Of What I've Known...

I have known the taste of you in my mouth

The hurt of you in my heart

The weight of you in my want

And the touch of you in my tear

I have known the sweet of you in my smile

The stone of you in my shoe

The warmth of you in my arms

The blood of you on my knees

I have known the joy of your jargon

The lilt of your laughter

The groan of your grief

And the pulse of pure pain

The pleasure of your treasure

Is worth every measure

Of second mile crawling

And drinking your gall

Yes, I’ve known the taste of you in my mouth

Your hurt in my heart

And your touch in my tear

And I’ve known the pleasure of

Falling upward

For I’ve known the beauty

Of Love, my dear

© Janet Martin

Interlude

My sweet, 

if on some far-off tonight

you think of me 

where the shade of moonlight

pools on a sea 

of intangible deep

and then, 

if thought keeps 

your body from sleep

as trembling touch lingers 

on over-and-gone

begging with fingers

clenched; empty at dawn

and should want and longing 

of whispers grown cold

interrupt oceans 

in your cup of gold

and if in the quiet 

of past middle-night

you grieve this thing 

that has slipped from your sight

then darling remember, 

that beyond midnight’s sea

tomorrow is waiting 

with what yet will be

© Janet Martin

Showdown with Temptation

 

Surely that right thing we think hard to do

Is worth every effort of valor

Think of those others depending on you

…one foot, then the other will conquer

One bowl of pottage for lifetime of penance

Think of the price, little one

Action soon falls to the passage of moments

Consequence is not so soon gone

One hand an angel, the other the devil
Smooth are the laws of attraction
We all are soldiers thrown into battle
With every act comes reaction

Surely the right thing will yield in due season

Fruit that is worthy of joy

Cling to the faith that defies mortal reason

To do what is right, my dear boy

© Janet Martin

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright. Gen. 25:34

I am a Country-dweller

I am a country-dweller

Child of her wide-open fell

Raised on wind-song in the willow

Nurtured by garden and dell

Home is a country-side cottage

Hedged by her laughter of trees

Lavished with dusk-violet vesper

Kissed by a lilac breeze

Time is a four-season fellow

Barren to blossom to green

Ere scarlet-bronze-russet-yellow

Starts it all over again

I am a country-dweller

Meadow-lands rush to the sky

Foreign to soaring sky-scrapers

Save for the shadows that lie…

…blue on the burnished fallow

Before darkness lowers its vest

Over the swoop of barn-swallow

Feeding the young in her nest

I am a country-dweller

Dawn is a door to its berth

Where nature’s orchestra trembles

Strumming the harp-chords of earth

© Janet Martin  

The country-dwellers in this neck of the woods are so happy to hear rain-song in place of snow-storm today!

Holy Interlude

Ah life, and what a Thing thou art

Momentous stepping-stone

As breath by breath thou dost impart

Thy crucial metronome

Ah life, and were it not for Grace

Whereby man can be saved

Then we know none could bear to face

The prospect of thy grave

Ah life, dost thou impress enough

Thy gravity of breath

This inhale, exhale journey of

Deliverance or Death?

Thy suffering were cruelly vain

Without love’s Higher Hope

Thy utter-best the lords of pain

Where fearsome demons grope

Ah life, compendious prelude

Of choice-dexterity

A holy, vapor interlude

Before eternity

© Janet Martin

'Choices, choices, choices !' repeats the workout instructor, 'and what are you going to do with those choices?'

Ah life, thy pinnacles are dust

and we must choose

Whom we will trust

Earth's lesser gods

Can never save

The soul of man

From Hades grave...

Did you know the God who created heaven and earth loves you so much that He sent His Son Jesus as a sacrifice for man's sin, delivering us from Death? Will we choose The Greatest Love Story of All?

Tell Me The Story of Jesus

Tell me the story of Jesus

Of Christ-child in manger laid

Borne on glad lips through the ages

Lest it dies sadly away

Tell me the story of Jesus

How when he was but a lad

He sought His father’s business

Knowing the mission He had

Tell me the story of Jesus

Healing the sick, mute, deaf, blind

Tell me of throngs in his footsteps

Thirsting for Truth, good and kind

Tell me the story of Jesus

Suffering uttermost pain

As sword and thorny crown pierces

Tell me the story again

…how as a Lamb to the slaughter

Goodness and Mercy was led

How, as nails impaled His body

Still, for forgiveness He pled

Tell me of cross-hope, redemption

Tell me of Jesus, God’s Son

How at the words ‘it is finished’

Death and hell were overcome

Tell me how rocks could not hold Him

This Sacrifice for man’s sin

How from the throne of God’s Heaven

He sends His spirit within  

Tell me the story of Jesus

Lifeline of hope through the years

Until Death’s victor releases

Mortality from its tears

Janet~

Waiting for Winter...to Pass (re-vamped re-post)

Ah, winsome willow of July
Where once we laid upon the grass

To listen to your tendrils sigh

Are naked now with claws of brass
In mellow August breeze you swayed

Your arches warmed with golden glee
And oft you lured us to its shade
To bask within your melody
But now your branches ache and groan
Stripped of the song you once had known

Ah, chit-chatter of winding creek
Where our bare feet browsed and splashed

Is silent; laughter waits beneath

Your sleek and polished marble path

Earth's world is petrified and still

Crystal-coated in stilly shroud

Though each breath argues with its will
Winter replies in frosty cloud
The only marring of its dark
Are footsteps creaking through the park

Where is the kiss of summer’s sun?
Where is the bliss of buoyant breeze?
They wait somewhere with bridled tongue
Biding their time before they tease
This blustered candor from the lips
Stone-cold in winter’s pantomime
And soon they’ll melt those fingertips
Clutching the earth in frozen time
Ah winter too, comes but to pass
Jack Frost embellishes his glass

Janet Martin~

Of Birthdays, Ballads and Bittersweet

 Tea-party treat leftovers; a few friends and I celebrated my sister's birthday this morning...and we are all middle-age, bitter-sweetly blessed!

I grew up in a family of ten kids so we generally did not receive birthday presents.  The puppy with pink flowers (in above pic) I did receive on one birthday, an unexpected surprise and cherished completely. The boy and goose ornament was another such surprise from my mother for 'being a good helper'. 

Nostalgic bits of childhood and parenthood lace tea-time conversation and remind us to be grateful for life's beautiful, ephemeral Now.

Happy Birthday, sis!...and all the rest of you out there celebrating today. J~

We do not always have the time or chance to dance too long

This sport of happy birthdays is a bittersweet love song

Its ballroom decorated with Her echoing of years

How soon another stanza spills its tune, then disappears

In Time we all must face the prospects mouthed by middle-age

Although within us youth objects Time turns Her steady page

And sets the stage for life-lessons which hours will enforce

While we thank God for blessings plucked from its common discourse

Our rooms cannot be guarded ‘gainst Time’s monochromic tock

Where flesh and blood are ever at the mercy of its clock

This little Now we hold soon molds Her heart-string souvenir

Hung soft upon a lintel of something that we call Year

Ah, flattery of fantasy fades as all flowers do

This heritage of middle-age will soon be over too

Time is a troubadour of Bittersweet and brave romance

So wrap your heart and soul around Her ballad Now…and dance

© Janet Martin