Chicken-pox

When ya’ got the chicken-pox

You can’t be wearin’ shoes or socks

‘cause chicken pox got no respect

But perch on feet-soles, scalp and neck

And every crease, cranny of skin

That they can manage to squeeze in

When chicken-pox make a house-call

They are not courteous at all

We don’t see them till they hatch

And all we want to do is scratch

But mother says that we must not

Oh, how I hate the chicken-pox

'Bring me a swab of calamine,
A drink, a bath of oatmeal-grime'

How sweet and happy life will be

When I get past this misery

Of burning, itching agony

And chicken-pox melancholy

© Janet Martin

She prefers to be living in an oatmeal-bath these days;)

"Victoria; in the words of my mother, 'this too shall pass'. "

At least they will be better by Saturday, her 12th birthday!

Solace

 My 'Happy-place' is the corner of our living-room or The Poet's Den where I recently moved my ever-expanding poetry collection.

Poetic Bloomings invites us the share our 'happy place' today.

Soft surrender like no other

It’s a bit like coming home

To the arms of gentle mother

In the comfort of a poem

Timeless treasure tunes the silence

Promises from God to men

Murmur in the troubled darkness

As His whisper moves my pen

Ache of longing, fear of morrow

Flows in quiet tenderness

Melding pleasure, pain and sorrow

In this think-in-ink caress

Healer of heart-ache and hunger

Troubadour of sonnet-song

Passion, prayer and promise murmur

In the solace of a poem

© Janet Martin

Wonderful, Wondrous Wonder

 

We repent and are forgiven

What a wondrous, glorious thing

There is just one way to Heaven

Through the lifeblood of a King

Not by works or gold and silver

Is His justice satisfied

But as we trust sin's Deliverer

Him; Jesus Christ crucified

Oh, what love and great compassion

Suffering so we may live

Once for all; infinite offering

When we ask Him He forgives

© Janet Martin

When my hubby asked what was so urgent as I stumbled out of bed and turned on the computer I tried to explain to him through choked emotion, how sometimes it awes me anew ‘we repent and He forgives’. There is no limit to the mercy of the Kings of kings and Lord of Lords; the One who shed His own blood so we may live.

What Did You Come to See?

What did you come to see?

A reed tossed in the wind?

A man in fine array?

A voice of one crying?

What did you come to see?

The horror of blood shed?

A corpse of suffering

With thorns upon His head?

What did you come to see?

A cross? A king? A thief?

Or did you come to see a Lamb

Bearing atonement's grief?

Why did you come to gaze

At heaven’s mercy-seat?

Was it your hatred or your love

That drew you to His feet?

What did you come to see

As He cried, ‘it is done’?

A man upon a tree

Or Jesus, God’s own Son?

© Janet Martin

Like a Lamb

She tiptoed in on silver scrim

Of February’s waning

While poets slept softly she crept

Beneath Time’s astral awning

The gilded wing of darling spring

Consoles the frosted tresses

Beneath night’s arch keen, moody March

Whispers of Easter dresses

The phantom skien of moment-mein
Employs its muted measure
As on the hearth of quiet earth
We greet Spring's sweet harbinger

© Janet Martin

I think March came in like a lamb; calm but very cold!

Life's Moment-sky

 This morning life's moment-sky is as colorless and bleak as the landscape.

In my heart of hearts I know

This time beneath life’s moment-sky

Is but a twinkling ebb and flow

Before we bid its gasp good-bye

This time beneath life’s moment-sky

Is a scabbard of mystery

And none of us can prophesy

The details shaping history

Its keen, ephemeral ebb and flow

Will test and try our boasted trust

For none of us can really know

Our depth of faith until we must

Before we bid its gasp good-bye

May we acknowledge only this

…One greater than life’s moment-sky

Prevails, and where we are HE IS

© Janet Martin

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

The truck my husband drives broke down shortly after he loaded in Sask. yesterday. Since no mechanic has time to even look at it until next week he is flying home this morning. We never know what a day will bring and it is better in the long run that we do not. God provides grace and strength in our hour of need and only for the hour we are in!

Making Doughnuts and Memories

I wonder, he says

As he dangles the dough

Heavily in the air

Letting it land ungracefully

Like a selfish prayer,

I wonder if I promised to give him

Pizza for life,

For free

If Dad would allow me to be a baker

Instead of what I was going to be

…and I turn to gaze at this not-quite-a-man child

With a sudden wave of yearning

Life lies before him, a wide-open field

Ripe with lure of learning

Smiling and coaxing the dreamer to dream

Merrily splashing in life’s endless stream

Not yet restrained by the tempered truth

That experience withholds from tender youth

I turn off the doom-and-gloom news story

Saying, ‘son, you can be anything you want to be’

© Janet Martin

I told Emily that I'm trying to see the beauty of dough floating on grease...the pay-off was in the moans and sighs of bliss as they tasted the fruit of their labor...one of them said they didn't know anything could taste this good!:) Victoria reminded me that treats are those things you don't do very often...that's what makes it a treat!

Doughnut Recipe

Irreplacable

 

I tried to find another word

To tell you how I feel

One not so common, often heard

Yet still honest and real

I tried to find a word to spell

The oceans in my heart

And hurricanes within the knell

Of parting’s priceless art

But when I weighed your soft-half grin

The barracks where you let me in

The half-breath longing in your sigh

Wonder that dwarfs time’s little sky

The second look and second mile

Forgiveness uttered in a smile

Something so old yet ever new

Compelling us to remain true

Then, when I tried to compensate

With lesser words something so great

I failed for one cannot improve

The fathoms spelled in this word: Love

© Janet Martin

There is no other way
to properly say,
'I love you'.