Saturday, March 22, 2014

But She Will



 Thursday, our first day of spring did not win any popularity contests!


The weather worsened after I was home...

Spring, as of yet has not beget
What she is well known for
Of violet vales and emerald dales
And glad, sun-dappled floor

She has not spun from rain and sun
Those blossoms on the tree
Or teased to naught the frigid draught
Of winter revelries

But given time, this stricken clime
Of ice and sleet and snow
Will bear with joy the kind alloy
Of green and golden glow

And we know soon the afternoon
Will toss her sun-flecked lanes
Beneath our feet, though now a sheet
Of weary white remains

Spring has not brought forget-me-not
Tulip or daffodil
No garden-play or willow-sway
Or robins, but she will

© Janet Martin

Friday, March 21, 2014

Dance Card





Today I want to touch with gentle hands
Life's music written where I cannot see
The composition of a sweet, slow dance
Unraveling in moment-melody

The names and faces on this card are blurred
With ease Time’s Unknown glides across the air
Like midnight, often far more felt than heard
I sense her whispers running through my hair

Love’s live-laugh-loving lilt, its hold-let-go,
Its intermingling of gritty and grand
Of whirling, twirling wonderment and woe
Oh, let me trace each line with gentle hand

Hope places purpose in each daring step
Where faith and fear approach to take my arm
And often I am torn between the grip
Of precious peace and breath-stealing alarm

But oh, today I want to touch Time’s curve
With gentle hand, enjoy its offering
For this slow dance is more than I deserve
And darling, I don’t want to miss a thing

© Janet Martin



Thursday, March 20, 2014

Where Spring-peepers Sing




Snow-swaddled swamp waits in chill-brazen dusk
Wind wails through cattails, blue, bullish and brusque
Umber-capped hilltop rouses thoughts of spring
Where in its twilight the spring peepers sing

Ruddy reed weathered by winter’s caress
Longs for the chestnut of summer-rich tress
Stark-still they suffer knowing time will bring
Saunter of zephyr where spring peepers sing

Shadow-hands etch frozen art on a sheaf
Yearning for whisper of unfolded leaf
Ah, lovely meadow of first-flower fling
Where we can list to the spring peepers sing

© Janet Martin

Thursday Thought on Thought


Within the framework of a thought
Every word and deed is wrought
God bestows to you and me
Head to hand authority 

Thought is nurtured subtly
What we hear and what we see
Plants a seed; oh, fleshly hand
Follows where thought gives command

Mighty matrix of all things
Forging from its hidden springs
All manner of good and ill
Touch is subject to thought’s will

God, teach us with holy fear
Thought’s authorship to revere
For the hand is ever taught
By the power of a thought

© Janet Martin


A few C.S. Lewis quotes to touch your thought today...

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.

 We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

 I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

 Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

 A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.

(one of my personal favorites;) The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only – and that is to support the ultimate career.

(another fav)   No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.

Birthday Card





Fresh frame of hope stirs, imparting its reach
To unmarked pages of lessons to teach
Up from our slumber we rise to embrace
 The soft unveiling of mercy’s washed face

God’s gracious guidance of Light does not fail
Dawn’s woven wonder in soundless exhale
Melts into morning the darkest of night
Stunning our gaze with its faithful delight

Stitched to the vesture of past, yesterday
Will not torment us again with its fray
But from love’s wellspring that never runs dry
Beauteous advent of Day fills the sky

What will the color of its garment be?
What will it spill to fill vast history?
Momentous miracle, blue, gold and gray
God-granted gift in the birth of Today

© Janet Martin

Willing Winter Away




 Dreaming dreams of Garden-days, Sun-warm kisses on my face, Heaven-dirt between my toes, 
where another summer grows...


From ether vaults mute moments drip
Easing tired tempests from Time’s grip
To past’s eternal deep
For they are frayed and weary-worn
With garments thin and tatter-torn
And it is time to sleep

The poverty of stricken hill
Pines for the laughing daffodil
Where moody winds moan wild
And every tree is like a maid
With arms spread wide to gowns of jade
And nature’s favored child

Somewhere beneath white satin sheen
Begins the stir of evergreen
In Mother Nature’s womb
For she must be delivered of
Those petal-things we dearly love
Of summer-splendid bloom

The kindling of a bandit-breeze
Arouses raindrop revelries
And sassy robin-trill
Where winter reigned, so cold and proud
The color of a kinder cloud
Gentles its stubborn will

© Janet Martin


Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Ah, Spring Begins





Ah, spring begins,
That thing of grins
And dappled sun
On mead and brook

Ah, spring begins
And winter’s sins
Melt into bygones
Record-book

Ah, spring at last
Flee, icy blast
For you have worn
Your welcome thin

A train of blooms
Wakes in the tombs
Where summer’s garden
Must begin

Ah, darling spring
We dance and sing
To know that soon
The storm is spent

…and tender green
Will spill its sheen
Where now the limb
Is winter-bent

Ah, spring is here
Earth’s belvedere
Awaits the touch
Of nature’s lilt

Where soft and warm
Her gentle charm
Will melt the threads
Of winter’s quilt

© Janet Martin


Tokens of Time





Where do I put you now, dear?
Where do we go from here?
We’ve known each other so long, my sweet
But always with farewell, I fear

We’ve laughed the laughter of poets
And we’ve strung an ocean of tears
Over the lintels of one a.m.
We’ve rent the night with thought-years

Where do I put echoed pleasure?
Or pain too precious to heal?
Where does one keep the treasure of grief
Rendered where time-tokens keel?

Where do I put you, darling
We need an eternal home
Ah yes, I have found the answer
I’ll keep you forever in poem

© Janet Martin