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.

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

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?

 

 Image Source

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