Friday, August 14, 2015

August Morning Rain



The rain draws circles on the lane
And mirrors in each dip
And on the south-faced window-pane
A hundred rivers slip

The rain pools in each petal-cup
It cools the limpid leaf
And kisses every face turned up
To savor its relief

Its runnels snake through sun-baked clay
And sings with splashing mirth
A precious heaven-rendered lay
To quench the thirst of earth

The rain threads beads of liquid glass
Like a rare string of pearls
And all along the garden path
Flowers giggle like girls

© Janet Martin


Thunder mumbles in the distance, the cracking apart of elements we had earlier has passed, the driving sheets of rain easing to a comforting song that says s-h-h-h-h beneath traffic and kisses thirsty gardens.

We’ve been elbow-deep into beans among other things but they will have to wait until the rain tapers off to be picked.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

So Comes the Night





Soft-rolling like a sea
Across a lea of gold
Dusk snuffs the hillside
And its tree
Into blue fold

The color-world of day
Grows dim then disappears
Upon a stage
Of charcoal gray
The cricket cheers

The pretty afternoon
Dons dewy-kissed twilight
An angel pins
The sky with moon
So comes the night

© Janet Martin

Thursday Thoughts on Life's Cares...and Prayer





Care
Can carve a stair
To whole new
Hollows of despair
There would be
No way to free
Us from it
Without prayer

***

Prayer
Is like a life-line
Or buoy to
Which we cling
Lest we become
A victim of
The care that
Life can bring

***

Care and prayer
A union of
The Temporal
And the Sure
One supplies
The other with
The Power
To endure

***

Do you bear
A load of care?
Place it in
A word of prayer

 ***

Prayer
Is a stair
To the
Ear of God 
Each care,
A stepping-stone
For without care
We soon would dare
To try to walk
Alone

***

Some prayers are shaped into words
and easy then, to hear
But some prayers have no sound at all
and fall in silent tear

***

God made a way for us to bear
Life's care that seems, must be
He gave us prayer; through it He shares
And cares for you and me

***

Prayer is not some dire last-resort,
When-all-else-fails-we'll-take-it
Prayer is the place that we should start
Then, by-God's-grace-we'll-make-it

Janet~ 

It's been an 'a-lot-of-prayer' week'.

One of the stresses; a lost wallet far from home!!
Yesterday my daughter received
in the mail
her wallet, intact.
She lost it on the week-end in Old Montreal.
The lady that returned it included a hand-written letter
telling her how she found it and to let her know it was in good hands.
We have asked God to specially bless her for her kindness!
We are so grateful.
God bless you, Louise!


 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 
Phil.4:6-7



Take Time To Stand Amazed



Take time to stand amazed
And wonder at the Touch
That fills the spreadsheet of our days
With miracles and such

The Hand that cups the sky
Above dusk’s dimming earth
And draws blue shadows on the sigh
Of summer’s waning girth
Does not seal heaven’s bar
Nor hold man’s hope at bay
But pours upon the way we are
The light of a new day


Forbid that dumbly we
Should dash, wide-eyed and blind
Across the graves of What We See
Without one thought in mind
Of He who tends our need
Where seasons bleed and fall
As blooming plume burgeons with seed
Of morrow’s miracle

Take time to bow awestruck
Before the God of grace
Who grants us more than Chance or Luck
With which to run life’s race

© Janet Martin

The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.
 Ps.147:11

 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Ps.107:1


Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, 
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
Give thanks to the God of gods, 
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.…Ps.136:1-2

 Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name; 
make known among the nations what he has done.
1 Chron.16:8
 


Wednesday, August 12, 2015

On Summer's Lease





We try to find peace in the lease of it
Carpe diem, its flower-hour weeps
As dust claims what it must, August’s rubric
Satisfies hungry eyes with sanguine sweeps
Where summer seeps, sun-steeped into Past’s swoon
Midst serenade of shade and cricket-tune

We try to pacify our sigh with blooms
Earth’s living-room of roses overflows
Her landscape glows; the Bride of patient plumes
Where closing dates approach and nature knows
That it is futile to resist the Hand
That draws Her door ajar then shut again

We try to appease our unwilling will
For *summer’s lease hath all too short a date
A ruddy hint teases Her hazy hill
With Imminence and fences with no gate
As little girl-worlds fall prey to silk streams
For who can dam the day that drinks her dreams?

© Janet Martin

*Summer's lease hath all too short a date~ William Shakespeare