Thursday, August 20, 2015

Anticipation's Aftermath



I can’t get over how every week just flies by…

Anticipation spills its lore like flowers spilling bloom
A sky-wide door opens and shuts each summer afternoon
And soon, like pictures in a locket, hearts expand their hold
Grappling where summer unravels Her pockets of silk-gold

Now Trouble finds a foothold, love, now laughter finds our lips
Now Time finds ways of stunning us in spite of her old tricks
And though there is nothing new under heaven we are awed
By haste of dawn to dusk and seed to husk in living’s laud

Chicory, Queen Ann’s Lace and goldenrod strip August bare
As dust stirred by the phantom feet of moments hovers where
The holy bittersweet of it drains into Bygone’s deep
And fists, once full of flowers find a wilted sprig to keep

© Janet Martin


I am constantly dead-heading,
Dumping jars of wilted blooms
To make room for fresh bouquets….
A little like life;
as one season fades
we fill thought-jars
with fresh bouquets
only to turn
and see the husk of anticipation
scattered in its wake…

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

August-matter





It moves through us in time; invisible
A shadow that startles the skin of things
Want struggles but is ever unable
To gather the dust of its winnowing
Resistance is futile; its wanderlust
Falls prey as afternoon to crooning dusk
And the foot-looseness in us must soft admit
We are far too small for the largeness of It

…that fits in the sigh of green-leaf good-byes
 A sky-blue piñata spills sun-sweet days
And we are distracted by a disguise
Of backyard picnics and bloom-happy ways
Where bare foot tempo etches an echo
That splashes through the middle of Hello
In songs of spilled lemonade and chatter
Fading in the fabric of August-matter

We are subjects to Change; none are immune
Or rare exceptions to time’s timeless laws
A lifelong study can never exhume
The Past from its place or Present to pause
As we, held to a lifetime of learning
Suffer side-effects of deeper yearning
For Time cannot fulfill man’s meager dust
Save Almost, in half-Heavens of August

© Janet Martin

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Not Finished Yet

Let's face it; there are days that drain us emotionally, physically, even spiritually 
but God is on his throne while we are here yet never alone...hallelujah!


(yes, those are red leaves....already!!)


We are not finished yet
This thing that God ordained
When He breathed life to you and I
Can leave us vexed and pained

Life’s slip-and-stumble grid
Of get-up-try-again
Carves hunger to a learning curve
That word cannot explain

Time impresses upon
The likes of you and I
The impact of its brevity
As seamless years haste by

And all that we can do
Is never to forget
As long as God grants time anew
We are not finished yet

© Janet Martin

...so we tackle to-do lists that needs must be
and trust God for that which we cannot see...

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 

Of What We Touch a Moment...





Today is like a canvas,
That unfolds with the dawn
Its moments paint the pictures
That we look back upon

Then move the brush with rev’rence
Handle the page with care
For what passes in moments
Remains forever There

And often thought will wander
That heart-hung gallery
Of what we touch a moment
Then hold eternally

© Janet Martin



I think today calls for a picnic...
the perfect interruption 
to a continuous 'shmozzle' of gardening,
food-prep, 
dirty dishes 
and other daily blessings!

Oh! you're wondering what kind of cookies those are?;-)
These (recipe below) only I substitute oil for the margarine and reduce the amounts of sugar a little.

I missed capturing on camera the moment of little-boy milk mustaches and cookie-crumb beards:)

Morning's Color-world





Across celestial croft
Soft-kissed, night’s mural fades
As newborn day persuades
In Origins aloft
From Master-hands unfurled
A virgin bloom uncurled
To fill the sweep of hill and deep
With morning’s color-world

Have any heard or seen
Time stirred like this before?
Heaven unbars a door
Stars dim within the sheen
Of opportunity
And all that waits to be
As grace anoints what it appoints
To Mercy’s filigree

The wonder of the Lord
Is not a hidden spring
But touches everything
That man cannot afford
Freely His Hand bestows
The tincture to a rose
That fills the air with Welcome where
Morning’s color-world glows

© Janet Martin

Can you check the weather? asked my son before going to work.
Well, I replied, according to the red sky this morning it will rain today.
Aw, that doesn't mean anything, he said, hoping they will harvest grain today...
Well, according to Matthew 16 it does, and I hunted up this passage,

The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, "When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' "And in the morning, 'There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?…

We checked the local forecast. It predicts a 70% chance of thunderstorms today.


A Twilight Love-letter



He dips His quill into a well
Of sky and sea and sod,
And writes, 'with everlasting love,
Your faithful Father, God

With colors that no brush can snare
Where Past's eons increase
He breathes upon dusk's waning air
A twilight masterpiece


Janet Martin

The Mighty One, God, the Lord,
    speaks and summons the earth
    from the rising of the sun to where it sets.

Ps.50:1