This Carpet Whereon Life Is Lent

This carpet whereon life is lent

And time is held

And seasons spent

Then melded to the framework of

The workmanship of man

Is such a patient sweep of sod

Where hurried feet

And stragglers trod

To greet the handiwork of God

And meet its Master Plan

This benchmark betwixt here and there

Beneath Time’s

Palaces of air

Climbs to the beaming skyline where

Another days unveils its face

While on the street the thrum of feet

In staccato

Percussion beats

The carpet whereon life is lent

Then returned to its resting place

The signature of winter’s tree

Like black ink

Is scrawled intricately

Against the pink of yonder brink

Along the edge of sky and land

The carpet whereon life is lent

A snowflake

On time's outstretched hand

Soon folds the showcases we hold

To dust whereon we stand

It begs one’s thought to ponder then

When we have gone

The way of men

And our shell of wand’ring Bent

Is returned to its place of birth

…the carpet whereon life is lent

Then swallowed up

Its filament

Of gathered days, our testament;

Will we leave anything of worth?

© Janet Martin

 Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.

Prov.28:14

Fellow-travelers Are We...to day 3 of 2016

Up this ladder through the skies

My, Time's string of hours flies

Like a high-rise of good-byes

Poured in morn’s hello

Pressing hard against the soft

Interplay of sighs that waft

Where soon noon, now poised aloft

Strews the dust below

Who of us has borne this day?

Who can tell its come-what-may?

Who is fit to sneer at they

Clinging to its rung?

Do we not all need the gold

Of a helping hand to hold?

My, the winds of change blow cold

Where Time’s course is hung

…like a ladder from the sky

Where the feet of you and I

Often slip, but then we try

And try and try again

Fellow-travelers are we

Surely then we ought to be

Sympathetic to the plea

Of our fellow-men

© Janet Martin

 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up...1 Thess.5:11

The Truth About Truth...

Mostly truth does not need flaunting

Like a trophy on a shelf

With a showcase for its vaunting

Because truth speaks for itself

Mostly truth does not need shouting

Or a trumpet to be heard

For in spite of mouthy touting

Truth speaks loud without a word

© Janet Martin

Already...to the second day of 2016...

Already the date that cut the cord

To 2016, at midnight’s gong

Has joined those ranks ‘of former things’

And sealed its signature in song

Already the steady wedding of hours

Has claimed to Bygone’s misted courts

The grinning firstborn of New Year

That midnight both births and aborts

Already we sense the changeless change

Time exhales in spite of intent

To rearrange our habits, oh,

Already the day is sorrow-rent

…and bent with human-nature’s ways

Already we sense a falling apart

That would prevail, save for God’s grace

To wounds bleeding deep in the heart

© Janet Martin

Isa. 42:8-9

 "I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images. "Behold, the former things have come to pass, 

Now I declare new things;...