This Thursday's Thoughts ( a little late again:)

Bless he whose word is eloquent and tempered with insight

But bless him more who does not speak even when he’s right

***

Not what I say

Nor quiet thought

But what I do

This proves my God

***

The night is dark and still and deep

It seems that I should be asleep

But we are not like other men

…vexed by the whisper of a pen

***

Today is laid into the past

How did it slip away so fast?

A half-song writ of joy and hope

And seasons slipping from Time’s slope

Shaping our laughter, love and sorrow

Always winging to tomorrow

***

You are there and I am here

Yet somehow, through the atmosphere

I touch you and you touch me

Heart to heart in poetry

***

Sometimes when I am feeling blue

With ‘quit-melancholy'

The pep talks that I gave my kids

Turn to admonish me

***

We should never stay where we

Can see our full way through

For when we take that leap of faith

We see what God can do

***

Yes, it’s a big, scary world out there

But it’s still smaller than a half-breath prayer

***

God spoke everything into being

With these words, ‘let there be’

Then He asked that the earth be tended

By lil’ ole’ you

And lil’ ole me

This simple, awesome request

Should make us want to do our best

***

It’s easy to think it’ll be okay

It’s foolish to believe it

If we never pray

© Janet Martin

Waiting...

You are there waiting, dangling on a gate

Vexing ineptness and testing my will

Oh, how I want you but you wait until

Passion and pleasure and pain culminate

Oft I have felt you, presence without form

Just as the wind whispers in the wild beech

You tease the air where my thought cannot reach

Rousing within me a smoldering storm

You are a counselor, you are a gasp

You are a lion restrained in a cage

You are a tear on an empty page

Translucent vision evading my grasp

Far from my touch how you torture my breast

Vague compositions of gossamer gray

Oh, I have held you as you slipped away

Come to me now so at last I may rest

Somewhere out there where the dark and the light

Vie for the sky you remain, bittersweet

Wafting until thought and fingertips meet

You are The Poem I’m waiting to write

© Janet Martin

Flash-freeze or Flash-back

 Last night we put up the tree...always a sentimental return to years gone by.

The company of moments melts

And molds brief present to long past

How swift the sparkle ‘ere it rests

In the flash-freeze of ever-cast

I tremble for within my hold

I sense the sweet and sacred rush

Of mercy’s moment-metered gold

Soft-slipping through my fumbling touch

How quick a year gathers its frock

And girls and curls ride on its hem

Those darling lads that stole our hearts

Soon take their place among life’s men

The give and take within Time’s haste

Impresses on my thought today

That I cannot afford to waste

These moments ‘ere they melt away

© Janet Martin

Just Imagine

Image Source

Just imagine…close your eyes and…

Just imagine if all of us who say

We should

…would

And if all of us who say

We’re going to

…did

And if all of us who kept

…gave

And if all of us who didn’t

…prayed

And if all of us who doubted

…believed

Just imagine

How different

This world

Would

Be

Janet~

Just imagine if THIS kept going and going!

Christmas Forever and Ever, Amen (edited re-post)

They can ban Him from the shopping malls

From politics and schools

They can clamor for free speech

Saying He goes against its rules

While they tout acclamations

In an effort to destroy

I simply want to tell them

They can never steal our Joy

They can say it’s just a story

‘Bout an ordinary man

Jesus didn’t come from glory

To fulfill salvation’s plan

And while they pile, compile their lies

As in darkness they grope

I’d simply like to tell them

They can never steal our Hope

I AM is not some common thing

Mortal can over-throw

He cannot be abolished

Just because some say it’s so

I AM abides; His power reigns

Beneath, around, above

In spite of desperate disclaims

They cannot steal His Love

They can’t take Christ from Christmas

Laws, ramparts won’t keep Him out

They cannot banish Jesus Christ

Though loud they scream and shout

I AM prevails; no law detains

What His Spirit imparts

Joy, Hope and Love ever remains

In true believers hearts

© Janet Martin

...for Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory

Forever and ever,

Amen

Matthew 6:13

December Song

Brass leaf-song has been gathered; tucked into time’s tiralee  

Save for the remnant eighth-note clinging to the apple tree

And from a vaulted ceiling where ten thousand summer’s swirl

The Maestro strikes the timbrel as a silver madrigal

Tumbles in twirling treasure, like an orchestra set free

December spills its measure in a merry melody

The advent of The Christ-child fills our flagging faith with hope

We light the candles in our heart; God lights the barren slope

With miracles of minute breadth His boundless mercies grace

The stricken land of autumn spent with winter-woven lace

Ah, see its exultation gild November’s barren girth

December flings its anthems in wee angels to the earth

The chill wind cannot snuff the song that fills the atmosphere

As wonder of peace, joy and love thrills humble hearts with cheer

For to our wretched brokenness a Baby-Savior came

December puts upon our lips that sweet and sacred Name

And now we join the angels as we lift our hearts to Him

December is a worship song to Jesus Christ our King

© Janet Martin

On Being Beautiful

Beauty is not defined by clothes or shape or hair or skin

Beauty is something that we wear, not outward, but within

For flesh is like the grass; its days like flowers of a field

The beauty of a lovely heart produces ageless yield

Beauty for all its toast and boast is reserved for the one

Who does not use a looking glass to draw approval from

But knows that there is One who sees beyond glamour’s trite art

He searches and beholds the hidden manner of the heart

Oh God, please make us beautiful, not as the world approves

But give us eyes of mercy, tongues gentle, a heart that loves

For as we look beyond ourselves and vanity and pride

Then you bestow true beauty that the outward cannot hide

© Janet Martin

Never before has the pressure to ‘look good, feel good’ been as intense as in this generation, almost implying we have failed somehow if we do not meet those standards.

There is a standard however we dare not fail to meet; My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. Ps. 51:17

Man sees the outward; God sees the heart…

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 1 Sam. 16:7

On Colors and Constance

 now, the same branch; different day

The veil that cast the dark has softened to a weeping gray

No morning splendor spreads its feast to herald another day

Nor gilded leaf inspiring on canvas azure-pure

Each stem of yester’s silver sweep is plebian, obscure

We press our eyes to yonder scrim and scan the demure day

Content; we know the love of Him is constant, gold or gray

The back-drop of our testing toil does not express the heart

Of He who thrills and fills our window-frames with season-art

God’s love abides; greater by far than drops of gold or gray

He stuns our minute grasp as we behold Him day by day

For His love is unchangeable; it drenches smile or tear

Come now and praise His name for oh, another day is here

© Janet Martin

yesterday and today are two opposite extremes...yesterday morning a sparkling wonderland...

 today...gray.

In the song of Zechariah I love this phrase...'through the tender mercy of our God when the day shall dawn upon us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet in the way of peace.'...Luke 1: 78-79