Summer's Signature

Sweet Summer scrawls its signature into Time’s tired dust

With wordless wonder; it is ageless God who holds the quill

As we marvel anew at bronze and emerald; wanderlust

Inspires us to seek the solace of a bloom-bathed hill

…or tea-time in the garden whilst we bask in memories

Midst cricket-canticle and dreams that never did come true

We lift our eyes to touch the sighs of walnut-canopies

Its roof is full of holes where bits of blue and gold spill through

The wasteland of our worry cannot compete with God’s grace

He spreads across earth’s sod a patch-work quilt of hope and need

Then, did our wanting suddenly ignite a song of praise

To know our days are numbered by the Hand that fills the seed?

Sweet summer scrawls its signature in zinnia, larkspur, rose

Its penmanship too delicate for man to imitate

As we ponder the poetry of nature-perfect prose

 We know that we believe the proof that agnostics debate

© Janet Martin

For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. Rom.11:36

My, My

My, my, we sigh ‘how time does fly’

How seamlessly the years slip by

Why did we grow oh, so, so slow

When we were kids; before we slid

Onto that grid of getting old

And how did we get here so fast?

Of short-sighted future and far-sighted past

My, my, we say, ‘how soon another day

Is done away; the gold and gray

Meet in the melting pot of yesterday

And all that we can keep of it

Are memories of what we did

I hope, as we sense Time’s sweet lenience fade

We say my, my but *what a lot of love we made

© Janet Martin

*lest there be any confusion, the writer is speaking of Love.

A Fine, Fine Free-fall

You tint soft hints in gold-green glints

You drape your cape, a haze

Of cricket-choir and cloud-kissed spire

Of mellow, yellow days

Your charm, sun-warm and honey sweet

Lures like a lover’s kiss

We laugh; your path teases tan feet

And tunes the air with bliss

You thrill the rill with flower-frill

You vex the lonely soul

You drop your leaf like silent grief

Where rain-refrains cajole

But all the while with sultry smile

And daisy-dappled dance

With swallow-tail and rose regale

And summer-dusk romance

You move with grace toward a place

That none of us can quell

We sense it in noon’s gilded grin  

A free-fall to farewell

  

© Janet Martin

It's a little like this

Abba-Advocate

You break the darkness with new dawn

Time flows ‘neath Your command

Lord, succor us to journey on

 And simply hold your hand

The Rock of our salvation knows

What vision cannot see

Lord, guide us on yet hold us close

…a child on Abba’s knee

Time is a sequence of ‘Befores’

Death simply quells its tides

And what a-waits beyond these shores

Ah, there our Hope abides

Oh, loving Abba-Advocate

A new day fills the sky

Lord, keep our eyes fixed on the Gate

That leads to by-and-by

© Janet Martin 

 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.…1 John 2: 1-2

We have friends overseas who have legitimate reasons for anxiety right now. They desire our prayers that they may keep the faith and trust in the Lord and not their own understanding!

Will you pray?

Of Flesh and Spirit War...

Ah, flesh and Spirit war

This battleground within

Bids us examine our thought

Of what is good or sin

Flesh wars against the Good

Its weakness covets filth

The Spirit bids us suffer long

To glean eternal wealth

Awesome Inheritance

How brief these wars of earth

Only what we have done for God

Will be of any worth

Ah, flesh and Spirit war

Tempter and Holy Word

Clash soundlessly within the mind

As deed reveals our lord

We know God is not mocked

What a man sows he reaps

Touch sacredly this gifted ground

Where eternity sleeps

© Janet Martin

Reading in Galatians 5&6. Warning and tender encouragement!

Life's Saturdays

Life laughs at dreams sometimes it seems

What use to suffer it tight-lipped?

Sweeter to soften our schemes

Like mist above a meadow stripped

We cannot rule nature’s cajole

But nature, if we listen, love

Pours poetry into the soul

From spools wafted in heaven’s trove...

…to spill in utter disregard

Of dreams or well-laid garden plans

It threads through moments to the heart

Where soon its ether fabric spans

…a year of seasons while we gaze

At dreams adapting to Time’s skeins

Ah, wonder weaves life’s Saturdays

Too swiftly back to back, it seems

© Janet Martin

While walking through the garden I had to chuckle at how nature rearranges my well-laid 'winter-garden' plans. oh well, we enjoy what is blooming; not what we wish had grown or bloomed.

Isn't it remarkable how fast Saturdays come...and go?! Especially summer Saturdays. I enjoy this writer's weekly articles in The Wellington Advertiser and this week he wrote how time flies ever faster the older he gets. 

I think to combat this the only thing we can do is slow down and enjoy what is, not what we wish was.

Dear God, help us to remember You hold the skein from whence life's moments fall.
Remind us then to glean and give our best to one and all.
Amen

 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Gal. 6:9