Monday, July 1, 2013

Of Assurance and Absolutes





Beneath the dawn’s unfolding
Or twilight’s molten skies
Within our having-holding
A sweet assurance lies
And though the laughing color
Of youth or summer’s rose
Surrenders virgin valor
To history’s repose
We bear with earnest yearning
Our portion of life’s cross
For there is no returning
To fields of what once was
Nor is there any portal
No subterfuge or man
Above Heaven’s Immortal
To void redemption’s plan

The Rock of our Salvation
No threat or scheme can dim
There is no condemnation
To those who are in Him
And though the mocking demons
His gospel truths distort
Nothing spirit or human
Can Love’s endurance thwart
The increase of His mercy
And immutable grace
Exceeds hate’s vilest curses
Or despair’s darkest place
And through the dawn-dusk orbit
Of brief mortality
Nothing rescinds His promise
To those who will believe

Belief and repentance
There are no substitutes
Or half-hearted atonement
For mercy’s absolutes
Belief and repentance
Crushes the Serpent’s head
And seals a rich inheritance
Beyond death’s vale of dread
And though designs of darkness
May distract or deceive
There is no condemnation
To those who will believe
Belief and repentance
There are no substitutes
Forgiveness, Hope and Heaven
Are Mercy’s absolutes

© Janet Martin

 "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!" Mark 1:15

For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.  2Cor.6:2

Yesterday morning at our worship service we looked at 1 Peter chapter 1. The question was asked; what difference has Jesus made in our day-to-day life as we first considered the Living Hope we have through the risen Christ and then our exhortation to holy living! I have been pondering this question since then and I believe that until we truly believe and only if we truly believe, will it make any difference and ALL the difference! Living Hope gives purpose to everything we do!

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Of Sorrows, Scrimmages and Precious Peace





The silent sorrows of the heart
No ink of pen can dare to spell
Nor brush release its anguished art
Groaning beneath this dust-wrought shell

The panting prayer of pleading thought
No page or stage could bear to flaunt
Or scrawl in humble scripted jot
The hollow holding hidden want

The scrimmages of faith and fear
Rival where only God can see
It is enough; He bends His ear
Bestowing precious peace to me

© Janet Martin

Of Love and Souls





To skim lightly
Over your skin
With my eyes,
To glance passively
In your direction
Yet not recognize
In full the import
Of precious you
Is like touching
Without feeling
Or sight
Without view

Can I say
‘I love you’
Yet treat nonchalantly
The invisible
That lives for
Eternity?
What are the laws
That you write
On your heart
Or bind ‘round
Your neck
Its wisdom
To impart?

To kiss you and
Hold you and
Never full tell
Of soul-truth
Redemption,
Of Heaven and hell
Is like skimming
Over love
Or smiting
The face
Of He who
IS
Love,
Hope
Goodness and
Grace

© Janet Martin

What are our children writing on their hearts?

And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the posts of your house, and on your gates. …Duet. 6:7-9

My son,  keep your father's commandment, and forsake not the law of your mother: Bind them continually on your heart, and tie them about your neck. When you go, it shall lead you; when you sleep, it shall keep you; and when you wake, it shall talk with you. …Prov. 6:21

My son, forget not my law; but let your heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you: bind them about your neck; write them on the table of your heart: …Prov 3:1-3

My son,  keep my words, and lay up my commandments with you. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers, write them on the table of your heart. …Prov.7:3


Of Farewells and Recompense





Upon the buxom breeze we sense
In rising, falling swell
A subtle sigh of imminence
Skimming the open fell
It hovers low above the lake
In plumes of purple mist
As it bestows the keening ache
Of being almost kissed

Is loneliness perpetual want
Of what can never be
Perplexed by beauty’s moment-taunt
And heart’s inanity?
Or is it the flip-side of love
A tender winnowing
Intangible as skies above
Yet all-encompassing

Across the wild-bloom ravishing
Of precious Time’s expanse
We bear the raw relinquishing
Of have-and-holding’s dance
From passion-pores our longing pleads
Yet in synchronous mete  
We press its echo to our needs
In comfort bitter-sweet

Upon the dew-belle dawn we sense
The tug of letting go
We hunger for the recompense
Of Time’s incumbent woe
To have and hold is love’s brief bliss
How lingering the knell
Of tender-sweetest loneliness
Where love bleeds its farewell

© Janet Martin

June; where did you go? 
Oh,fairest maiden of them all
And why your eager hastening
Toward the scrim of fall?

With glad anticipation
You rushed into our reach
Melting in meek subjection
Like a wave upon the beach




Friday, June 28, 2013

Green



Many a month may boast its fare
And flaunt their robes of splendor
But I have yet to wander where
There is a robe more tender
Than June with coat of evergreen
In vivid shade or lazy
From woodland haunts of emerald sheen
To fields of dew and daisy

The rolling hills in splendor reign
Above lush dell and hollow
I hear their whispers soft and green
They taunt with trails to follow
Into the crooning underbrush
Of cool green shadows sighing
Beneath the sweeping, languid hush
Of willow-branches crying

Winter, oh take your dazzling white
Autumn, regale your glory
Those crimson hillsides flaming bright
Today, do nothing for me
Today I’ll rest in summer’s arms
Of June’s resplendent treasure
Of glorious green in countless forms
 Expanding without measure

 Janet~

Megan reminded me of a poem I wrote a few years ago. Thank-you Megan, for your interest and for sharing it:) We can revel in June for 2 more days!This years it looks like a lush,green July as well, due to an abundance of rain!

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Stolen Flowers



These are some of the flower-stands that we passed when we were out and about today.



Keeping from God what is not ours
Is like gazing with pride at stolen flowers

(Right now the roadside stands are brimming with blooms; drop your money in container provided and pick a bouquet. I wondered if they have trouble with people simply taking the flowers, then I thought; how could anyone enjoy stolen flowers? This thought was followed by immediate conviction)



Summer Madrigal





When streams in silver ribbon tease
The meadows flush with clover bloom
As winter’s fireside fantasies
Embellish nature’s living-room
When dawn melts gold into each rill
And dusk leans long against earth’s loam
Cajoled by lark and whippoorwill
And mother’s calling children home
Then we are all princes and lords
As summer spills its sanguine hoards

When sea-song rolls across bare feet
Where gulls waft high on hazy blues
And winds grow lazy in the heat
Rippling on milkweed avenues
When golden-rod sprouts plumes of green
And earth is giddy 'neath its crown
Then surely summer is a queen
And we the stragglers on her gown
As daisy rivers drift awry
Where ditches lure the roving eye

When lovers stroll exotic lanes
Behind the barn beneath the moon
Or pictures pulse within our veins
Begging to spill in ink-fraught swoon
On easels formed of sun-swept hill
Where palettes pour their rainbow yield
In petal-poem madrigal
Of flowers flowing through a field
As summer flings ajar her door
There are no beggars on her shore

© Janet Martin


Since this is the last day of school before summer-break I treated myself to a long bike ride this morning...well sort-of treated because it ended up being a ride in the rain;) Still, summer swelled in top-notch form!


Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Words and/or Action



 


Words ease our conscience
And make us feel good
But a living example
Needs no substitute

Wise words are golden
And essential
But only when spoken
In action as well

Words spell instruction
But its message is clearer
If our action
Reflects in its mirror

© Janet Martin