It could be a tribute to something that came to be because of a writer’s imagination, like a helicopter or a submarine or a filtration system that makes urine potable.  Or it could be the original imagination that may one day lead to a new piece of technology, like cloud movers, flood distributors, skyhooks, or levitation chairs.

( I realize my poem is not exactly technology but, it would be nice if someone invented this:) Due to mothering challenges this is the first thought that came to mind:))

Mankind discovers countless cures

To soothe or relieve our ill

But I wish that somebody could invent

A healthy patience pill

Then, for life’s sudden grievances

Or lack of kind good-will

We wouldn’t fret, but simply pop

A little patience pill

Technology is never done

Progress never stands still

And I’m inclined to think someday

They’ll make a patience pill

For traffic jams or check-out lines

While waiting for Jill or Bill

Or as we wait to see the doc

We pop a patience pill

And wouldn’t it be lovely

If we could get a free re-fill

Simply by snapping our fingers

Oops, I think we need a patience pill

© Janet Martin

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We Remember

To all the families all over the world who grieve fallen heroes...we remember, we care.

Remembrance

A gun, a bomb, hatred and loss
Will never set us free
A Son, a tomb, love and a cross
Has sealed our victory

~Janet Martin~

“It is finished” John 19:30

This is my body given for you
Do this in remembrance of me. Luke 22:19

A Veteran's Thoughts from a Park Bench

Poetics Aside Prompt; Write A Veteran's Thoughts

The streets team with young men now, and dreams

But it was not so back when

The draft came to town and stole from

Mothers and lovers

All the young men

Now the park is filled with laughter

Of care free girl and boy

While in countless 'Flanders Fields'

Lies the price tag

Of freedom’s joy

He sits alone on the park bench

Thinking of 'him'

With tears in his eyes 

He remembers

His buddy, Jim

Jim will never see

The fruit of his sacrifice

And he weeps because so many

Seem ignorant

Of freedom’s price

© Janet Martin

No 'Free' in Freedom

Somberly, up the quiet tree-lined street
The steady stream of solemn ranks are led,
As sun-beams dance to the drummer’s beat
Filtering through the branches overhead
Beyond the tears and past the trees
The music of a small child’s laughter swells
Stark contrast to the infantry
Bowing ‘neath the tolling of the bells

Then, as the bag-pipe sound exalts
The melody of sweet Amazing Grace
The banner-covered coffin halts
For it has reached its final resting place
The last note fades, the cannon flies
Echoing across a distant shore
But none as stirring as the mother’s cries
“There’s no ‘free’ in freedom anymore

Put down your banners, lay down your guns
My sweet baby boy has died
Tributes, salutes, many battles won
Won’t bring him back” she cried
“Take away all the roses for nothing will be
Like it ever was before
The price of freedom is too hard for me
There’s no ‘free’ in freedom anymore”

Freedom (part two)

Up the rocky skull-strewn trail
A teaming, screaming throng of hatred surged
Swarming ‘round a form so pale
Upon a place called Calvary they converged
Beyond the tumult, wild and raging
Not a solitary friend is found
Stark contrast to the shouts and praising
As the palm-tree branches decked the ground

Then as the sound of steel on steel
Rings beyond the horror on the hill
As they drive in each cruel nail
‘Gainst the cries of ‘Father, not My will’
And as they raise the blood-stained cross
In victory the maddened thousands roar
As Mary weeps her deepest loss
“There’s no ‘free’ in freedom anymore

Take away your hammers, lay down your swords
My dear precious son has died”
As the lightning flashed and the thunder roared
There at His feet she cried
“Take away all your hatred, your jeers and chanting
For you have slain my Lord
Take away all your weapons, your raging and ranting
There’s no ‘free’ in freedom anymore”

There’s no ‘free’ in freedom, oh what a price
So that we may be set free
There’s no ‘free’ in freedom, love's sacrifice
Is beyond understanding for me
There’s no ‘free’ in freedom, let us value each day
And cherish each living breath
Oh, what a price someone needs to pay
For the cost of freedom is death

Janet Martin