Friday, May 31, 2013

Arabesque Avalanche



The flowers walk past me while I’m standing still
The moon climbs the stairs to its heavenly hill
The moments that held such mystery and appeal
Fall into the fairway of history’s seal
It seems to happen while I’m standing still

The babies that held me are taller than I
Someday perhaps they will teach me to fly
It happens so quickly, the ebb and the flow
Over, beneath me, holding, letting go
Now my babies are bigger and braver than I

Arabesque oceans of hours and years
Surging in memory over thought’s phantom piers
Am I standing still while Time rushes ahead?
For I see a lifetime unravel its thread
In shimmering laughter and tears

© Janet Martin

Remember twirling on a rope-swing, spinning, spinning, then stopping while the world continued to tilt and twirl...that's what it feels like sometimes; Life, twirling by while I feel myself in slow-motion, trying to take it all in!


Moments are like bubbles...as we catch them they disappear.



Thursday, May 30, 2013

Wanderers...



 

We never know where we will wander
Over the misty morn
Or back to the days of childhood
Where memories are tarnished and worn
Together we traverse the rafters
Of midnight; the moon-garnished sea
Drinking the hope and the laughter
Of echoes or what yet might be

The pathway of thought and desire
Suffers no boundaries
We ruffle the hemlock spire
With longing’s languid melodies
Deeds are the dust that we reckon
Words are the letters we blend
But now silver-soft eons beckon
Where only a thought can transcend

We never know where we will wander
When Muse spills her enchanting font
Giving permission to squander
White whispers of wishes and want
Beyond blue horizons we ramble
Reaching for perception’s vague ken  
As thought and I freely amble
In search of a poem to pen

© Janet Martin




Wednesday, May 29, 2013

As Daylight Closes its Doors





Dandelion halos gleam pink in the dusk
As daylight closes its doors
The air heavy-laden with mist-silver musk
Wafting from shimmering shores
Over the meadowland drifts the sweet swell
In lyrics of vesper and lark
As God breathes a masterpiece of fond farewell
Beneath the soft-stilly dark

Somnolent beauty in sable surrender
Where does the twilight begin?
Over the landscape in deepening splendor
Somewhere the night settles in
Against the emerald indulgence of noontide
Somber tones snuff shades of day
Draping a shawl over slumbering country-side
Ebony, charcoal and gray

Into the archives of never-returning
Dawn’s darling diadem slips
Gone is its pithy allotment of yearning
Erased by God’s fingertips
Dandelion halos fade into oblivion
As daylight fades into the deep
And all we have left of its azure pavilion
Are love’s tender memories to keep

© Janet Martin


We are at the time of year when the sun sets at the end of the highway... one never can tell where the light stops and the dark begins; it moves in deepening, deepening but how, we cannot tell!



What Makes a Successful Marriage?



 


For all the words written, repeated and referenced
For all the books gathering dust on our shelves
Marriage must be a constant endeavor
To put the other before ourselves

‘Easier said than done’, that’s a promise
It seems that Self is a dominant voice
Subtle and always eager to be noticed
Willing to be our soothing first choice

Two become one but with two opinions
Two become one in new love immersed
and Marriage will be a beautiful union
Only if each puts the other first

Alone it is hard to apply resolution
The tie that binds two hearts near and dear
Must be secured by a Third divine portion
God will enable us to persevere

© Janet Martin

Love-lessons in marriage are endless! On Monday hubby and I, Lord willing, will celebrate 25 years of learning! The analysis of what I have learned is this;

Two selfish people= disaster.   
One selfish person= abuse.  
No selfishness= Happy marriage
(or instead of no selfishness perhaps simply; each seeking selflessness)

We have experienced seasons in each of these categories.




It Must be May...





When the whole world is washed with green
And splashed with lilacs in between
Indigo heights and emerald tray
Then I think that it must be May

When latticework of scrawny limb
Is traced and graced with leaf-lace trim
And sudden showers come to play
Well, then I think it must be May

When sparkling brooks laugh through the land
To chatter over sludge and sand
In ribbons blue and silver-gray
Then I am sure it must be May

...the gold of dandelion rush
The pink of apple-blossom blush
The rainbow of tulip foray
All seem to sing, 'it must be May'

It must be May when all the world
Is nature’s virgin bud unfurled
As earth dons garments floral-green
Where winter’s faded robes had been

© Janet Martin

I am always rather reluctant to relinquish May...

More Than Mouthed Repetitions...



 

I should never want to take
For-granted all the pleas I make...
'Lord, help us seek the true and good
And fill our hearts with gratitude
Lord, keep us safe and watch, I pray
Our thoughts and actions; what we say
And help us this day not to waste
Its moments in dull, heedless haste
Lord, fill with gladness every task
And teach us what we ought to ask'

© Janet Martin

An inexplicable wave of wonder surged through me as I prayed with the school-kids before they left this morning. Often a prayer’s words seem repetitious, yet our needs are new every morning, just as is God’s mercy!

Heart or Mind?



 

Is it the mind that shapes my thought
In images of unformed art
Within this cage of flesh and blood
Or is it after all, my heart?

I cannot separate the two
And yet they bicker constantly
The dreamer and task-master feud
Where mind and heart oft disagree

Is it the heart that drives the mind
Or must the mind persuade the heart?
Often it seems I cannot find
A way to tell the two apart

© Janet Martin

As I studied verses on thought they spoke mostly not of the mind but of the heart. H-m-m-m...here a just a few of those verses.

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Luke 6:45

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Prov.4:23

 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Matt 12:24




It Seems the Mind is Filled With Thoughts...



 

It seems the mind is filled with thoughts
Of meager livings toil and spoil
Of mysteries God’s hand allots
Upon this sorrow-stricken soil
The mind; it bears our fantasies
The onslaught of love’s fears and tears
It shapes upon its hidden seas
The hunger of life’s little years

How is it that the mind can bear
The weight of wars that test us so
While hope runs whispers like a prayer
Across its capricious plateau?
The tender turmoil of farewell
Re-echoes through its corridors
And in its alabaster shell
The breakers dash against its shores

The mind endures both joy and grief
The fickle foibles of the flesh
It reels in wordless disbelief
As surrender and strength enmesh
It is the cup where faith and fear
Mingle in contrasting alloy
Spilling into the atmosphere
As hand and heart and mouth employ

© Janet Martin


 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Phil. 4:8