Walk in the Winter-woods

Maybe it’s the hush as it traces dappled spaces

Dripping from lofty and bare-naked limb

Or the meekness of nonchalant hemlock fingers

Strumming the hour in a reverent hymn

Maybe it’s the absence of mortal creation

In this sanctuary, not made with hands

Where winnowing winds murmur kind, tender mercies

Softening duty’s despotic demands

The nuthatch flits from its tree-hole safe-haven

The language of leaf-song has slipped to the earth

Yet the breeze slides through the turrets of summer

Teasing the silence with evergreen mirth

Maybe it’s the absence of primal persuasion

Here, in the off-spring of Eden’s paradise

There is no clamoring intimidation

Where century-shaped pillars reach to the skies

What is it about a walk in the woodlands?

This beautiful garden bereft of cruel strife

Where shoulders, care-weighted upon our arrival

Are no longer bent beneath burdens of life

Time charts its discourse of four-season struggle

The woods are a glorious four-season reprieve

And perhaps we all would remain carefree children

If we wandered through the woodlands every eve

© Janet Martin

When We Begin to Count our Blessings...

When we least feel like

Giving thanks or

Singing or

Praying or

Rejoicing or

Loving or

Hoping or

Trusting or

Waiting or

Keeping on

We ought to anyhow...

...for when we begin

to count our blessings

we begin to give thanks

to sing and 

pray and

rejoice and

love and

hope and

trust and

wait and

keep on 

keeping on

Janet~

Tug-of-war Tango

Oh, quell this eager, effervescent surge

Kissing my mouth while subtly it steals

Rending my heart while tenderly it heals

Author of love song, lullaby and dirge

Oh still the rampage of this ruthless stream

Luring the child from mother’s pleading eye

Yet, she has prayed her young-ling learns to fly

She will not snuff the splendor of a dream

Oh, quench the fount of moment-melody

May I have one more dance; curve melding curve?

Yet, one half-step is more than I deserve

Passion and pain align intricately

Oh, hold me close, for I cannot resist

The imminence of what is yet to be

And love is such a precious agony

Twixt farewell tears and waiting to be kissed

Oh tease me, tease me not, hold me, let go

I cannot bear, yet must endure its ploy

Of bitter-sweetest misery and joy

Wrought by the tempo of life's moment-flow

© Janet Martin

Waterfall- Jon Schmidt

Most Wonderful Wonder

I wonder

What is my most wonderful wonder

For surely each day reveals wonders anew

But in the end, I am certain, my friend

That my most wonderful wonder

Is loving you

Janet~

Simple Request

 

Oh, do not judge me then

When

I’m still in the middle

Of who

I will be

But

In the meantime

Would you be so kind

As to,

Instead of judging

Simply love me?

© Janet~

Mercy's Bestowal

 Strange, how within an hour the sky can wear so many moods. It rose in bold attire then slipped into nondescript gray.

While dawn is deep

And zephyrs sleep

I sense the waning of its will

Beyond the globe

Night's rigid robe

Begins to melt from eastern rill

The cobalt hue

Of slumb’ring blue

Softens beneath the silent urge

Of amethyst

And lilac mist

Darkness dissolves within its surge

The heaviness

Of midnight’s tress

In wordless wonder slips away

From mercy’s Source

Love’s unseen Force

Bestows to us another day

© Janet Martin

While I was trying to capture the sunrise from my kitchen-window Victoria called to me from the end of the driveway as she waited for the bus 'if you really want to see the sun rise you need to come out to the road' She was right!

It's funny how the view changes when we change our view-point:)

 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. 1 Cor. 4:5

Of Today...Thursday Thoughts

It does no good to hold them fast

…those faded frenzies of the past

For soon the moment in our hand

Will join those monuments of sand

And soon time’s wave will wash away

The offering we call Today

***

…I do not want to short-change the present

By living in the past or fearing what may yet wait

So God, help me to embrace moment-offerings

Lest they fall unnoticed until its too late

***

…then, when the sun leans heavy on the edge of the day

Pink pool on earth’s levee before it slips sway

We will not covet its immutable pull

If we live, laugh and love this day to the full

***

This is a sacred and holy space

Compassionate  offering of mercy and grace

Lavished on us from our Father’s embrace

This is Today

This is not merely a pounding of sod

Or suffering beneath love’s mysterious rod

These are rare moments framed by God

This is Today

This is heaven-tenured opportunity

Intangible torrent sliding to a sea

Fulcrum twixt history and eternity

This is Today

***

No matter what the past has claimed in its clutch

No matter what tomorrow shrouds in folds of gray

We hold everything worth having beneath our touch

In a beautiful present we call Today

© Janet Martin

How will we use His gift?

This holy place where we dash with soiled feet

in shameless disregard to its Giver…

Lord teach me to live

As you would have me to be

Lord, teach me to serve

With humility

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8

Echoes...

I ask him if he played there

Where the cattails drink the pond

His blue eyes gleam, gazing fondly

To an echoing bygone

With tender smile he sees them

...jolly good times that they had

And I smile, because for a moment

The old man became a lad

© Janet Martin

He told me of the camp-outs, parties, bonfires...
...and how nobody comes here anymore.

 ...once he hung a bird-house,
planted daffodils by the cottage,
listening to the trill of the wood-thrush
Now the air is still, there is a sacred hush
where memories keep
vigil over the grave where the woods-man sleeps