The Way of Things...

We cannot keep the morning

From the afternoon

Nor quell the long blue shadow

Spilling from twilight’s spoon

We cannot pause the moment-rush

The bitter or its sweet

Nor keep the flower’s petal-blush

From falling at our feet

We cannot still the landscape

Charged with our hopes and dreams

Or bind the hour’s billowed cape

Filled with echoed requiems

But we can love, give thanks and pray

And weep if so we must

For soon the flower falls away

As dust returns to dust

We cannot clench the colors

Of seasons as they pass

Nor plot to save the hours

Surging through Time’s wee glass

We drink from founts of mercy

Its offering and then

The flower fades, all but the soul

Returns to dust again

© Janet Martin

Summer Silk

Silky sigh of summer

Slips over our skin

Soft sanguine spiral

Of sun-sparkle grin

Slipping to sonnets

Of silver-spun years,

Soothing our sorrow

With sun-sweetened tears

Surging from spigots

Of gossamer gild

Sunflower echoes

Where summer once spilled

© Janet Martin

Forever Within Reach

 

Run, my dear child, wherever you dare

You’ll never outrun

The reach of a prayer

Dream, my dear child, for youth is fair

Just remember

You can never out-dream my prayer

Dance, my dear child, free from life’s care

But know you are held

In your mother’s prayer

Wherever you roam, whatever you bear

Remember, my child

You are in my prayer

© Janet Martin

They came, laughing through my doorway

for a few brief moments

then they left,

having traded dad's pick-up

for mom's van

a-flutter with beach towels, google maps

and carefree good-byes

I waved and did the only other thing I could think of; pray.

No Farewells of the Heart

 

Farewells are but that place we part

There are no farewells of the heart

Though touch of skin may softly cool

As handshakes end and moments pool

To chart a day, a year, or more

The heart can hold its tenfold score

The farewell of tick-tocks in time

Are but the rhythm in life’s rhyme

We chart love’s tender agonies

Into thought woven memories

And there we keep its precious art

For farewells cannot steal the heart

Into a season’s aftermath

Mute moments meld Time’s painted path

Though farewell severs our clutch

We simply part where flesh can touch

And though our cherished memories smart

There are no farewells of the heart

© J~

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!

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