Thursday Thoughts on Things Unknown

So many things uncertain, unknown

But one thing we know;

‘There’s no place like home’.

(Just had an e-mail letting us know Dad came home tonight. He was picked up this morning, came through an awful storm to find the roads closed to their home so they(mom and dad) went to my brother’s house until this evening. As he was leaving the hospital a nurse smiled at Dad and said he has the ‘breaking free’ smile. I’m sure tonight home is even sweeter though he rested well at Dave and Karen’s house.)

***

If we dwell on thunder-clouds that might unfold

We miss every joy-drop of mercy we hold

***

We cannot see beyond the moment slipping through our touch

Treasure, taste and reverence it, then leave the rest to God

***

Yesterday is over

Tomorrow; a maybe

Today is almost

A memory

***

Fear is a mountain

Dread is a stone

Faith is our foothold

Into its Unknown

***

Disappointment is always a present-past thing

Unknown is the hope to which we cling

***

We all are students

In the school of life

We didn’t know yesterday

What we do tonight

***

If I knew all I wished I knew

Of things Unknown and hidden

Then I know that what I know

I’d likely wish I didn’t

***

It is better to work with what we know

Than worry about what we don’t

Some things in time their proof will show

And some…I hope they won’t

***

If all that was left is what we know

Anticipation would lose its glow

***

How far the Unknown goes, who knows?

But this we know for sure

One life, one death, then the God we chose

Our soul-place will secure

© Janet Martin

Winter Evening and Other Things...

Piano notes clunk, plunk ripple and trill

Earth is refurbished with winter-white chill

Kettle is humming and ready for tea

Tomorrow hovers with its mystery

Dinner is over and daytime is too

Dusk drops its cover in frigid gray-blue

Today tucks memories into its fold

Tomorrow never tells what it will hold

Windows are dappled with icy chagrin

Outside the blackness of night settles in

Media repeats latest news-events

Tomorrow’s secrecy never relents

Retrospect ponders, wind wanders dark wood

Bible reminds us that still God is good

Telephone rings, we put dishes away

Tomorrow waits to become our today

© Janet Martin

We were discussing just now how it is good we don’t know what a day will bring…Who knew dawn-semi-calm would result in an all-day blizzard!?

Winter Warm-up

Put a log upon the hearth
Put a toddy in your mug
Come, let's watch wild winter's mirth
By the firelight on this rug

Put a slow song on the air
Let that blue wind seethe and whine
It is not too cold, my dear
With your whispers touching mine

Put an hour on the clock
Hang your robe where minutes fuss
Winter cannot break the lock
There is no one here...but us

Snow is cold but love is warm
Put a smile upon your lips
Ah, methinks I sense a storm
Not of flakes but fingertips

Janet~

Simple Wishes...in the Middle of Winter

…to sit upon a sun-beamed hill

And never need to move until

My cup of tea needs a re-fill

…to watch Old Winter’s bully breed

Drip, drip until spring’s sanguine seed

From Mother Earth’s dark womb is freed

…to use forgotten words like ‘spade’

And ‘gardening’ and ‘lemonade’

And ‘30 Celsius in shade’

…to hear the flap of flip-flop feet

To see noon ripple in the heat

Beneath calm, cumulus cloud-fleet

…or, just to sit upon May's hill

And listen to the lauding trill

Of morning-dove and daffodil

© Janet Martin

Ballad of Br-r-r-r

From this...

to this...

...within an hour!

Waist-deep stripped maples are rooted in white

Day-silence broken by stiff, creaking limb

Combing the air for sweet, softer respite

Naught do they find but a gale, grey and grim

Over a landscape of freshly-frothed cold

Dawn draws brief shadows in shivering gold…

We dream of green, not to pocket or spend

But that of carpets rolled out to the sky

When will the snow-dregs their last tiding send?

They spill fresh flurries in frigid reply

Combat is timid save for chimney flute

But the wind scorns its anemic dispute

Jack Frost has show-cased his art over-time

Though once he startled and awed still-life plot  

Now, how we covet the zeal of a rhyme

Dappled with violet and forget-me-not

Sallow sun bleeds through bleak, boreal blue

Before snarling storm snuffs its wick from our view

Where is the ballad of brook-song and bloom?

Where the affections of sun-kissed caress?

Is there a balm for this ice-stricken tomb?

Will gentle zephyr stroke Hope’s budded tress?

But as we reach out with numb finger-tips

Wild Old Man Winter roughly kisses our lips

© Janet Martin

Without a Kiss

How oft you come to me

And ring the morning bell

Then just as oft you slip away

Without a kiss farewell

You reach across the dark

To draw its veil ajar

Then soon it seems, soft you dissolve

Behind the evening star

I never can foretell

What nuances you bear

Or how your Master will design

The colors that you wear

But ever faithfully

Each morning you appear

To satisfy the waking hour

With laughter, song and tear

Then just as faithfully

As overhead the sky

Deepens, soft, soft you disappear

Without a kiss good-bye

© Janet Martin

We Love our Boys...

We love our boys.

Their noise,

Their toys,

Their vim,

Their grin,

A

Mother’s joys

Yes, we love our boys.

Be it

Mischief or

Mirth unfurled

A boy is surely

God’s smile

To the world

We love our boys.

…tomorrow’s men

And as those shoes

They don

I pray within them still

A little bit of boy

Lives on…

© Janet Martin

Matt loves to tease...his sister and his mother;)

(yesterday after school)  Matt; Hey Mom, what was the celery for in my lunch?

Mom; To eat.

Of Knowing and Seeking...

Lord, may it never be enough

To know You love me so

But keen my heart to seek You, Lord

In spite of what I know

Oh Lord, make me to hunger

Even as You fill my need

Lest I grow lax and simply feed

To satisfy my greed

My Lord, I know You promise

You will uphold the weak

Oh, do not make me strong enough

That I no longer seek

© Janet Martin