The Traffic of Mute Moments...

 It's so nice to see the landscape freshly watered by a shower...(who would have thought we would be saying THIS just a few weeks ago, but we had not had a drop of rain since the seeds went into the ground and it is really dry)

The traffic of mute moments fills a freeway quite obscure

Life’s highway to the sky insists on change; what we procure

Is swiftly stripped and traded for a strange and untried thing

As all the while the flowers smile and summer-yellow’s sing

Time’s veiled eclipses paint the truth of it on brows of men

The Inevitable waits to still the restless, roving pen

While history repeats itself; children grow up too fast

And nothing really changes in Time’s ever-changing cast

How often do our silent thoughts shout loudly to the air?

…as all the while the traffic of Time’s moments spill their care

And youth learns how to shoulder more than human discontent

Where we who are much older learn to bear its consequence

As clenched fists slowly soften and our silent, stubborn clutch

Submits at last Invitations foreign to our touch

The well of want is dark and deep and never satisfied

Until we learn true gratitude, greater than pouting pride

The pen pauses in middle air, its charge too hard to keep

Save for those testaments of ink from poet’s long asleep

…and crowded freeways of the mind must lead to destinies

This futile chasing of the wind will perplex and appease

While sunlight breaks through bully cloud and seasons interlace

With nothing much to show for it but this; proof of God’s grace

As he draws back the night-wind and ignites a wick brand new

The traffic of mute moments sparkles in the morning dew

© Janet Martin

Sometimes Life's Soft Letting Go...

Sometimes life’s soft letting go

Will body-slam you into the boards

So hard you cannot catch your breath

This is the flip-side, I suppose

Of glimpsing or holding a little while

A shadow of heaven on earth

© J~

Because He Promised So...

God hears those prayers we bleed to thought

But cannot shape in speech

He keeps vigil where demons plot

To lure us from His peace

Love, with a heart of tenderness

Will never let us go

Not because we deserve it

But because He promised so

He forgives, erasing in full

The stain of grievous sin

His grace sufficient for us all

As we cry out to Him

And He does not condemn us

Or forsake us here below

Not because we deserve it

But because He promised so

He fills the fields with flowers

And the morning with His light

His right hand never wavers

Though we doubt His power and might

He persuades with kind purpose

And delivers us from woe

Not because we deserve it

But because He promised so

How often we are troubled

By the wearying of want

Inclined to turn our eyes to where

Vile lesser gods may flaunt

But God, so rich in mercy

Abides still; this truth we know

Not because we deserve it

But because He promised so

© Janet Martin

Of Ruthless Realization

 Jim turned 50 yesterday! How often have we asked 'where does time go?'

Time will come…but to pass

And seal within its flow

Those things we cradled in our clasp

Before the letting go

Those things we vowed to keep

With resolute intent

Are stolen where Time’s moments weep

And ever circumvent

We cannot conquer years

This firm and forward flow

Consumes in obscure tick-tock spheres

The ever-present Now

And soon the filament

Of youth’s fanciful gown

Must fall beneath the averment

Of Time’s insistent crown

So, though we plead and groan

With earnest stubbornness

Time claims without apology

What we cannot possess

© Janet Martin

Colors of Thought

Thought runs its colors through the air

Kaleidoscope of faith and fear

Torrent of Past’s touch and taste

Of Will and Want and Worth and Waste

Echo apposes the Unknown

Dawn unfurls a new steppingstone

Swift the hour inhales, exhales

Still the jousting clock prevails

Grant us Lord, love’s fervent toil

Desire and Duty moil

In a constant war of will

Limping, leaping, standing still

Learning, loving, letting go

Training, teaching, testing, oh

…thought runs colors through the air

Kaleidoscope of hope and prayer

© Janet Martin

SO many thoughts rushed through me as I open my eyes this morning...almost, I forgot to fold them into prayer where worry, work and waking handed me its care