Simply A Matter of Time

 I'm working on a drawer full of loose photos, trying to find the places where they've been pulled from albums over the years for school projects, weddings, etc. I'm reminded with pangs, nothing in life lasts for very long...

Seasons change

And rearrange

With tick and tock

What comes and goes

What is next?

No one knows

Doors open

Then they close

Thus, it is good

To bear in mind

That all of life

Is simply

A matter

Of Time

© Janet Martin

It Is But By God's Grace We Go

What waits to be next?

We cannot know 

Waiting, like a Woman

Perplex the wall-clock that hangs in the sky

Render to winter a warm lullaby

Time is a troubadour teasing with hours

What none hasten; the journey of flowers

Darling, the weather of roses still-waits

Tether the gale that blows cold on gold gates

Then hold me closer; because, after all

Summer is simply the prelude to fall

Seasons are time-petals, soon, soon they waft

White, green or purple in cradles aloft

Gossamer free-fall, life’s brave bittersweet

Soft like snow-madrigals, melts at our feet

We will not hurry what we cannot keep

Then let that wall-clock spill ill-will, knee-deep

Then, let those wily winds fiddle and fuss

Love knows no season but one, darling; us

© Janet Martin

On one hand I find myself saying, ‘hurry up winter’ and then suddenly, on the other hand I’m pleading, ‘time slow down, you pass too fast!’

Only God Can Do That

above are a few glimpses of what only God can do...

An oak-tree in an acorn

A rainbow in the sky

And from the dry, uncomely husk

A butterfly

From bulb and seed, a garden

Or seas of golden grain

And from space-eons overhead

The sun and rain

A lush, leaf-umbrella

From stark, bark-bastioned limb

Where winter-worlds waken beneath

The touch of Him

A baby from beginnings

Too wondrous to full-tell

As is the off-spring of all seed

…a miracle

© Janet Martin

When I saw Monica's photos my first thought was wow! only God can do that...turn a bitty, brown seed to breath-taking beauty.

We have nothing that does not begin with what God grants! 

This poem could go on forever to tell it all...

Scavenging the Intangible

I know you are there, but sometimes to find you

To touch you, to feel you or hear you, my dear

Vexes the traveler of uncharted sphere

You leave no footprint or shadow behind you

Veiled by the masses, and what we think we know

You, at the mercy of fingertips and lips

Pulse with Becoming; where a whole new world drips

Quiet, like earth beneath a blanket of snow

Ah poem, I know not what you'll be wearing

But silence can roar with the essence of you

Come, come, chameleon, the presence of you

Weighs white-washed whispers with momentous bearing

© Janet Martin

Sometimes, when I sit before an empty page searching the silence for the poem of the day it's a bit like an uncharted treasure-hunt:)

The eleven-beat lines are a little clumsy but it just wanted to be that way today!

Learning Curves

Image from little women 1949

It is the lows in life

That teach us how

To recognize the highs

And love’s surprise hellos

That make bearable

Its good-byes

It is the cold, blue winter

That sweetens

And warms spring-gold

And it is life’s losses

That opens our eyes

To what we hold

We drink the salt

Of sorrow’s tears

But then after

It is with humble gratitude

We taste

Laughter

© Janet Martin

The Affliction That May Come...

So do not begrudge the affliction that may come. Press deeply into Jesus. Allow those broken edges to show you how desperate you are for Jesus. Kara Tippetts

...and she shares these verses as a reminder of His faithfulness;

I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and in faithfulness you have afflicted me. Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant. Let your mercy come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight.

— Psalm 119:76,77

 

 

The affliction that may come

Can cause our hearts to fear

But just as in our Better Days

God is near

 

The affliction that may come

Could steal our inner peace

But God's kind mercy even then

Does not cease

 

The affliction that may come

Is never greater than

The faithful love and grace of God

Thus, We can

 

Janet Martin